Hedwig Pöllöläinen
grrlscientist
Posts by this author
March 7, 2007
The mountain gazelle, Gazella gazella, is considered by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) to be facing a high risk of extinction. Seventeen mountain gazelle were recently released into the wild.
For the first time in ten years, captive-bred mountain gazelles have been successfully released…
March 7, 2007
The Food and Drug Administration is demonstrating a stunning lack of forethought by preparing to approve a new antibiotic to treat a pneumonia-like disease in cattle, despite warnings from health groups and a majority of the agency's own expert advisers that the decision will be dangerous -- for…
March 7, 2007
Tamiflu (Oseltamivir), the world's first line of defense against avian influenza, is correlated with teen suicides. This expensive and difficult-to-find drug has been linked to 64 cases of psychological disorders and two teenage suicides in Japan, according to media reports there.
In February 2004…
March 6, 2007
tags: Tanzania, biodiversity hot-spot
The Eastern Arc Mountains in Tanzania are home to many species that live nowhere else in the world, including butterflies, frogs, trees and chameleons. Image: NYTimes.
"This is a really important place," said Neil Burgess, an expert on the Eastern Arc…
March 6, 2007
Underweight baby girls are at a increased risk for depression, according to a recent study. Researchers found that girls who weighed less than 2.5kg (5.5lb) at birth were more likely to suffer depression when they are between the ages of 13 to 16 than those girls born at a normal weight.
The study…
March 6, 2007
I have been out of the psychiatric hospital for three months, can you believe it? I hadn't even thought about it until today, when they conducted their three month follow-up interview.
For those of you who don't know the story, I was caught attempting suicide early in August, was taken to the ER…
March 6, 2007
Image: Sylvain Duford.
As long as you send images to me (and I hope it will be for forever), I shall continue to share them with my readership. My purpose for posting these images is to remind all of us of the grandeur of the natural world and that there is a world out there that is populated by…
March 6, 2007
You can't call yourself a thinktank if all your ideas are stupid ... Bill Maher explores this idea a little further in this streaming video.
March 5, 2007
Are humans hard-wired to believe in God? And if we are, how and why did that happen? Certainly, many great thinkers believe this is the case. "A belief in all-pervading spiritual agencies," Charles Darwin wrote in his book,The Descent of Man, "seems to be universal."
Atran, who is 55, is an…
March 5, 2007
The March edition of Mendel's Garden is now available for you to read. Be sure to check it out!
March 5, 2007
Anyone who doubts the existence of global warming should visit Shishmaref. Shishmaref is a tiny town located on a barrier island in Alaska. It is inhabited by approximately 600 people. Already, the glaciers melting are causing sea levels to rise; the frozen ground on which the village was built,…
March 5, 2007
The 18 edition of the Circus of the Spineless is now available for your squishy pleasure-seeking.
March 5, 2007
Atmospheric gases scatter blue wavelengths of visible light more than other wavelengths, giving the Earth's visible edge a blue halo. At higher and higher altitudes, the atmosphere becomes so thin that it essentially ceases to exist. Gradually, the atmospheric halo fades into the blackness of…
March 5, 2007
Our nation's long-range fiscal situation is in grave peril, according to David Walker, and our deficit is growing daily. If nothing changes, the federal government will only be able to pay for the interest on the accumulated debt, and will be unable to cover health care, social security, education…
March 5, 2007
I volunteered to host Tangled Bank many many months ago, and I specifically chose this date because it was closest to PZ's 50th birdthday. So won't you all help PZ celebrate his birdthday by making this issue of TB the best ever? This means that I am now requesting submissions from all of you,…
March 5, 2007
Atlantic Puffin numbers on two islands off the coast of Scotland crashed from 28,000 pairs in 1999 to only a few thousand when an invasive plant called tree mallow established itself. The Scottish Sea Bird Centre has received £250,000 to remove the plant and encourage the birds to return to…
March 5, 2007
Those of you who agree with the death penalty will rethink your position after you read John Grisham's first nonfiction book, The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town (NYC: Doubleday; 2006), while those of you who disagree with the death penalty will find your position reinforced…
March 4, 2007
Darwin's Origin of Species (1859) is now available for free as an audio download. LibriVox volunteers have just completed a public domain audio recording of Charles Darwin's pivotal work, "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection" -- free to download, copy, and share. It's…
March 4, 2007
Can you see the lizard?
Orphaned Image. Please contact me to receive proper credit.
As long as you send images to me (and I hope it will be for forever), I shall continue to share them with my readership. My purpose for posting these images is to remind all of us of the grandeur of the natural…
March 4, 2007
This is relatively accurate, as online quizzes go. What are your results?
Your Career Type: Investigative
You are precise, scientific, and intellectual.
Your talents lie in understanding and solving math and science problems.
You would make an excellent:
Architect - Biologist - Chemist
Dentist…
March 3, 2007
Can you see the flounder?
Orphaned Image. Please contact me to receive proper credit.
As long as you send images to me (and I hope it will be for forever), I shall continue to share them with my readership. My purpose for posting these images is to remind all of us of the grandeur of the natural…
March 3, 2007
Sulky, sullen Joe Lieberman plans to deliver the Democrats' radio response to President Bush today and urge the president and Congress to "hold the Pentagon and Army chain of command accountable for the neglect of our soldiers at Walter Reed".
-- Yes, that Lieberman, the crybaby who stomped his…
March 3, 2007
They don't say it on this video, but I'll say it here; this is what happens to out-of-work scientists. They don't stop making experiments at all! Instead, they find new experiments to conduct in the absence of paying work.
Are you afraid? Well, if so, please be sure to employ your local unemployed…
March 2, 2007
British physicist Professor Stephen Hawking is ready to take a zero-gravity flight in a specially modified airplane next month. His trip is being paid for by Zero Gravity, an American company that normally charges $3,750. Hawking, who is almost completely paralyzed and frail after decades in a…
March 2, 2007
Tomorrow (Saturday) night, there will be a lunar eclipse which is promised to be one of the best in years. The eclipse begins at 2018 GMT, and the Moon will be totally immersed in the shadow of the Earth between 2244 and 2358 GMT. The lunar eclipse will be visible throughout Europe, Africa, South…
March 2, 2007
Alright everyone, the day that we all have been waiting for has finally arrived; my turn has finally come to host Tangled Bank! This means that I am now requesting submissions from all of you, faithful and new readers alike. I am specifically seeking submissions about nature, science and medicine.…
March 2, 2007
Is Bush suffering from presenile dementia? Is this the result of Alzheimer's Disease or is it the result of brain damage due to excessive drug and alcohol use? Your guess is as good as mine.
Or maybe there is genius behind the stupidity, as you saw earlier? (just to remind you of the previous…
March 2, 2007
The effect of the myosin inhibitor blebbistatin on the localization of Borealin.
Human embryonic kidney cells were treated with a myosin inhibitor for 3.8 hours. Confocal microscopy shows Borealin in green and microtubules in red.
Image: Kaur et al., BMC Cell Biology 2007, 8:5 [PDF].
As long as…