Mad rantings about politics, evolution, and microbiology. Comment policy: say what you want, but back it up with an email address. I don't like anonymous trolls.
mikethemadbiologist
Posts by this author
July 25, 2010
Once again, some are making a big deal out of the second derivative, just as was done with unemployment numbers (Got Green Shoots?), when they shouldn't. Consider this from an NY Times article about defense spending increases:
Mr. Gates is arguing that if the Pentagon budget is allowed to keep…
July 24, 2010
Happy Saturday. Links for you. Science:
Eleven Amazing Things About The Haleakala Silversword
Detoxifying cassava
Japanese giant salamanders are in a fishbowl of sorts, for research
Global Model Confirms: Cool Roofs Can Offset Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Mitigate Global Warming
Other:
State…
July 24, 2010
Someone tell me why we didn't nationalize BP assets in the U.S., fire the board of directors and other high-level managers, and then use the assets to fix all of the problems--including the unemployment caused by the spill. Because this sounds like the clarion calls of freedom and liberty to me (…
July 23, 2010
I've been at a meeting, so I haven't been able to get around to this, but Scientia Pro Publica #35, a science blog carnival, is now live at Kind of Curious. There's lots of sciencey goodness over there (including this contribution by yours truly).
So head on over and read some good science.
July 23, 2010
Imagine someone had designed a device that would essentially eliminate bloodstream infections (sepsis) caused by contamination of needleless injection ports. Great news right? Well, guess what happens next:
Unlike some of the solutions floated by big medical device makers, such as coating the…
July 22, 2010
Links for you. Science:
Under The Microscope: Feminism, Scientists and Sexiness
The 2 billion dollar protein sequencing error
How to read a genome-wide association study
Other:
Feds getting ready to mislabel another key Revolutionary battle
Whither ScienceBlogs?
A Farewell to Scienceblogs: the…
July 22, 2010
In a good post about puppy mills, Amanda Marcotte made a good point about domesticated versus undomesticated pets (italics mine):
This would probably mean that people couldn't get exotic pets, and that isn't really the sort of thing that would keep me up at night, either. I understand the urge to…
July 21, 2010
Happy Wednesday! Links for you. Science:
The Tiny Ant That's Taking On The Big City
Where stingrays reign
French Scientists Crack Secrets Of 'Mona Lisa'
Privately funded science
Other:
Ugly truth about Maryland's crab industry; no wonder the locals don't want the jobs
Kool-Aid, Mainline…
July 21, 2010
Since I'm at a Human Microbiome Project meeting, and don't have time to write, I thought this post from the archives of Mad Biologist was appropriate:
A while ago, I talked about some things biologists should learn, and the glaring omission was mathematical fluency. I bring this up because one of…
July 20, 2010
Somethings going with the Notorious H.M.P. No reason for forgetting to give you some links. Science:
Unscientific California: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Serpentine and Biodiversity
Getting someone fired: the most fun wingnuts can have while avoiding prison
The Big Green Buy
Other:…
July 20, 2010
Philip Mirowski has a must-read article in The Hedgehog Review about 'The Great Mortification': the soul-searching (such as it is) that the economics profession has undergone since 2007. Two key points in Mirowski's article are really important--and are relevant to most, if not all, intellectual…
July 19, 2010
Merry Monday! Links for you. Science:
Personal genomics: the importance of sequencing
Gulf's Artificial Islands Already Failing
Scientists vs. Engineers: One prefers the unknown, the other can't stand it. Now more than ever, we have to find a way to get along.
Other:
Conservative Groups Demand…
July 19, 2010
I've read through the Washington Post article on our bloated, inefficient national security-surveillance apparatus--what Atrios characterizes as a system "to transfer money and power to elites while cementing the existence of a giant and extremely opaque patronage system. One with surveillance…
July 19, 2010
Last week, I wrote about a column by biologist Marc Lipsitch, who described a conflict of interest for scientists that has not been discussed: gag agreements for scientists who accept industry funding. In other words, if the corporate funder doesn't like the results, nobody will hear about them…
July 18, 2010
Still hot. Cool down with some nice links. Science:
Race to find damaging beetles turns to radar
How Neanderthal Are You?
Honey's anti-bacterial properties found?
There Is A Reality
Other:
Drive with care over those 151,394 obsolete, unsafe bridges
Ain't No Money in Being Productive
Yes Our Press…
July 18, 2010
I'm surprised that this revelation by Democratic Congressman David Obey hasn't received more attention. Basically, the House Democrats went to the wall for education and managed to get $10 billion to prevent teacher layoffs and an additional $5 billion for Pell Grants. To do so, they had to cut…
July 17, 2010
Say Yoda, "Friday, thank goodness, it is." Links for you. Science:
The Vaccine That Came In From the Cold
Plants 'can think and remember'
Risks and benefits of population screening
Other:
Lincoln and Kyl Trying to Make Budget-Busting Tax Cut Appear Cheaper
Conservatives Don't Care About the Deficit…
July 17, 2010
Suffice it to say, the average Iraqi citizen has had a crappy deal from Bush's Excellent Adventure (and that's a macabre understatement). Courtney Martin, who unintentionally demonstrates the uselessness of 'progressives' with a piece on the potential withdrawal from Iraq. It starts off well:…
July 16, 2010
How Microbes Defend and Define Us
To Repel Mosquitoes, Use a House Fan
Researchers create 'lesbian' mice by deleting a single gene
Other:
It's Not You: Work IS Getting Worse
Tax Cuts Are Sacred
July 16, 2010
One of the flaws--a bad frame if you must--in the communication debate flareups that happen every so often is that the debate (such as it is) is phrased as "why can't scientists communicate?" This is actually an imprecise and incorrect way of stating the problem. It should be stated as "How do…
July 15, 2010
I've always thought insight is best defined as noting something obvious that everyone else overlooked. In the comments of this post about an article by Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus which argued that universities need to return to their core mission of education, ecologist notes a key point:…
July 15, 2010
Someday, a science reporter is going to hybridize with an economics reporter and then the topic of how science is funded will actually be covered accurately. Until then, you're stuck with the Mad Biologist. By way of The Intersection, we come across this Chronicle of Higher Education commentary…
July 14, 2010
It's a wild and wacky Wednesday, in no small part because I got my parking ticket expunged (the BPD was actually very efficient about this). Yes, regular readers will wonder how I, He Who Does Not Own a Car, got a parking ticket in the first place. Somethings are best left unsaid....Science links…
July 14, 2010
I'm loathe to disagree with Digby because I think a variant of the Delong Rules of Krugman also apply to her too. Digby, like others on the intertubes, is very concerned about work by Brendan Nyhan, Jason Reifle, and others (covered in this Boston Globe article) which shows that:
Recently, a few…
July 13, 2010
Some Tuesday links for you. Science:
Amazon River Dolphins Being Slaughtered for Bait
GPS from the 1920s
Children and genomics - the underworld of DNA talent testing
Other:
How to Lose $1,100,000 in Irvine Real Estate
Poll: Majority Of Americans Not Quite Sure What 'Progressive' Means
Too Old For…
July 13, 2010
Over the weekend, I discussed how the wealthy are far more likely to walk away from an underwater mortgage (when the mortgage payments will cost more than the value of the property) than the non-wealthy. Yves Smith makes a good observation (italics mine):
Another message here is that high income…
July 13, 2010
No, MR-CoNS isn't some kind of crazy new conservative, it stands for methicillin resistant coagulase-negative staphylococci. CoNS are relatives of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus (the 'SA' in MRSA), and are common human commensals--they typically live on us and in us without causing disease…
July 12, 2010
Just another Manic Monday...with links! Science:
Linezolid resistant Staphylococcus aureus (LRSA) emerging
Facebook Is Not A Brain, And Other Failed Metaphors
Wild Cat Found Mimicking Monkey Calls; Predatory Trickery Documented for the First Time in Wild Felids in Americas
Other:
Impeach (Insert…
July 12, 2010
Like Digby, I had the same thought pop into my head when I read this LA Times story about the continued suppression of scientific findings in government agencies: this is the work of Bush-era 'burrowers'--conservative apparatchiks who refuse to carry out the mission of the agency. What I don't…
July 12, 2010
Thanks to Pepsigeddon, conflict of interest-related posts seem to be bouncing around the intertubes. Which brings us to this article by Marc Lipsitch* about another type of potential conflict of interest--gag agreements for faculty who receive industry support (and which are typically allowed by…