Stacey Smith
I'm a graduate student studying the molecular and biochemical evolution of HIV within patients and within populations. I also study epigenetic control of ERVs.
sa smith
Posts by this author
October 13, 2011
Me, September 1, 2011:
Black Death not initiated by a plasmid? My money is on a moron.
Phages can encode for gene groups called morons.
I am not joking.
These are viral genes that dont code for anything the virus wants, like structural proteins, or enzymes the virus needs-- They are genes that make…
October 11, 2011
LOOK AT THE FUZZY VIRUS!!
I want to flop its ears!
Or... 'cowlicks'... whatever...
The French have found yet another HUGE virus, this one even bigger than the previous hugeliest Mimiviruses (random link: Mimis virophage)!
This one?
They call him MEGAVIRUS!
Distant Mimivirus relative with a larger…
October 6, 2011
I dont know why so many people bag on Pittsburgh.
Maybe people who grew up In The Big City dont like it, but to a country bumpkin like me, it is a magical city full of hot boys and glitter. *shrug*
Its also home to some of the best virology work in the country. Example:
Raw Sewage Harbors Diverse…
September 30, 2011
Ladies and gentlemen, a magic trick*.
I am going to take two pieces of data, from two independent experiments, establishing 'proof' of two different concepts, presented in to different formats and to different events...
... And turn them into the same figure.
*waits for the astonished mummers to…
September 29, 2011
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!
*runningaroundlikeacrazyperson*
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!
*pointsexcitedlytolink*
An evening with AYAAN HIRSI ALI
October 27, 2011
7.30 pm
Te Ata Memorial Auditorium
Chickasha, OK
(pdf)
I AM FREAKING OUT!!!!!!!…
September 26, 2011
If Ive said it once, Ive said it a thousand times here on ERV-- Scientists are wrong all the time. ALLLLLLLL the time. Its what we *do*. We make a hypothesis, design an experiment, collect data, and refine the hypothesis, because the original hypothesis was wrong.
Over and over and over and…
September 25, 2011
Wow.
WOOOOW.
You know, people should be legally forbidden from saying "Dr. Oz cant drop any lower than this!"
Pimping snake-oil salesmen? CHECK!
Taking 'creative liberties' editing the comments of scientists on his show? CHECK!
Playing 'scientist' with rock-stars just to get his face in the media…
September 23, 2011
Just when you think XMRV-->anything could get none more dead, it manages to get deader.
When the possibility arose that there was a new pathogen circulating in humans, especially in the human blood supply, lots of labs from all over the world started looking for it.
Unfortunately, no one could…
September 22, 2011
File this under "Maybe Nifty, Maybe Nothing"--
A couple decades ago, scientists found a compound in the liver of sharks that turned out to be anti-cancer and anti-microbial-- squalamine. Though its not the most popular component of the 'SHARKS DONT GET CANCER!!!!' myth you might have heard of, it…
September 22, 2011
TODAY at 3 pm Eastern Time
Science magazine will be hosting a live-chat with a couple of San Fransisco Big Dogs-- Michael P. Busch and Jay Levy!
Live Chat: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome--Science and Controversy
<a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/…
September 19, 2011
What do you get when you combine "GO AWAY. NO ONE LIKES YOU. Part I" with "GO AWAY. NO ONE LIKES YOU. Part II"?
Dear Sally Kern and Discovery Institute--
GO AWAY. NO ONE LIKES YOU.
Yours in Christ--
--ERV
The DI is going to be showing their perverted Creationism pornographic film tonight at the Sam…
September 19, 2011
Of the many things that annoy me about Creationists, one Im going to focus on today is their child-like understanding of biochemistry and what actually goes on inside of a cell.
They put out these pretty animations (well, they put out 'animations' copied from pretty animations) and everything is so…
September 16, 2011
Because I am a cliche absent minded scientist, I completely forgot that I had tickets to Austin City Limits this year, until my passes came in the mail like last week :-/
Like, I 'remembered', but I thought it was in October or something... I dunno what my brain was doing...
Im too busy in the lab…
September 15, 2011
This study is a case study from this study (lol):
Chimeric Antigen Receptor-Modified T Cells in Chronic Lymphoid Leukemia
I imagined this scene happened in one of their lab meetings:
I didnt go in-depth as to how everything was working before, so I thought I would do it now!
This paper is a case…
September 13, 2011
An infinite loop of crazy--
Apparently Michele Bachmann (Crazy, MN) wants her daughters (and any/all women) to get cervical cancer if they grow up to engage in any kind of sex their mother doesnt agree with (but almost certainly engaged in herself), so at the Republican debate for whatever, she '…
September 12, 2011
Dear Discovery Institute--
GO AWAY. NO ONE LIKES YOU.
Yours in Christ--
--ERV
UUUUUUUGH.
The DI is going to be in Oklahoma, AGAIN.
To show a stupid movie, AGAIN.
Gee, I wonder if the 'movie' is going to be a bunch of assholes herp-durping about something pretty with stupid (probably stolen)…
September 12, 2011
Dear Sally Kern--
GO AWAY. NO ONE LIKES YOU.
Yours in Christ--
--ERV
Good Ol Sally Kern is in the news again, repeating the same BS that a hateful piece of shit, Fred Pope, was saying that helped drive a gay boy to suicide this time last year.
Yaaaaay...
Actual quote:
You know if you just look at…
September 10, 2011
Writing grants + papers + stress + migraines + beautiful weather apparently = me not blogging.
:-/
Luckily, others are and Dr. Dolittle at LifeLines put up a post on how whales use bubbles to hunt:
Blowing Bubbles
While that sounds like part of a Monty Python bit ("First you get the comfy chair...…
September 7, 2011
I have to give a huge round of applause to PLoS, specifically, PLoS ONE, and their handling of the XMRV fiasco.
Some of you might remember, early 2010 PLoS published the very first 'Umm... XMRV isnt there...' paper, Failure to Detect the Novel Retrovirus XMRV in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
To a…
September 5, 2011
For the past month, I have been living in the lab trying to cram some of my data + new data for a grant submission. I am alive right now exclusively due to the calories consumed via Mountain Dew (classic, and a wide variety of exciting flavors they have added to the collection), because I…
September 1, 2011
What caused The Black Death?
Its not only an interesting question from a paleomicrobiology standpoint, but of practical importance-- While we have all kinds of technology here in 2011 that would have, no doubt, increased the survival rates of Plague victims in the 1400s, it would be more comforting…
August 30, 2011
Vincent Racaniello, the fellow who literally wrote the textbook on viruses, had me and Rich Condit on his show this week to talk about viruses!
Its a little different than the podcasts I normally do-- normally these are really targeted towards a very general audience. Vincents show is more like…
August 29, 2011
Just to make this clear up front:
WHAT I AM ABOUT TO WRITE ABOUT IS NOT A 'CURE' FOR CANCER. ITS A NEAT IDEA WE MIGHT BE ABLE TO CAPITALIZE ON IN THE FUTURE. ITS COOL! NOT A 'CURE'.
Perfect example of the potential domesticated viruses have to tame deadly diseases!
Tumor Cell Marker PVRL4 (…
August 25, 2011
What a scientist means when they say "Person 1 didnt respond well to Vaccine A":
Person 1 was given a vaccine. They did not generate a protective adaptive immune response from that vaccine (either B- or T-cell, whichever was supposed to occur). OR Person 1 did show an adaptive response initially,…
August 24, 2011
Long-time readers of SciBlogs might remember the physicians and nurses working in Libya in the late 1990s, who were accused of purposefully infecting children with HIV-1, the "Tripoli 6".
Science established that they were innocent.
Basic logic established they were innocent (not only was there no…
August 23, 2011
I have some surprising news for my homosexual ERV readers: In the state of Florida, youre all virgins!
The judges found that because the law referenced 'sexual intercourse' that it could only be applied to heterosexual activity since intercourse is only defined as "the penetration of the female sex…
August 22, 2011
DNA Extraction Columns Contaminated with Murine Sequences
This paper makes me very thankful for two things:
1-- Bossman is extremely neurotic about controls (this apparently, is inheritable, because I am too).
2-- I dont work on a mouse virus.
If the list of potential sources of contamination in…
August 18, 2011
A bunch of folks have emailed me about this article, being heavily pimped in pop media:
Broad-Spectrum Antiviral Therapeutics
Being SciBlogs resident Debbie Downer, it was good to see Ive trained you all well. The most common comment people emailed along with the link to a pop news article: "Why…
August 15, 2011
My response:
Patient: Are you sure youre a doctor?
Me: Oh, Im not a doctor.
If you are a regular reader of ERV, one of the Big Ideas I hope you take away from this blog is 'Viruses are not Bad Guys' (more, more, this list isnt exhaustive, Ive written about this a million times).
Yes, we tend to…
August 12, 2011
YAAAAAAAAAY!!!
A *big* "THANK YOU!!" to The Thinking Atheist for recording and producing these videos (all of the speeches will be up on his YouTube channel). He brought all the equipment, the audio is great, the video is great, he integrated in the slides from my PowerPoint, dealt with uploading…