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Inadvertent Overkill
Posted by Wesley Dodson on August 7, 2012 In Uganda, the fourth outbreak of Ebola in twelve years has killed sixteen people. On We Beasties, Kevin Bonham says the virus is “readily transmissible,” kills quickly and assuredly, “and the way it kills is gruesome – causing massive bleeding from all orifices.” These may seem like dominant characteristics, but a virus is not a…
Global Warming Reiterated
Posted by Wesley Dodson on August 3, 2012 At first glance, Richard Muller’s “conversion” from global-warming skeptic to true believer—based on research funded by global warming denialists—is a welcome surprise. Hey, people can change their minds! But on Stoat, William M. Connolley takes a more critical view. Connolley asks, “Everyone who has doubts gets to run their own re-analysis of the temperature record?…
Malaria and the Inner Armies
Posted by Wesley Dodson on July 30, 2012 On ERV, Abbie Smith writes “Malaria kills 1.24 million people a year. Mostly babies under 5 years old.” Malaria, although carried by mosquitoes, is caused by a single-celled protist which infects the liver and goes on to parasitize red blood cells. Now, a little genetic engineering could put a stop to this scourge. Smith says…
Higgs Completes Standard Model
Posted by Wesley Dodson on July 19, 2012 At scales where nothing can see, the best science is done by colliding particles at near lightspeed and picking up as many “pieces” as possible. We know of six quarks (which combine to make baryons, protons, and neutrons), six leptons (which include electrons and neutrinos), and four gauge bosons (which carry or exchange the fundamental…
Healthcare Survives Supreme Court
Posted by Wesley Dodson on July 16, 2012 Chief Justice John Roberts proved himself an independent thinker last month, siding against his fellow conservatives (and Republican appointees) in upholding the Affordable Care Act of 2010. Roberts agreed that Congress could not force a citizen to buy insurance, but allowed the individual mandate to survive as a tax. In the meantime, the ruling placed…
Out of Reach Real Estate
Posted by Wesley Dodson on July 11, 2012 Steinn Sigurðsson recently spent a weekend considering exoplanets and extraterrestrials at the Second SETI Conference in California. He writes, “It is important to remember that while science and discovery is important, it is not the ontological basis for space exploration. Space is, ultimately, about existential motivations.” In other words, we wouldn’t mind finding a friend, or a new Earth to…
Four-Legged Medical Models
Posted by Wesley Dodson on June 18, 2012 Animals serve as useful models in medical research—but they also serve as models for our anthropocentric fantasies. On Life Lines, Dr. Dolittle reports that researchers were able to “restore locomotion in paralyzed rats using a combination of nerve stimulation and engaging the mind by having the rats complete simple tasks.” The rats, outfitted with a…
Divergent & Convergent Evolution
Posted by Wesley Dodson on June 11, 2012 On ERV, Abbie Smith reports that scientists have discovered an entirely new branch of viruses in the boiling acid pools of Yellowstone National Park. By analyzing RNA segments from the pools, researchers inferred the existence of positive-strand RNA viruses with unknown genetic configurations. Smith writes, “These viruses are not just kinda new. They are really really different from the RNA viruses…
Tisn’t the Season
Posted by Wesley Dodson on June 9, 2012 Spring is in the air, and Clostridium tetani is in the earth. On Casaubon’s Book, Sharon Astyk writes “with playing in the dirt comes minor injuries that you really don’t want to turn into anything nasty.” Infection through open wounds can be fatal, as the bacterium releases a neurotoxin that causes uncontrolled muscular contractions. So…
New Books & eBook Pricing
Posted by Wesley Dodson on June 8, 2012 On EvolutionBlog, Jason Rosenhouse says his new book Among the Creationists: Dispatches From the Anti-Evolutionist Frontline is now available with turnable pages and a hardcover binding. Rosenhouse calls the book “a collection of stories and anecdotes from my experiences attending creationist conferences over the last ten years” as well as an exploration of religious and…
