mikethemadbiologist

I was reading this post about the possible strengths and weaknesses of Clinton and Obama among different demographic groups, and I grew very annoyed. Not at Digby, but the whole debate. What's really frustrating about most voting demographic stories (besides the obvious, which is that they don't…

In the midst of all of the gnashing of teeth and wailing of DOOOOOMMMM!!! because of the never-ending Democratic primary, I still think a contest up to the convention is a good thing (and I've always thought so). There's one thing many pundits as well as Democratic primary partisans seem to have…

Someone I knew who wasn't Jewish, once asked me what I could do to stop anti-Semitism. I responded that, if combating anti-Semitism is solely the responsibly of Jews, then we're done for. The point being that you need more than a small minority to fight what is. I've often thought the same about…

Overhead last weekend at a Boston coffeshop from someone who definitely was not a local*: Hi. We're in Boston. The people here are really polite. Lady, you don't know the fucking half of it.... *Hard to place the accent precisely but definitely not West or East Coast.

According to a recent Applied and Environmental Microbiology paper, influenza viruses are able to survive on banknotes. Lookie, bar graphs: (from the paper) Duration of infectiousness according to the size of the initial inoculum and the presence or absence of mucus. Influenza A/Moscow/10/99 (…

Our Benevolent Seed Overlords have announced a photo contest: Where do you do science? Seed Magazine wants to know. We've all seen the stereotypical pictures of a science lab: microscopes and petri dishes sitting atop sterile work benches; electric circuits sunk in a mess of metal wires and…

Over at Balloon Juice, Tim F. writes regarding skyrocketing gas prices: I don't feel particularly smug when I stand next to my Honda Fit watching some SUV owner near tears as she puts more than $100 of gas into a car she doesn't need. It just feels sad to think about how long it's been since it…

Tristero correctly points out those churches that are concerned that they will lose their tax exempt status have a solution to their problems: ...this is a lie because the reverend knows very well that the IRS is not banning him from endorsing a candidate. He is quite free to do so. Likewise, his…

Over at Angry Bear, there's a good list of suggestions, generated by one of the readers, of how non-scientists can assess claims made about global warming. I agree with most of them, except for the first one: If you can correctly guess the basic stance that some member of the discussion will take…

Sometimes I get a little frustrated with media critic Bob Somerby of the Daily Howler because he's a little too cryptic about what he thinks drives lousy media coverage. But on Thursday he wasn't: Which raises a question: Why would conservative pundits have screamed if their candidate had been…

As I've mentioned before, one of the things that always mystifies me about creationists (most, anyway) is that they seem to be stuck in a scientific time warp: there's no recognition that any new progress has been made since 1859. Of course, if creationists did recognize the progress that's been…

Over at Shakespeare's Sister, I came across this link to an announcement of a new Chlorox disinfectant that is "a one-step, labor-saving solution for killing both strains of MRSA." There seems to be some confusion here. Let's start with the basics. MRSA is the bacterium methicillin resistant…

I've been loathe to get into the horse race dynamics of the Democratic primary, largely bcause it's mostly pointless. But the North Carolina primary results are worth noting. A major component of the Democratic base, African-Americans, went 91-6 for Obama in North Carolina. As Matt Yglesias…

By way of Kathy G, I see that Caitlin Flannagan won an award for being "thoughtful and bracingly honest, filled with humor and empathy, and free of cliches and political correctness." This gives me an excuse to rescue from the Google cache an old post, "Hell, I'll Pile on Flanagan Too",…

Our Benevolent Seed Overlords have a poll about GINA. I posted about GINA earlier today; head on over and offer your opinion.

While many of my fellow ScienceBloglings have discussed GINA (The Genetic Nondiscrimination Act), one other reason this is an important piece of legislation involves the Human Microbiome Project. I've written about the Human Microbiome Project before, but, in a nutshell, it involves sequencing the…

Over at the Intersection, Sheril asks the following about new media and science communication: consider these questions from the program: * New media addressing S&T issues - what/where/who are they? * Who do they see as their primary audiences? * What do they try to convey (or try…

Darksyde rightly skewers Ben Stein and his creationist fellow travellers for claiming that evolutionary biology led to the Holocaust: Religion and science are different species of course. But one thing they share in common is both can be used for great good or nightmarish evil. Particle physicists…

Several of my fellow ScienceBloglings have noted that the increase in measles cases is due to idiots who refuse to get vaccinated. Beyond the obvious health threat this represents, there is a more subtle, yet equally murderous effect of all of this anti-vax woo. It distracts us from other…

This is why you should read local weeklies. From the Back Bay Sun: GROPE PATROL EFFECTIVE Sgt. O'Connor of the MBTA Police gave a presentation on transit crime at local subway stops that highlighted the effectiveness of the city's current undercover operation aimed at deterring groping on the…

Magic ponies: they're not just for Iraq, but healthcare too! (from here) Yesterday, I described how families would pay more under McCain's healthcare plan. But one point that I neglected to mention is that this is supposed to be a good thing. The logic (of a sort) is that if you end up paying…

I was going to discuss why I don't think the STAAR Act is particularly useful for combating antibiotic resistance, but McCain's healthcare plan is so ridiculously stupid, it requires comment. McCain's proposal would give a five thousand dollar tax credit to every household to pay for healthcare…

A recent article by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) staff emphasized that NIAID funds over $800 million annually to study antimicrobial resistance. I've heard this same argument many times, and, every time, people always grumble about how that money includes all…

Dear Chris, I don't think for a moment that you (or for that matter, Matt or Sheril) are creationist apologists. But you are successfully pissing off a lot of evolutionary biologists...like me, even though I should be incredibly receptive to your argument. I've always argued that the creationist…

Despite the ludicrous, over-hyped claims in the movie Expelled about the intimidation of creationist academics, it's pretty clear that when intimidation does occur, it's by creationists against scientists. Here's one example from Science After Sunclipse: Gwen Pearson taught biology at the Permian…

I originally posted this over two years ago. Moral of the story--don't believe every breathless medical breakthrough drug development story you read. (and if it were really good, they wouldn't be telling anyone about it): From Chemical and Engineering News: Enter The Mannopeptimycins: New class…

...or so John Wilkins tells me. Heh.

From a long time ago on a blog far, far away (and now chomped by Blogger) comes this post about how responding to bioterrorism requires a public health, not security infrastructure. Salon is running a story that claims the anti-war march of Sept. 24 might have been subjected to a botched tularemia…

An outbreak of vancomycin resistant MRSA, or VMRSA, would be the 'perfect microbiological storm', even worse than vancomycin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA). The only currently available antibiotics that would be effective against it would have to be used off-label, and are not very…

Well, I feel better about voting for Obama already. Actually, what's sad is that she really doesn't support the vaccination leads to autism position: Would you support a large-scale federal study ofthe differences in health outcomes between vaccinated and unvaccinated groups? Yes. We don't know…