retrospectacle
Posts by this author
July 17, 2007
[This is part of a series I'm doing here on Retrospectacle called 'Science Vault.' Pretty much I'm just going to dig back into the forgotten and moldering annuls of scientific publications to find weird and interesting studies that very likely would never be published or done today (and perhaps…
July 15, 2007
A little while ago I was "tagged" by Orac of Respectful Insolence in the "How to Fix the NIH" meme. The rules to the meme were a bit laborious, and I'm not going to be so mean as to tag more innocent bloggers with the ponderous task of thinking about grants and funding institutions when it isn't…
July 13, 2007
A skin-patch (similar to the patches that deliver nicotine trans-dermally) has been approved to treat Alzheimer's disease. The drug in the patch, Exelon (rivastigmine), is already on the market in pill form, but in the form of a patch the drug can be delivered continuously and more reliably.…
July 8, 2007
Ok, I tried to hold off, but this danged 'LOLCats' craze finally won me over to the Dark Side. It all happened when I *somehow* ended up at I Can Has Cheeseburger, the evil evil site that started it all (or was that Fark?), and when ostensibly just there to "see what all the fuss is about" I…
July 7, 2007
[This is part of a series I'm doing here on Retrospectacle called 'Science Vault.' Pretty much I'm just going to dig back into the forgotten and moldering annuls of scientific publications to find weird and interesting studies that very likely would never be published or done today (and perhaps…
July 6, 2007
The Shanghai Museum houses 5 floors of ancient Chinese artifacts ranging from carved jade to Buddhas to painted scrolls, and was built in the early 90s. As a neat coincidence, there was also an exhibit of American Art rotating through the museum which featured famous works by artists including…
July 5, 2007
I heard this morning that my grandfather died in his sleep last night. He had certainly lived a long life and had had the opportunity to travel across the country with my grandmother in their RV, for the past 15 years or so. Their pet projects involved Habitat for Humanity-type volunteering on…
July 4, 2007
Happy 4th of July, however you'll be spending it. I'll be watching the hotdog-eating contest on TV, going to get a couple Coney dogs myself, and then fireworks of course! I gotta say that the hot dog eating contest just won't be the same without Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi, who is suffering from jaw…
July 3, 2007
After an uneventful and Ambien-laden flight to Shanghai, I arrived at Pudong Airport more than a bit physically tired and quite a bit psychologically wired. "Three weeks off--Hooray!" kept scrolling across my mind like a stock ticker. As Darren was already there, we headed over to a sketchy (and…
June 29, 2007
Well, just got back into the States last night and just wanted to say, I'm still alive and pictures/stories/tall-tales will be on the way. My traveling parter is getting back tomorrow and is the Keeper of the Camera. So, probably the next few days I'll get back to blogging (oh sweet vacation!) with…
June 6, 2007
The entire month of June I'll be in Asia, still blogging though (when possible!). Me and a friend are spending 4 days in Shanghai, then a few days in Suzhou, then flying to Kota Kinabalu, Borneo (maybe Sipadan, who knows?) and ending in Koh Phanang/Phi Phi Island, Thailand. (Phi Phi pictured below…
June 6, 2007
Yours truly is currently on a plane which left Detroit at 2pm today (well, or I will be shortly) and is headed towards Shanghai, China. I'm off to visit my parents in Suzhou and then a week each in Malaysian Borneo and Phi Phi/Koh Phenang Thailand. I'm so unbelievably psyched! I'm posting an open…
June 5, 2007
[This is part of a series I'm doing here on Retrospectacle called 'Science Vault.' Pretty much I'm just going to dig back into the forgotten and moldering annuls of scientific publications to find weird and interesting studies that very likely would never be published or done today (and perhaps…
June 2, 2007
Ancient nerd legend has it that anyone in possession of these three things will have REAL ULTIMATE POWER.
Its a pin. Its a synapse neuron. Sweet.
From now on all my eating and drinking implements will display the chemical structure of their contents.
Pong. Batteries. Shirt. Need I say more?…
June 1, 2007
I was just bumming aroung Wikipedia and I noticed that while PZ Myers and Pharyngula have entries, no one has yet made an entry for the entity/project that is ScienceBlogs. Someone should get on that!
June 1, 2007
One of the most severe developmental defects is called anencephaly, which literally means "without a brain." However, usually some brain tissue develops normally, but the forebrain and cerebrum is small or absent. This defect is caused by an error in the development of the nervous system and brain…
May 31, 2007
By this time most people have heard about the "Monster Pig" shot by an 11-year old. Except, experts at StinkyJournalism have debunked the colossal pig as a hoax. Turns out the pig is big, but the photos were intentionally manipulated to make the hog appear much, much bigger than it actually is.…
May 31, 2007
Like most scientists and nerds, the innovative and often science-fictiony work of Stanley Kubrick holds a spot of honor in my heart. However, the man himself was an sometimes seen as an enigma, a very private person.
Jamie Stuart, cyber-friend and fellow admirirer of all things Kubrick, gave me…
May 30, 2007
[I'm starting a new series here at Retrospectacle, called 'Science Vault,' of which this post is the first. Pretty much I'm just going to dig back into the forgotten and moldering annuls of scientific publications to find weird and interesting papers that very likely would never be published today…
May 29, 2007
A common question I am asked, on my blog and in real life, is what is the "trick" to getting into a good graduate program (for the sciences). The trick is that there is no trick, but there are a few preparatory steps that *do* make all the difference in the application process. And no, it isn't…
May 29, 2007
If you are in the vicinity of Illinois, I've got a cool event to pass on: a fundraising dinner to help benefit Dr. Irene Pepperberg's work on intelligence and communication in Grey parrots. Go see Dr. Pepperberg talk about her research or participate in a meet-and-greet. Proceeds go to the Alex…
May 26, 2007
Ok, so maybe I exaggerated a little bit on the GFP part, but these chairs really do glow! Called AfterGlow, this line of deck chairs from Douglas Homer is made of 100% post-consumer recycled high density polyethylene (HDPE) and glows in the dark.
May 25, 2007
Perhaps the best thing I've ever seen. Remember when I blogged a bit about the effects of psychoactive drugs on the web-building activities of spiders? Well little did I know that the experiment was actually filmed.
May 25, 2007
Lab ducks. What the heck are these two mallard ducks doing outside the entrance to my lab building? Every single day (since it got warm) they sit happily by the door, soft quacking at everyone who walks in and out, like benign and protective duck-buddhas. Why they are there, well, I have no idea.…
May 25, 2007
Surgeons may have a new tool at their disposal to aid in planning surgeries: an interactive "4-dimensional" model of the human body called CAVEman which describes in live-sized detail over 3000 distinct human parts. CAVEman is really just a huge computer image which can be viewed in a booth (giving…
May 23, 2007
In a really astounding discovery, it was confirmed that a 2001 birth by a female Hammerhead shark was achieved in the complete absence of males, in a process called parthenogenesis. While at first it was believed that the female shark mated before being captured, and stored the sperm for three…
May 22, 2007
What the heck is RSS? Little did I know that I was reading news and blogs the Old Slow Way rather than the New Fast Way. Jeez. I'm almost as embarrassed as when it was pointed out that I still use Friendster, which is, like *so* 2003.
RSS is sweet, and this video created by The Common Craft Show (…
May 22, 2007
A friend of mine in the Neuroscience program just got back from Hawaii (nice spot for an academic conference, I'll say) and sent me some entirely amusing parrot pictures. FYI, the title of the email was "You in 40 Years?" Hrm.
"In Hilo, at "Bear's Cafe," I saw a retired lady eating breakfast with…
May 21, 2007
Perhaps you've heard about the wayward humpback whales, a mother and calf, who had become disoriented and began swimming inland towards Sacramento, California. They were traveling down the Sacramento River, causing a lot of grief to the Coast Guard and to marine biologists trying to think of a way…