Alex Palazzo is a postdoctoral fellow working in the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School.
Cell Biology Blogs
Non-Sb Science Blogs
1 Degree of Separation
Misc. Blogs
Carnivals
Stay abreast of your favorite bloggers' latest and greatest via e-mail, via a daily digest.
July 31, 2006
Category: Lab Life
Yes, things are on the move (since we last checked) in California. Get more info here. (Yes I'm a month behind - but someone just told me about it ...) Nope, they filed 7/25/2006....
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 2:35 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 30, 2006
Category: Misc
Israel, Hezbollah, Iraq, neocons ... or how the human brain is wired. Beware we'll be hearing from David Brooks, Frank Rich, William Gibson (Thomas Kuhn), and a preview of a Noam Chomsky and Robert Trivers discussion.
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 7:54 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Misc
Something different.
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 9:19 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 29, 2006
Category: Misc
Many today could learn a thing or two from Spinoza's writings.
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:20 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 28, 2006
Category: Pure Biology
Yes this is the surprising result interpretation of Jonathan Weissman's paper in Science. For non cell biologists, click here first, to get some background on the unfolded protein response (UPR) and ER associated degradation (ERAD). And to learn about some...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:11 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science & Society
In the August issue of The Scientist, there is an article entitle "The Inequity of Science" (Not online yet). It describes how the top academic institutions are getting more and more of the total NIH funding. Between 1994 and 2004,...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 6:35 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Map that Campus
I suppose it's that time of the week. Without further delay I present today's mystery campus: Click here for a larger version. And the hint: Little Droplet of Lard How to get in? It'll take a tag-team effort! Know what...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 10:09 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science & Society
From the pipeline: Time is running out to enter Science Idol: The Scientific Integrity Editorial Cartoon Contest-the deadline is Monday, July 31! We've received some spectacular entries so far-from artists in their teens to those in their nineties-but you still...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:53 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 27, 2006
Category: Pure Biology
Well I was going to write about J. Weissman's new paper, but Pedro (from our lab) published his work TODAY (I knew it was coming out soon ...) His paper and YET ANOTHER paper from the Weissman group made the...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 5:43 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Pure Biology
Need to analyze your DNA, protein or Gene (or do a one of a gadzillion other bioinformatic operations?) Well fortunately you live in the internet age. But where to start? From the Nucleic Acids Research Journal: A compilation of molecular...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 9:35 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Pure Biology
When many scientists think about "cellular functions", diagrams of the central dogma of biology (DNA=>RNA=>protein) pop into their head. But sorting out the good stuff (properly processed mRNA, well folded proteins) from the bad stuff (misprocessed mRNA, misfolded protein) is equally important.
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:59 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 26, 2006
Category: Lab Life
And people think I'm down about the current situation. In the last issue of Cell, Robert A. Weinberg is calling the current batch of postdocs The Lost Generation. The abstract: The funding policies of the NIH have made it increasingly...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 6:28 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Pure Biology
Videos of migrating cells ... and the effects of actin arginylation. Cool stuff.
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 5:12 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Pure Biology
In cells, actin polymers dictate cell morphology. Actin filaments can adopt several conformations, they can be bundled into large microfilaments or arranged in a meshwork. Now a new actin modification may explain how actin adopts these many forms.
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 9:00 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 25, 2006
Category: Lab Life
So today I was "shopping" online for cDNA clones from Open Biosystems (about 70-100$/cDNA clone) when I see this: In case you can't read it here is a blowup: So on the Open Biosystems website, some guy is blogging about...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 3:29 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 24, 2006
Category: Lab Life
Overheard at the lab today: "Only hookers work on weekends" which was then followed by "and late nights." Yes this is what we've been reduced to ... (P.S. Does this make my PI a pimp?)...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 5:47 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Lab Life
So a theme of my blog has been the conflicts between being a scientist and having a life. In my immediate environment, I'm surrounded by postdocs in their early to mid-30s, struggling to get their career going and thinking about...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 2:58 PM • 2 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
July 22, 2006
Category: Misc
GrrlScientist's entry on the new episodes of Star Trek, reminded me of something that I saw recently: Star Trek does the Knights of the Round Table. Best mashup ever? You be the judge....
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 11:05 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 21, 2006
Category: Science & Society
Scary comment in PLoS: Scientific Illiteracy and the Partisan Takeover of Biology by Lisa Gross. It's mostly about Jon Miller's research on the public understanding of science. I've commented before on Miller's findings ... and it always scares me when...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 4:03 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Map that Campus
Last week was tough, however it was solved in less than an hour. This week ... well we'll see how long this lasts. So without further delay here is this week's mystery campus: Click here for a larger image. Hint:...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 9:49 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 20, 2006
Category: Misc
I was interviewed by Hsien Hsien Lei, and the complete transcript is available at her fantastic blog, Genetics & Health. (Hope my answers weren't to long winded ...)...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 2:48 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Lab Life
A couple of weeks ago I posted an entry on NIH funding rates, and how the increase in funding over the 90s led to an increase in the number of postdocs. I went digging around for the numbers, and found...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 11:50 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Lab Life
From The Scientist: Public Concern for Private Funding. More money generally means more science, and vice versa. But the source of the money - whether from public or industry well-springs - may be as important in determining the type of...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 11:11 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 19, 2006
Category: Lab Life
I just read an EXCELLENT opinion in the July 6th edition of Nature, Illuminating the black box. Note to biologists: submissions to Nature should contain complete descriptions of materials and reagents used. Sounds familiar? I've complained about it before. From...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 5:55 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Education
From today's NY Times editorial section: The national education reform effort has long suffered from magical thinking about what it takes to improve children's chances of learning. Instead of homing in on teacher training and high standards, things that distinguish...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 9:12 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 15, 2006
Category: Pure Biology
I should have included these with my Golgi entry. Very cool movies explaining the difference between static Golgi and dynamic Golgi whose stacks (or cisternae) mature. From the Glick paper: Movie1 Static Golgi (Black dots representing newly synthesized proteins traverse...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 9:49 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 14, 2006
Category: Map that Campus
This one is VERY hard. Good luck!
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 5:59 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 12, 2006
Category: World Cup 2006
This will be my last entry on this topic (i.e. the World Cup) ... c'est fini après ça. Here is Zidane's interview: For all those of you that don't understand le français, I'll translate a couple of things ......
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 10:11 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 11, 2006
Category: Misc
I've been subcloning today and my brain feels like mush. (All you non-biologists have no fear, subcloning = cutting and pasting DNA). Then I get an email from an old friend ... "look at this natural hallucinogen video" ... yeah...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 7:53 PM • 13 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
July 10, 2006
Category: World Cup 2006
I just got home from work, sat down in front of my laptop, and read this article from the Guardian. At the risk of turning my blog into a football/soccer gossip column, here's the article: An Italian lip-reader last night...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:50 PM • 44 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: World Cup 2006
Wow, the events of yesterday are still bouncing around in my brain. Lots of dodos are blaming Zidane for the loss. Give me a fxxking break. Zidane was sent off with 10min to go and no gas left. If it...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 10:47 AM • 6 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
July 9, 2006
Category: World Cup 2006
How can I say this? I'm happy for Gli Azzurri, but life isn't perfect. The day started off superbly. Having won a bet on the Italy-German semifinal, we had an incredible brunch on Veit's roof deck in Beacon Hill....
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 10:41 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 8, 2006
Category: World Cup 2006
This is so funny. A series of photos of the winning goal in the France-Brazil game. Poor Roberto Carlos, I guess that's why he retired. BTW - Germany-Portugal is shaping up to be a good game. It's 2-0 right now,...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 4:24 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Misc
Yes, it's true, Kyle MacDonald of my hometown (Montreal) has successfully achieved his dream: trade one red paperclip for a house. Incredible....
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 12:45 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: World Cup 2006
Linesmen making bad offside calls? An old paper published in Nature explains why.
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 10:22 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 7, 2006
Category: Science & Society
From Wednesday's Boston Globe - (I know it's a wee bit late): Setbacks for medical research (OpEd). For the first time in three decades, federal funding for the National Institutes of Health was cut this year. The reduction, which followed...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:43 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Map that Campus
Yup, it's that time again. Can you guess the mystery campus?
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 10:32 AM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Misc
It's Mitosis, with a nifty soundtrack. Enjoy!
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:25 AM • 2 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
July 6, 2006
Category: Pure Biology
I had read a couple of reviews about all the recent ruckus in this field. I was going to write something ... but I only have so many hours in a day. Now the newest paper has now surfaced. Pure...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 3:31 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Pure Biology
Big news in the world of Cell Biology. Two papers provide the proof.
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 11:45 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 5, 2006
Category: Science & Society
This up at Nature: The 50 most popular science blogs. No surprise, Pharyngula and Panda's Thumb head the list (based on technorati's rankings). Big surprise: The Daily Transcript is tied for #38. To read more, check out what PZ Myers...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 2:36 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: World Cup 2006
Well it was an incredible game. Both teams played impressively well. Italy had the advantage in the first half, Germany had the advantage in the second half. Overtime varied between end to end play, and exhausted players walking around. As...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 9:16 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 4, 2006
Category: World Cup 2006
Here I am, with my affiliations to Italy, the land of my origins, in a "German" lab. Many bets are on the line. So can Gli Azzurri make it? Although history may predict that the home team has an advantage,...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 12:38 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Lab Life
Yesterday, while driving up to Ipswich to spend the day at Crane beach and watch the see the annual July 3rd Fireworks, a group of us gabbed about the transient nature of being an academic. Living from place to place,...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 10:43 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 2, 2006
Category: World Cup 2006
Why did France beat Brazil? Because they have the greatest living soccer player. ... and then the winning goal (note how at the beginning of the play, Zidane flips the ball over Ronaldo's head): Incredible, one of the best games...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:36 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 1, 2006
Category: Misc
Direct a change at one site. Point to the little man in your head. Get your blood sugar running. These are a few Canadian scientific discoveries. Who, who and who are these famous Canuks? Some Canadian Science Links: Science Canada...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 6:50 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
