apalazzo
Posts by this author
August 3, 2006
With everything going on in the world (polticaly, environmentally and otherwise), you would think that the US government would pump money into developing technology that allows for cheaper, cleaner, more reliable, more sustainable sources of energy. These technologies would not only allow us to…
August 2, 2006
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 article in…
August 2, 2006
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 have to show you are some nice pics of Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER). Enjoy…
August 2, 2006
... 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 (while playing scorched3D) when my computer switches to battery mode. At that point my wife…
July 31, 2006
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.
July 30, 2006
... 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.
So I'm reading David Brooks in today's NYTimes, and it's the same old thing ... he's trapped in a different…
July 30, 2006
Yes I've been doing some hardcore science blogging. But apparently my blog is
not just about science, but art, food, music, citylife and other mental stimuli.
And so enjoy.
PS I just got the album - it's getting better with every listen.
July 29, 2006
Thursday marked the 350th anniversary of Spinoza's excommunication.
Here are some exerpts from a great OpEd by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein in today's NYTimes:
The exact reasons for the excommunication of the 23-year-old Spinoza remain murky, but the reasons he came to be vilified throughout all of…
July 28, 2006
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 recent developments on ERAD, click here.…
July 28, 2006
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, in the rankings of universities and colleges according tototal R…
July 28, 2006
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 any of this means? Or the identity of the mystery campus? Well then leave a…
July 28, 2006
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 have a few days left. This is your…
July 27, 2006
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 cover of the latest issue of Cell:
They deal with the nitty-gritty of ERAD (to learn more…
July 27, 2006
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 biology web servers: 2006 update on the Bioinformatics Links…
July 27, 2006
OK today I'll talk about yet another paper from Jonathan Weissman's group at UCSF ... but I'll write it up in two parts. This post will be generally background about the ER and its ability to degrade proteins.
When many scientists think about "cellular functions", diagrams of the central dogma of…
July 26, 2006
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 difficult for young researchers to procure research funds. This…
July 26, 2006
In my last post, I forgot to link to these great movies of migrating fibroblasts (available as online supplements to the arginylation paper), that illustrate how beta-actin arginylation can alter cellular behavior.
So the assay is simple, grow fibroblasts until they fill up the coverslip as a…
July 26, 2006
In cells, actin polymers dictate cell morphology.
Actin filaments can adopt several conformations, they can be bundled into large microfilaments (often called stress fibers; here "mf" - electron micrograph taken from the Borisy lab webpage) or arranged in a meshwork (as seen in the second electron…
July 25, 2006
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 podcasts and his daily commute? It would seem that everyone (and every…
July 24, 2006
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?)
July 24, 2006
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 starting a family. In some respects I'm lucky -- I'm male, and my wife…
July 22, 2006
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.
July 21, 2006
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 I see any of these statistics. This time the…
July 21, 2006
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: Black Capes
Good luck!
July 20, 2006
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 ...)
July 20, 2006
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 this power point from the National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine.
So here are…
July 20, 2006
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 research that gets funded as well as the direction that…
July 19, 2006
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 the Nature article:
This journal aims…
July 19, 2006
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 effective schools from poor ones…
July 15, 2006
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 the Golgi by vesicular…