Alex Palazzo is a postdoctoral fellow working in the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School.
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August 31, 2006
Category: Misc
A couple of days ago I wrote a rant about how painful it was to deal with the Massachusetts and the federal government. In contrast, civil servants in the Quebec and Canadian governments have often gone out of their way...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:25 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 30, 2006
Category: Science & Society
I have mixed feelings about Dennett. I really liked his book, Darwin's Dangerous Idea, but in public appearances he tends to give off a patronizing air. But earlier today I heard him on WBUR (NPR in Boston) and he did...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 4:04 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 29, 2006
Category: Science & Society
A couple of comments. I totally agree with Richard Dawkins, but I feel that in many instances he confronts the interviewee too abrasively, in an unproductive way. On the other hand I enjoyed Ian McEwan's two minutes and Dawkins'...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 9:06 AM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Pure Biology
I've often brainstormed with one structural biologist in the lab (he does both crystallography and NMR) on how to solve all of x-ray crystallography's problems by forcing proteins to rearrange themselves in regular arrays. But we haven't come up with anything good strategy yet. BK points to a new theoretical technique that may help.
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:44 AM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 28, 2006
Category: Pure Biology
(This is an intro to a n upcoming entry.) When I was an undergrad, working in a lab at McGill, my then boss Morag Park would joke that Phosphoinositides were at the center of the universe. What did she mean...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 11:46 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science & Society
Yesterday's video clip was taken from "The Root of all Evil". So without further ado, here's the whole show (I'll post part II tomorrow). [HT: Simon]...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 9:21 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 27, 2006
Category: Science & Society
(via Migrations)...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 1:52 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Pure Biology
This is the newest from the Blobel lab. Note to all "they've discovered everything" types: this finding shows how much we know about how cells operate. Background: As I've described before the nucleus and the cytoplasm are two cellular compartments...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 1:10 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 25, 2006
Category: Lab Life
OK I live 30min away from the Longwood Medical Center by foot. Most days I walk to and from work but on rainy/blizzard days I take the M2 Shuttle, a free service provided by Harvard to ship people between the...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 1:03 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Map that Campus
This week it's an easy one. Click here for a blowup. Hint: The debate stems from work done here. What the hell am I talking about? You tell me. (P.S. Ignore the arrow.)...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 10:14 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 24, 2006
Category: Pure Biology
Microtubules are long hollow polymers. They are also polar. Their minus ends are inert and are found towards the cell center while their plus ends grow and shrink and are found towards the cell periphery. Question: Why are microtubules hollow? Now a few recent papers have surfaced that report inner-microtubule densities.
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:48 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Misc
Just an update for those who know me. This past week has been a little crazy. We just bought our first car (my wife needs it for her new job). Having lived close to 10 years in Manhattan and then...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:28 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 22, 2006
Category: Pure Biology
The Cytoskeleton. Now that's what you call a misnomer. It is one of the most fascinating, yet misunderstood, macromolecular assemblies of the cell. Yes, the cytoskeleton can act as a scafold onto which the rest of the cell is drapped...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 5:40 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 20, 2006
Category: Misc
What decade are we in? I've always wondered, are we the in the Zeros'? The study of Biology is a cross between Occam's Razor and Murphy's Laws. "I don't believe in evolution" is like saying "I don't believe in algebra"....
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 9:00 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 19, 2006
Category: Misc
I just saw this on the Scientific Indian. Enjoy:...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 3:49 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Pure Biology
Not so long ago I wrote about piRNA. After reading a bit more, there are some points I'd like to make: - It would seem that piRNA (read this for background) are required for proper spermiogenesis. - The argonaute family...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:55 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 18, 2006
Category: Science & Society
So look what I saw: Yes this current issue. Midway down, you'll bump into this paragraph: Yeah I know mostly frivolous stuff. It kinda pisses me off that its always the S&S entries that get lots of comments and the...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 7:51 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Map that Campus
In celebration of the 11th edition (and because I enjoy presenting my hints in doublets) I present this week's mystery campus as a dialogue. Have fun: X: [thinking to himself] Going out during evenings ... lovely. I: Hello X, what...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 9:20 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 17, 2006
Category: Pure Biology
Wow, centrosomes attract a strange crowd. Strange theories about centrosomes are plentiful. Some quacks have claimed that they are , "the eyes of the cell", some sort of quantum pulse generator that secretes consciousness and now a turbine. Ian Musgrave...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 10:24 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science & Society
Everyone is all up in arms about whether Pluto (+ other massive objects at the far end of our solar system) is a planet. It would seem like every ScienceBlog blogger expounded his/her opinion on the subject. I thought this...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:11 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 16, 2006
Category: Pure Biology
(in the best possible way) I'm scanning through Science when BAM: He's imaging RNA polymerase as it transcribes DNA .... nucleotide by freakin' nucleotide ... it's sequencing at the individual molecule level. (To all those thinking about the future of...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 6:58 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Pure Biology
They share genes. They both duplicate. And signals that activate the final act of cell division interact with the SPB. But what is the final proof? Blast the damn thing with a big ass laser.
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 9:47 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 14, 2006
Category: Misc
what's this?
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:56 AM • 19 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 12, 2006
Category: Pure Biology
A new paper provides evidence that certain RNAs associate with centrosomes and may represent a centrosomal RNA genome. Furthermore this potential genome includes an enzyme that could copy the centrosomal associated RNA.
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:40 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 11, 2006
Category: Map that Campus
Can it be? Number ten? OK time for a real challenge. Here is a little twist, I'll present two aerial photos, and you tell me what is the connection? (that's a big hint) View larger photo View larger photo Leave...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 9:05 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 10, 2006
Category: Misc
This has to be one of the funniest/strangest blogs:blog.tenderbutton.com He recently performed NMR and TLC on his earwax. I love his rant on old crappy bottles of reagents. (Great graphics too!) And his love for dirt cheap reagents with...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 11:12 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Lab Life
Others write about it. So apparently some rant by a Physicist has been making the rounds (and it's not the first time). Lots of bloggers have commented on it. Should students be discouraged from going into science? Do we have...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 8:35 AM • 19 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 9, 2006
Category: Lab Life
In the world of science blogging, it would seem, that there ain't many cell biologists (as far as I can tell). What is a Cell Biologist? Well lets just say that one of the main tools of your trade is...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 2:11 PM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Lab Life
I got this funny/cynical email from a good friend. What do you think?...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 9:14 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 8, 2006
Category: Pure Biology
New research into RNA Polymerases' proofreading activity demonstrates that every step in the central dogma is mediated, in part, by RNA. Wow.
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 5:51 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Pure Biology
A paper from a week or so, describes a method for detecting regions in the genome where DNA wrapping takes place. So what (you may asked) is DNA wrapped around? Nucleosomes! Each nucleosome (red balls in the cartoon) contains 8...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 11:56 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 7, 2006
Category: Misc
I haven't done this in a while: Below the fold you'll find links to an interview with Alan Parker editor of Nature Genetics, Boltzmann and entropy, Big Biology, Tanzanian society (as seen through a medstudent from the west) and a...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 4:00 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 6, 2006
Category: Science & Society
What a nice day. Sitting on the esplanade, reading Colin McGinn's The Making of a Philosopher (a personal memoir + thoughts on 20th century philosophy). And I come across this: Nowadays psychology has pretty much the shape that Chomsky advocated,...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 9:22 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 5, 2006
Category: Pure Biology
You can find almost anything on Youtube. Here is a video from Nikon (maker of great microscopes) of mouse fibroblasts (connective tissue cells) dividing and migrating around a coverslip. Ah, this is why I became a cell biologist. Look at...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 9:43 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Pure Biology
Well two weeks ago in Science, two reports came out about yet another species of small RNA ... rasiRNA ... uhm ... piRNA (OK they haven't harmonized their nomenclature yet). So here is a brief review of the types of...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 9:20 AM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 4, 2006
Category: Lab Life
The why, who, what, when and how of this odd behavior.
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 11:14 AM • 28 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Map that Campus
What will it be this week?
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 9:35 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 3, 2006
Category: Lab Life
Another "We support the postdocs" editorial at Nature Cell Biology: The days when one could imagine starting a laboratory following a short postdoctoral position, or even with no postdoctoral training at all, are long gone. Nowadays, extensive postdoctoral training is...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 5:39 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science & Society
The Lemelson-MIT Awards, launches a new prize "to inventors whose products or processes are viable and sustainable, and have high potential to improve the quality of life for future generations".
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 1:59 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 2, 2006
Category: Lab Life
As I've written before, things are happening in California. I also learned that postdocs at University of Connecticut Healthcare Center (UCHC) joined (formed?) a union, University Health Professionals (UHP), in 2004. From the PRO/UAW site (PRO=Postdoctoral Researchers Organize): A recent...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 10:59 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Pure Biology
Heatwave = sitting inside a dark room and doing some work. It's funny I'm laptopless, and my life still revolves around computers (this one is attached to my microscope). Since I haven't been keeping up with the latest, all I...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 7:33 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Misc
... so hot that the cable on my laptop's AC adapter MELTED. (If any of you is expecting an email from me - this would explain the delay.) Last night I was typing a summary of the recent rasiRNA/piRNA papers...
Posted by Alex Palazzo at 11:18 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
