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
June 13, 2011
Oh thank god.
I am not a '3 Quarks Daily' finalist.
While I certainly appreciate readers nominating and voting for me (getting that kind of support for the semi-finals was award enough for me!), the day I win some kind of award for writing is the day before the end of the Universe as we know it. I…
June 9, 2011
This summer, Ive got three undergrads in the lab.
While some might view this as babysitting, I love it. Love it!! ... which is probably why I have three this summer... but it is easy to love when youve had the fantastic students we have had in the lab in the past, and the three awesome young women…
June 8, 2011
To quote me from 2009:
Since ~2006, honey bee colonies in the US have been dropping dead overnight. Literally. They call it 'colony collapse disorder'. While large populations of organisms dying is disturbing, no matter the species, we need honey bees-- they help pollinate so many of our crops. I…
June 8, 2011
What is going on?
The Nominees for the 2011 3QD Prize in Science Are:
Alphabetical list of blog names followed by the blog post title:
34. ERV: Barnyard Week: White Chickens Are ERV Mutants
WHAT IS HAPPENING???? I DONT UNDERSTAND!!!
Me no thinks me rites gud, but if u lieks u can votes for me?
June 6, 2011
Ive gotten over 9,000 emails on this guy:
First man 'functionally cured' of HIV
Doctors claim to have "functional cure" for HIV
The Berlin Patient, first reports of an AIDS Cure
Special Report - An end to AIDS?
This is the same guy Ive written about a couple times before. Its real great for him,…
June 3, 2011
Judy Mikovits is playing whack-a-mole in her responses to the legion of anti-XMRV papers published to date:
She bitches about one thing, or another thing, as the papers are published, but she misses the big picture. Its not that there are moles randomly popping up. The problem is youre entire 3…
June 1, 2011
ERV readers will absolutely love this paper.
Recombinant Origin of the Retrovirus XMRV
Okay, we all know ERVs are awesome evidence for evolution and common descent. But, imagine we could do classical ERV research one better. Imagine that we had DNA from one of THE common ancestors of humans and…
May 31, 2011
Sometimes papers make me laugh because they are so bad.
Sometimes papers make me laugh when they do or report something particularly clever.
This paper is the latter:
No Evidence of Murine-Like Gammaretroviruses in CFS Patients Previously Identified as XMRV-Infected
I literally laughed-out-loud…
May 27, 2011
Like BlagHag, I have a soft-spot for astrology. Not that I ever 'believed' in it, I have just always loved the stars and the moon and zodaic stuff is just fun. Via that, Ive also always had a soft-spot for cows. I am a Taurus, and I just think cows are pretty:
I also love zodiac for the lulz.…
May 26, 2011
I LOVE talking about PERVs on ERV.
PERVs.
PERVs.
EVEN MOAR PERVs.
I LOVE PERVs!
Well... PERVs as in Piggie Porcine Endogenous Retroviruses. Not pervs as in Catholic Priests and Teh Popes advisers. Thats a different story.
Because the need for organs for transplants is so high, and because pigs…
May 25, 2011
This post isnt going to be as funny or as ripe for Pope jokes as some of you might be hoping. Sry.
Herpes in horses EHV, has a lot of similarities to the 'herpes' us humans are used to-- HSV-1 and 2, EBV, CMV, chicken pox, etc. Its similar in that, I mean, its herpes. Large, DNA virus. Once it…
May 25, 2011
Assuming he didnt get blown away last night, Brother Sam Singleton is going to be doing a show tonight in OKC! If you also didnt get blow away last night, you should totally go-- I got to see Brother Sams show at the Texas Freethought Convention, and it was great! Its like stand-up comedy, but…
May 24, 2011
Thanks to everyone who has sent a message! Just so yall know, everything is fine on my end here in OK.
Me and Arnie went to campus before the storm hit and just hung out there (with about a dozen other students pups and a cat, lol!) Realized that was the first time Arnie has been on an elevator…
May 24, 2011
So I got the idea to do this after stumbling across a bunch of viral/farmyard stories this week. I know its currently Tuesday, not Sunday, so, SURPRISE!!! BARNYARD WEEK!
If you ERV readers are anything like me, you have spent countless nights tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep, unable…
May 19, 2011
SQUEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!
The first sequenced carnivore genome shows complex host-endogenous retrovirus relationships.
ONE note of dismay: They did not include a picture of the boxer they sequenced. WTF???
Substitute picture:
see more dog and puppy pictures
Fun quickies!
Despite Arnies love of getting…
May 17, 2011
I finally understand, Whittemore Peterson Institute. I get it. You exist to torment me. (video NSFW if you will get in trouble for throwing up at your desk)
There are a couple things people have been asking me to write about re: WPI & XMRV.
1-- The new paper
The lead PI on the "XMRV-->CFS…
May 16, 2011
Tuesday, May 17th, at noon (Central Time), Trine Tsouderos is hosting a live-chat with one of the people who literally wrote the book on viruses, Vincent Racaniello.
LINKY!!
I know you all have *ME* to chat with :P But I do encourage you all to submit questions to Vince and Trine, partly because…
May 16, 2011
Cytomegalovirus is one of those ubiquitous viruses. Pretty much everyone on Earth is infected with it, and if you arent, you probably will be at some point in your life.
Some scientists got the idea to use CMV as a gene delivery system for HIV-1-- 'Infecting' cells with 'HIV' without actually…
May 15, 2011
Amanda Marcotte, big internet name in skepticism and feminism just put up an article on The Guardian blag:
The soft underbelly of the right's hard abs
...
...
... I dont get it.
Or rather, I 'get it', but I find it distasteful, and I dont 'get' why she thought it was appropriate for her to post…
May 13, 2011
CTL-based vaccines and HIV-1.
Ive written about them quite a few times here on ERV.
Quick recap-- All of your cells fly 'flags' that show circulating cytotoxic T-cells what proteins they are making. Normally, a virus-infected cell will put up virus/pirate 'flags', the T-cell will 'see' something…
May 11, 2011
I want to bake our favorite ninja/journalist, Trine Tsouderos, some cupcakes.
Awesomesauce:
In an email, retrovirologist Jonathan Stoye suggested that if the methods described in the original paper don't hold up, it should be retracted.
"Sooner or later they are going to have to face up to the fact…
May 10, 2011
I want you all to see an article I just found via Relative Risk Blog. Its about 'Chronic Lyme Disease'. About a young woman who was aggressively treated by a 'questionable' practitioner who had 'cured herself' of 'Chronic Lyme'. No one believes in 'Chronic Lyme'. 'Everyone' was 'against' this…
May 6, 2011
Remember that shit supplement I wrote about just over a year ago, 'Gene-Eden'?
The FDA notified them that they have to stop saying their plant smoothie treats chronic viral infections and other STDs:
Dara Corrigan, JD, the FDA's associate commissioner for regulatory affairs, says the warning…
May 5, 2011
From a basic, logical perspective, XMRV as the causative agent for any disease has been dead in my eyes, for quite some time. One would literally need to bend the rules of basic epidemiology, basic cancer biology, basic immunology, basic virology, time/space for 'XMRV' to be 'real'.
But of course…
May 4, 2011
Conceptually, its not excessively hard to understand how we develop allergies-- Our bodies generate an inappropriate immune response to a protein that wouldnt otherwise cause us any harm, whether its tree pollen or dust mites or peanut proteins.
But whats the deal with nickel allergies?
Nickel is a…
May 3, 2011
1. Evilutionists say there is 'junk DNA'
2. 'Junk DNA' was used to ID Osamas body
3. 'Junk DNA' was therefore useful
4. Therefore, there is no such thing as 'junk DNA'
5. Therefore Evilution is false
6. Therefore humans were specially created by the Christian god 6000 years ago
LOL, wat?
File this…
May 3, 2011
There are no women on the internet at Skeptic meetings, women are more religious than men, women love astrology and ghosts and talking to spirits, it is easy to get the impression that women are the 'weaker sex'-- estrogen and glitter and unicorns and intuition and strawberry bubblegum build an…
May 2, 2011
Imagine a book I would write. On viruses (what else?).
Now, instead of it sounding like it was written by a chimpanzee who learned English from watching 'Waynes World' and 'Waynes World 2' on a loop + 4chan, imagine it was written by an articulate, science-literate human.
That is 'A Planet of…
April 28, 2011
What is there to say in response to this?
Rep. Sally Kern, R-Oklahoma City, said minorities earn less than white people because they don't work as hard and have less initiative.
"We have a high percentage of blacks in prison, and that's tragic, but are they in prison just because they are black or…
April 27, 2011
I love condoms.
They are a medical device that not only helps prevent pregnancy, but a whole host of sexually transmitted diseases. And, while STDs can vary from 'dont know youre infected and doesnt have an effect on your health, really' to 'deadly' to the adults that contract them, the spectrum…