terrasig
Posts by this author
October 26, 2006
If you've been working in this field for any period of time, cocktail party discussions or talks with students invariably turn to nature's greatest trove of biologically-active compounds, those that act on the central nervous system (CNS) as stimulants, euphorics, and hallucinogens.
So, over the…
October 25, 2006
Frequent commenter, anjou, just sent along a link to a MSNBC article by Robert Bazell entitled, "Ignoring the failures of alternative medicine." The article is subtitled, "The U.S. spends millions testing popular supplements. It's a futile effort."
Bazell is chief science and health correspondent…
October 22, 2006
After putting together last evening's carnival posts, I walked outside this morning to find the Q Opinion section of our local Sunday paper devoted to issues of blogging.
Specifically, writer Eric Ferreri poses the question of whether bloggers should have a code of ethics, just like journalists.…
October 21, 2006
Welcome to this week's edition of Tar Heel Tavern, a roundup of all that is good about blogging from the state of North Carolina. If I missed your submission or if it's Sunday morning and you think, "Dang, I forget to submit anything," just fire me an e-mail and I'll quickly add your work. So,…
October 19, 2006
This is kind of a homer version of The Friday Fermentable, but I think that it has enough international interest that I am putting it here and on the oft-neglected local blog, Bull City Bully Pulpit.
Many themes will come together here that involve science blogging and this will be our first…
October 19, 2006
Are you a North Carolina blogger of any sort? Have you ever lived in North Carolina? C'mon, I know many, many science folks who at one time did their training in the Old North State.
Well, after hosting Tar Heel Tavern at my old blog in the Spring, I thought it would be a good idea to help out…
October 19, 2006
The real news in this story is how the lead researcher responsibly tempers the interpretation of his 15 October report in Clinical Cancer Research.
From United Press International:
Grape seeds may help attack colon tumors
DENVER, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Chemicals found in grape seeds have been found to…
October 18, 2006
SAHA, or suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid, was recently granted orphan drug approval by the US FDA for skin lesions resulting from cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.
SAHA (vorinostat, Zolinza) will be marketed by Merck as they acquired in 2004 Aton Pharma, who had been developing the compound. (This free…
October 16, 2006
Please alert your diabetic friends, family, colleagues, and students as to this alert from the US FDA:
LifeScan and FDA notified healthcare professionals and the public of counterfeit blood glucose test strips being sold in the United States for use with various models of the One Touch Brand Blood…
October 13, 2006
Modern Skirts, the musical darlings of the Athens, GA, music scene, will be making their New York City live debut this evening at the legendary Mercury Cafe. They'll be playing with tremendous Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter, Jennifer O'Connor, and indie stalwarts, Portostatic.
Modern Skirts are…
October 11, 2006
Medscape Pharmacists has a great article up by Jacqueline Kostwick on modern options for a careers in pharmacy (free reg required). The article is directed toward already-practicing pharmacists who are looking to move within the profession, but it is also a great primer for the prospective student…
What is the responsibility of the health care team with patients who refuse evidence-based medicine?
October 10, 2006
I'm a day late in recommending this, but I encourage all who are interested in alternative medicine for cancer to spend the time it takes to get through Orac's heartwrenching documentation of the case of a young breast cancer patient who is likely to die in the very near future, through no fault of…
October 9, 2006
I sometimes get grief from my colleagues about subscribing to the Wall Street Journal, but it is worth every penny. Some of the best stories on health and drug development appear in the WSJ. Beyond its outstanding health reporting, even basic news articles will appear in the WSJ and get picked up…
October 9, 2006
For those of you are are snickering at how this blogger didn't really understand trackback, a basic feature of blogging, just picture for a moment the all-too-common occurrence of four PhDs struggling at the lecture podium to get the A/V program to work for an esteemed guest speaker.
Well, I've got…
October 8, 2006
Okay, the last bit about Billy Bragg, Woody Guthrie, and Stetson Kennedy before getting back to natural product medicines....
So, the folk musician in me had prepared for Stetson Kennedy at his 90th birthday celebration this weekend a new verse to the Woody Guthrie lyrics set to music by Billy…
October 8, 2006
Thanks, all, for sharing in my initial disappointment with missing Stetson Kennedy's 90th b'day party and then the happy accident of being home to take the call from Billy Bragg yesterday afternoon.
My response to the comments began to grow so lengthy that I felt it necessary to create a whole new…
October 7, 2006
I'm sitting here, miserably pissed off, because a US Airways snafu has kept me from attending the 90th birthday party of Stetson Kennedy, legendary Southern author, rebel, and soldier for human rights and social justice, in Fruit Cove, Florida.
For readers who may recall my admiration of Mr.…
October 5, 2006
This other thing called the day job has interfered with my finishing the last bit of the curcumin series (on the piperine/Bioperine bioavailability enhancer) and a new post for The Friday Fermentable. I've also got some biz travel scheduled today, so I hope that gives me some wine and/or beer…
October 4, 2006
Yesterday, we began discussing why the health care consumer should be wary of dietary supplement promotions based solely on "scientific research" cited from studies done on isolated cells in Petri dishes, pure enzymes, or other systems far removed from whole animals or whole humans.
There are many…
October 4, 2006
My colleague, Coturnix, just raised the question of whether the awarding of this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Roger D. Kornberg of Stanford University is really an award for biology.
A surprise to some of us "youngsters," Kornberg was recongized as the sole winner for elucidating the basic…
October 3, 2006
Subtitle: Why Petri dish studies don't always translate into benefit for patients
While I am an enthusiastic supporter of naturally-derived compounds as the source of drugs, I am extremely disappointed and dismayed at how non-prescription natural products are promoted indirectly for disease…
October 2, 2006
Best as I can tell, our resident MD/PhD student, Jake Young at Pure Pedantry, was first to post on this morning's announcement.
The Nobel Prize website has a very nice press release on why the discovery of RNA interference is so central to our understanding of biology and is likely to result in…
September 29, 2006
Just clearing out the MSM that finds its way into Chez Pharmboy and was totally taken by a brief gadget alert on wine stuff written by Rebecca Hall in the Enterprise section of the 2 October issue of Newsweek:
Toying With Wine
by Rebecca Hall
If you can't sate your inner oenophile with stylish wine…
September 29, 2006
In late August, our colleague and correspondent Erleichda conducted a winetasting of some offerings from Virginia, picked up on a tour with his beloved Sweetpea. The tasting fell on PharmPreKer's birthday, so we were unable to make it, but here is Erleichda's missive.
Two things strike me: first…
September 28, 2006
While not being much of a political blogger, I thought nevertheless that readers might be interested in these six, well-written letters to the editor of the New York Times (registration req'd) regarding our president's response to the latest National Intelligence Estimate.
September 26, 2006
Dr Bruce Alberts, recently departed president of the US National Academy of Sciences and Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UCSF, just spoke this morning at a symposium celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Duke University School of Medicine. The overall program is incredible, with four…
September 24, 2006
I completely missed it: a rather momentous occasion in the life of this blog.
The ScienceBlogs.com version of Terra Sigillata just passed the traffic volume of the old site on Wednesday, 20 Sept at 9:14 pm EDT with a visitor from Arlington, MA, USA.
Visitor 13,986 must be a regular reader…
September 22, 2006
The other day, Coturnix alluded to Simon Owens of Bloggasm and his survey of blogosphere diversity. I neglected to note that I was one of the respondents. Simon's questions were:
1. What niche does your blog fall into (Examples: Political, gadget, movie, etc...If more than one, please list)?
2.…
September 21, 2006
This post should actually be called, "Driving Mister Tim," in recognition of the delightful day I just spent here with Pandora Internet Radio founder and chief strategic officer, Tim Westergren.
Tim was in the area for a couple of town hall meetings and chats with groups in the Raleigh-Durham…
September 20, 2006
Very serious stuff today, folks.
Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian physician remain imprisoned in Libya, where they have been since 1999 based on trumped-up charges that they infected with HIV some 400 patients. Misinterpretation and translation mistakes of a key scientific report appear to…