sa smith

Since Arnie was a street dog when I found him, his parentage has always been in question. It doesnt help that he is a 'pit bull', which could mean any number of things-- line up 50 'pit bulls' and you will get short-and-stout to long-and-lean and everything in between. Black, white, red, big…

Steven Pinker will be speaking tonight at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma in Chicasha!Steven Pinker asks audacious questions about the human mind -- then boldly sets out to answer them. Recently named one of TIME magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World, he is enormously…

Metastatic melanoma is definately one of the Cancers That Suck. We basically have the same treatment options in 2010 as they had back in 1975... and not because we have chemotherapy/immunotherapy that works super great, no reason to change it. Our treatment options just suck, with horrible…

Super awesome review of viral quasispecies and what they mean, historically and currently: Unfinished stories on viral quasispecies and Darwinian views of evolution. They touch on so many good points, I could write about this review for a week! But just read it, cause I think you all can access it…

From my post on testicular cancer and ERVs earlier this week, to Randys balls in the last episode of South Park, the word of the week appears to be "BALLS!" This trend is continuing, considering Judy Mikovits/the Chronic Fatigue communities vociferous support for anti-vaccination cranks: The…

One of the coolest things I learned last week in Banff is the 'why' behind an odd AIDS phenomena: So you all might know that the cut-off, the mark for being diagnosed with AIDS (and not just 'HIV-1+') is a CD4+ T-cell count of Okay, so, you lose all your CD4+ T-cells, your immune system loses its…

Once again, ERVs, the best goddamn workhorse in the stable, have provided another great example for explaining How the World Works. This time? How a functional ERV protein interacts with normal cellular proteins to cause epigenetic changes that lead to cancer: Human Endogenous Retrovirus Protein…

Oh for fucks sake. Just after Jenny McCarthys 'keynote address' at an 'autism' conference sponsored by AUTISMONE and Generation Rescue, Judy Mikovits is going to talk to everyone about XMRV (3-4 pm). Judy, you are one pathetic excuse of a 'scientist'.

They wouldnt let us pay for gas or anything, so the best I can do is Blog Props: Mark and his Super Awesome Girlfriend are AWESOME!!! There is this company that offers tours around Banff-- White Mountain Adventures, something like that. Yeah... all the trips they offer? MARK AND HIS SUPER AWESOME…

OMG you guys! I have had such a day (in a good way)! 1-- We barely made it out of OKC. Barely. As in, our plane left, and then they shut down Will Rogers Airport for a while, cause our plane had to be de-iced three times to get off the ground. 2-- We barely made it on to our flight to Calgary.…

AAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Know how a while back, when I let that 'House of Numbers' spam through for the lulz? Well, apparently that spam was sent by a real human, not a spambot. Like, a real breathing human with no life. Cause humanspambot took that comment going through as an opportunity to spam…

WHOO!! Harold Varmus is gonna be the next head of the National Cancer Institute (probably, still a non-confirmed nerd rumor)! *excited peter griffin giggle*

Retroviruses cause cancer. Like how HPV causes cancer, its not really 'on purpose', its just a side-effect of their life-cycle-- insert DNA randomly into a genome enough times, and eventually youre going to plop somewhere you aint supposed to be, and cause cancer. Thus I am terribly amused when…

Next week Im going to be in Banff, Alberta. Its just a generic resort town, so I dont suppose any of *you* would be there to party, but I was hoping some of you might have visited and know some tips/tricks/things to see/things to avoid. My plans so far: soak in hot springs for a week

Doing the right thing for the wrong reasons two totally different ways: 1. NEWSFLASH! Gabourey Sidibe is fat! Boy I never noticed that before! I bet you all didnt either! I bet this is like, a divine revelation for Ms Sidibe, too. Thank goodness this fact is pointed out to all of us! Look,…

[insert random collection of Ray Comfort jokes here] Well, this is a welcome bit of good news! A lectin isolated from bananas is a potent inhibitor of HIV replication. Lectins are proteins that bind to specific sugars. For example, in humans, lets say you are infected with Staphylococus aureus.…

There are only a couple things I would change. 1) Add Arnie. And Oracs pup. That would have been funny :D (But Orac is hysterical as is) 2) Add me saying "hehehehehe" in my first panel. Plus, one additional panel with me jumping up and down, clapping my hands saying "YAAAY!" over Nisbets…

Weve all heard of that stupid book/diet that tries to tell you what to eat based on your blood type. Of course thats stupid and just a gimmic to get you to buy hundreds of dollars of crap 'supplements' for your blood-type (oh for Petes sake...). I totally didnt know this before I read this neat…

Oklahomas Christian Medical and Dental Association is such a massive joke. They brought in Donald Ewert, a clueless dork, to talk about the 'Evolution of the Immune System' Creationism. Brought in Mr. NOMNOMNOMNOM to talk about the science/religion/ethics behind stem cell research SCIENTISTS…

LOL! We finally got Obesity Panacea on ScienceBlogs! YAY! Now. *squints eyes* I gotta question for Travis and Peter as a blogwarming gift :P Whats the deal with BMI? Weve talked about it a lot on SciBlogs, but now weve got some Real Life obesity/exercise professionals in the house, so I wanna get…

Two things I didnt intend on writing about on ERV more than a few times, but turned into repeat guests: XMRV and Vpu. Theyve finally come together. Susceptibility of xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) to retroviral restriction factors Know how I was talking about intrinsic…

Your immune system is like an onion ogre parfait. Its has lots and lots of layers. You have intrensic immunity-- Abilities every single one of your cells has to defend itself from viruses. VpuTetherin would be a good example of this, as would APOBEC and Trim5a. Pick a cell in your body-- it can…

HIV-1 deniers-- They love Orac. They love Tara. Even like haunting the Hoofnagle brothers a bit. They dont like ERV. Never have. *sad face* I really cant figure out why. (I bet its cause Im mean and kannut com00nicates scienz). Three years ago, today, I posted a challenge to HIV-1 Deniers. A…

Boy, do I have egg on my face! After I just made fun of the absurdity of Chris Mooneys 'building bridges with antivaxers' or 'ladders to heaven' or 'rope swings to Creationists' or whatever strategy, Mooney is named a Templeton Foundation 'fellow'. Like most of you, my initial response was "What a…

Study from the Netherlands: Prevalence of xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome in the Netherlands: retrospective analysis of samples from an established cohort CFS/ME patients plus age/sex/neighborhood matched controls (patients brought in…

From building bridges with anti-vaxers to building bridges with animal liberation maniacs, Chris Mooneys 'building bridges' plan is revolutionizing the way scientists interact with insane people! Its even changing the playing field with HIV-1 Deniers. Long-time readers know I have relatively little…

When scientists are creating tests to detect viruses, they need to balance two factors: Sensitivity Specificity A 'sensitive' test is no good if it cross-reacts with other proteins/viruses/antibodies. A test with high 'specificity' is no good if you miss 3 out of 10 infections. Of course, then you…

Creationism is so boring. Creationist: BIOLOGICAL FEATURE ___ IS IMPOSSIBLAH! Scientist: Um, Dude, theres like 65 years of research explaining how feature ___ evolved. Creationist: NO THAT RESEAERCH SUPPORTS JESUS! EVIDENCES OF CREATION! Scientist: What? No, we have a pretty good idea the…

Antibodies are normally a good thing. Neutralize viruses and bacterial toxins, tag bacteria for complement so they get blown up, tag invading parasites/worms/ew so your immune cells can kill them, antibodies even make nice cancer therapies. One of the great things about antibodies is that the…

Threadless has finally reprinted my favorite T-shirt, featured in my current Facebook pic: New World Order!Many of you asked where to get it, so, there you go! Oh, and Threadless has sales all the time, so keep an eye on their page, dont pay full price unless you MUST HAS NAU! Also, weve all got a…