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Friday Random Ten, 11/06

Porcupine Tree, "Kneel and Disconnect": New Porcupine Tree! It's always great to get new stuff from these guys. It's good, but it's not up to the quality of their last two albums. (But given that their last two were utterly amazing, that's not much of a criticism.) Mind Games, "Royalty in Jeopardy": Some prog that I recently found via eMusic. They've got a sound that I describe as being sort of like a mix between Yes and Marillion. They're very good - I wouldn't put them in the top ranks of neo-prog, but they're not at the bottom either. Riverside, "Cybernetic Pillow": Now, these…

On evolutionary words

Over at my other weblog, Gene Expression "Classic", I addressed the polemics of one David Stove, author of Darwinian Fairytales. I won't go into the details of Stove and that book, but if you follow the comment thread you will see that sometimes shit can be a very good fertilizer and give rise to food for thought. The comment thread made more explicit in my mind a few issues I have in regards to evolution. First, I hold to the scale independence of evolution, that is, there is no fundamental difference between microevolution and macroevolution. Macroevolution is in reality simply a…

Confucius [Kong Fuzi] say....

This hilarious article about "confirming" your descent from Confucius is making the rounds. Now, my understanding is that the patrilineage of Confucius remains to this day. So the people who would seek confirmation would often have a tradition of descent from the great sage himself. But, I note tradition. We all know that "ancestors" can be concocted, and, we also know that sometimes patrilineages can be "interrupted." When English geneticist Bryan Sykes tested individuals with his surname across the British Isles he found that ~50% of individuals were of the same Y chromosomal lineage.…

Ed Yong of Not Exactly Rocket Science Says... [The Rightful Place Project]

Last week, President Obama stated in his inaugural address that he would "restore science to its rightful place." ScienceBlogs has been quick to capitalise on his words by launching a new initiative called The Rightful Place Project. As an opening salvo, the Project is asking writers, bloggers and scientists from all over the world to answer this innocuous question: What is science's rightful place? Many of the others have had their say, and here's my take. Science has different sides to it. On the one hand, you have the experiments and their results; the people and their stories; the…

Dive into the Unknown with Dr. David Gallo

On April 24, 2014, an exclusive group of visionaries presented to over 4,000 students at the USA Science & Engineering Festival's inaugural X-STEM Symposium sponsored by Northrop Grumman Foundation and MedImmune. The all day event included interactive presentations and workshops with some of the top scientists and engineers in the country. In the presentation below, renowned oceanographer Dr. David Gallo dives into the unknown world deep under the sea to discuss ocean exploration, unexplored creatures and territory and the technology required to make it happen at the X-STEM Symposium.…

SiBlings, Part IV

Here is the forth and final part of the introduction to SEED sciencebloggers. Check out the first part, the second part and the third part if you have missed them before. There ain't no eleven left, so today we have only ten (but I hear there will be a couple more soon....): Jake Young of Pure Pedantry is a neuroscience student and the founder of The Synapse. His interests are broad, as in Economics as Evolution, Practice over Innate Ability, Chronicles of Higher Ed Symposium on Academic Blogging and Hummers vs. Hybrids Redux: On Corporate Research, but you really need to read everything…

Measles again

In other parts of the world measles is a major killer of children and infants. In my own youth measles was a very troublesome childhood disease that was a major cause of morbidity in the US, with 3 to 4 million cases a year. One in 250 died, almost 50,000 a year were hospitalized and 1000 were left with long term disability. Then, in 1963, measles vaccination was introduced. Since 1997 there have been less than 150 cases a year, mostly less than 100. Except this year: However, during January 1--April 25, 2008, a total of 64 confirmed measles cases were preliminarily reported to CDC, the most…

Were the ancients fools?

Often in the discussion of cult medicines such as homeopathy, acupuncture, and reiki, supporters fall back on "the wisdom of the ancients". This raises a question. Since "the ancients" had it wrong (i.e. their belief systems could not effectively treat disease), were they just stupid? Any of my historian readers already know the answer, but it's worth going over. Our forebears were neither more nor less intelligent that we (unless you go back about 3 or 4 million years---that gets rather dicey). They were literate, intelligent, and damn good thinkers. They just had limits to their ability to…

100 Books Meme

tags: blogosphere, 100 books, meme I ran across this book meme at The Library Diva -- a blog pal of mine whom I met through Craigslist -- and thought it was interesting. Look at the list of books below: Bold the ones you've read Italicize the ones you want to read Leave unaltered the ones that you aren't interested in or haven't heard of The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown) Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee) Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell) The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (JRR Tolkien) The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (JRR…

Mystery Bird: Streak-backed Oriole, Icterus pustulatus microstictus

tags: Streak-backed Oriole, Icterus pustulatus microstictus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Streak-backed Oriole, Icterus pustulatus microstictus, photographed at the Water Ranch in Gilbert, Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow] Image: Richard Ditch, 15 December 2006 [larger view]. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes: Any doubt that this is an oriole? Good. Confused about just what an oriole is? Better. The English word was first applied, naturally…

It's a propaganda film!

It's quite clear what the purpose of Ben Stein's Expelled movie is — notice what they've been doing with it. They've been shopping it around at screenings that are filtered to keep knowledgeable people out; they're planning to pay students to attend; they're relying on the Big Lie to promote the movie; and of course, they had to misrepresent themselves to get interviews. But now they've really done it: they are going to give Florida legislators, sponsored by a representative who has filed one of those bogus "academic freedom" bills, a special, private screening of the movie. None of the…

Rowe Nails the Worldnutdaily

I saw this column by Tom Flannery in the Worldnutdaily and was planning on writing a critique of its many false claims, but Jon Rowe beat me to it. That's not a big surprise since we've done that often. Flannery attempts to make a common argument among the religious right, that the French revolution turned to despotism while the American revolution did not because ours was grounded in "Judeo-Christian principles" while theirs was grounded on the primacy of reason (or atheism, in some versions of the argument). The argument is quite silly and betrays some rather obvious historical ignorance.…

Giant Ants and Illegal Acts

A month or so back, when I went to Vanderbilt to give a talk, I met Robert Scherrer, the department chair down there, who mentioned he was starting a blog soon. That blog is Cosmic Yarns, and has now been live for a while, but I've been too busy to do a proper link. He's using it to look at the science of science fiction, and has a bunch of nice posts up, including a good explanation of why you don't need to worry about giant ants: Has this ever happened to you? While you are enjoying a relaxing picnic in the New Mexican desert, your lunch is overrun by ants: not ordinary ants, but 12-foot…

A True Ghost Story Part 4: I see dead people. Hey, It's my job!

... Continued ... I wrote earlier about the graves that were dug daily to receive the dead. In truth, the details of this procedure are still being worked out by archaeologists at the McGregor Museum in Kimberley, but when we were there on this particular trip, part of the grave yard to which I refer had been just discovered, accidentally uncovered during a public works drainage project. I've never seen anything quite like it in all my years as an archaeologist. It should not have been terribly surprising that there were graves in this particular patch of land, just across a small road…

A True Ghost Story Installment D: I see dead people. Hey, It's my job!

I wrote earlier about the graves that were dug daily to receive the dead. In truth, the details of this procedure are still being worked out by archaeologists at the McGregor Museum in Kimberley, but when we were there on this particular trip, part of the grave yard to which I refer had been just discovered, accidentally uncovered during a public works drainage project. I've never seen anything quite like it in all my years as an archaeologist. It should not have been terribly surprising that there were graves in this particular patch of land, just across a small road from an existing…

Can we attribute specific weather events to climate change?

Yes. Not only that, but we can't separate climate change from any single weather event that ever happens, anywhere, no matter what. So just stop saying that we can't. Here's a thought experiment to explain why this is true. Imagine that climate science is like it is today with a few significant exceptions. First, humans never messed with fossil fuel, using only solar energy. If you need to, you can add in that there are only a half billion humans on the planet because birth control was discovered and implemented earlier in human history and everybody has Obamacare. Second, the climate…

You're a Wizard Stamp, Harry Potter

The Harry Potter Stamp The US Postal Service has issued stamps depicting people who are not American many times. The US Postal Service has issues stamps with people who are not real. So far, though, no wizards have been venerated in this place of honor to my knowledge. This makes me wonder why the former head stamp collector at the American Philatelic Society complained that "Harry Potter is not American. It's foreign, and it's so blatantly commercial it's off the charts." Clearly, the Dark Lord who shall not be named is behind this. You can get your harry potter stamps here. Here's the…

Ruins of Childhood

The other day I found and photographed another tree house ruin. I decided to re-post the following piece from September 2006 and make these things a steady presence on Aard, with a category tag of their own. If you've ever taken a walk in the woods near a housing area, you've seen them: modern archaeological sites, full of artefacts and building debris, abandoned to the elements in a way that is unusual in the well-organised industrialised world. They're settlement sites of a particular subculture with its own rules and customs, thriving on the fringes of mainstream society. I'm referring to…

Early Neolithic Golf Course

I've made two archaeological field interventions today. First I seeded a site with finds, then I got some finds out of another site. Fieldwalking back in March, I found a grindstone and some knapped quartz at a Bronze Age site in Botkyrka parish. Taking their positions with GPS, I've filed a brief archive report on the finds to make sure that the data get into the sites-and-monuments register. But it turned out that the museum doesn't want to actually own that kind of low-end finds unless they're from a stratigraphic context. And I don't want to keep the stuff around either. So this morning I…

What It Would Really Take to Reverse Climate Change?

Someone pointed me at Renewable energy 'simply WON'T WORK': Top Google engineers in El Rego, which is Lewis "you know you can't trust me" Page's take on What It Would Really Take to Reverse Climate Change by Ross Koningstein & David Fork. Who they? Dunno, but you can read what they say about themselves: Ross Koningstein and David Fork. Before I begin, a question: "why now"? The Rego article is clearly in response to the spectrum.ieee article, which is about "RE<C", which died in 2011. Poking around I come to google.com/green/energy/investments/ which makes it pretty clear that google…

Why Go to Concerts?

An insane audiophile of my acquaintance recently remarked (in a locked LiveJournal, otherwise I'd link to it) that while live classical music is clearly superior to recorded classical music, it's crazy to go to a live performance of pop music because "you're not hearing actual instruments/voices, you're hearing them miked and amplified through speakers just like you would at home," and if speakers are going to be involved, you might as well not be there. This is space-alien logic, of course, but not all that far out there as insane audiophilia goes. Remember, kids, friends don't let friends…

A True Ghost Story Part 4: I see dead people. Hey, It's my job!

.... continued ... I wrote earlier about the graves that were dug daily to receive the dead. In truth, the details of this procedure are still being worked out by archaeologists at the McGregor Museum in Kimberley, but when we were there on this particular trip, part of the grave yard to which I refer had been just discovered, accidentally uncovered during a public works drainage project. I've never seen anything quite like it in all my years as an archaeologist. It should not have been terribly surprising that there were graves in this particular patch of land, just across a small road…

Barnyard Week: White Chickens are ERV mutants

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 to stop pondering one of lifes greatest mysteries: Why are some chickens white? I finally accepted the fact that this question was ultimately unanswerable, like "What is the meaning of life?" or "Why did anyone ever think Jim Carrey was funny?". Then I found out that the question actually had an…

Gene therapy for fighting HIV-1: Using bacterial genes to fight viruses

There are lots of ways a scientific paper can make me laugh. Sometimes I lol because the research is just so goddamn stupid. Sometimes I lol in derision. And rarely, I lol when someone does something conceptually simple, but incredibly clever, and it makes me happy. I read an abstract, laugh, read the rest of the paper, laugh, clap, and laugh. Clever people make me happy :) This is a really clever paper: Acquisition of HIV-1 Resistance in T Lymphocytes Using an ACA-Specific E. coli mRNA Interferase A while back, I talked about a cell line I use in the lab called 'TZM-bl'. These cells…

Links for 2010-02-17

Final Links Dump for forty days, give or take. Physicists watch chemistry in slow motion - physicsworld.com "Physicists in the US have observed chemical reactions taking place at such low temperatures that they are dominated by quantum effects, rather than thermal collisions. The researchers showed that diatomic molecules containing potassium and rubidium are much less likely to react with each other, when cooled to just 500 nK, if they are all prepared in the same quantum state. As well as providing important information about the quantum nature of chemical reactions, the technique could…

World's largest web-spinning spider discovered in South Africa

In the forests of South Africa lurks an arachnophobe's nightmare - Nephila kowaci, the largest web-spinning spider in the world. The females of this newly discovered species have bodies that are 3-4 centimetres in length (1.5 inches) and legs that are each around 7.5cm long (3 inches). This new species is the largest of an already massive family. There are 15 species of Nephila - the golden orb weavers - and at least 10 of them have bodies that are over an inch long. Many spin webs that are over a metre in diameter. The first of these giants was discovered by Linnaeus himself in 1767 and…

Sound the alarm - crested pigeons give off warning whistles simply by taking off

Birds have a variety of alarm calls that warn other members of the flock about impending danger. But for some birds, the very act of taking off is enough to sound the alarm.  Mae Hingee and Robert Magrath from the Australian National University have found that crested pigeons have modified wing feathers that produce distinct whistles when the birds take off quickly and steeply. That's exactly the sort of flight that they undertake when they're alarmed, and other pigeons treat the resulting whistles as cues to take to the skies themselves. Crested pigeons are comical-looking birds that are…

What is science's rightful place?

Last week, President Obama stated in his inaugural address that he would "restore science to its rightful place." ScienceBlogs has been quick to capitalise on his words by launching a new initiative called The Rightful Place Project. As an opening salvo, the Project is asking writers, bloggers and scientists from all over the world to answer this innocuous question: What is science's rightful place? Many of the others have had their say, and here's my take. Science has different sides to it. On the one hand, you have the experiments and their results; the people and their stories; the…

The Higher Math of Briscoe v. Virginia?

Over at The Volokh Conspiracy, a quick look at a funny exchange in the oral arguments of Briscoe v. Virginia: MR. FRIEDMAN: I think that issue is entirely orthogonal to the issue here because the Commonwealth is acknowledging - CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: I'm sorry. Entirely what? MR. FRIEDMAN: Orthogonal. Right angle. Unrelated. Irrelevant. CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: Oh. JUSTICE SCALIA: What was that adjective? I liked that. MR. FRIEDMAN: Orthogonal. CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: Orthogonal. MR. FRIEDMAN: Right, right. JUSTICE SCALIA: Orthogonal, ooh. (Laughter.) JUSTICE KENNEDY: I knew this case presented…

Fentanyl: From Analgesic to Bioterrorism Agent to Drug of Abuse

As I live in the isolated, educated, and overly-pampered environs of Ann Arbor, sometimes I forget that such a place as Detroit lurks only 30 minutes away. But then, I have the Detroit News to remind me, with chilling stories such as this. Over 30 people in Detroit have died in the last week of fentanyl overdosing, the most recent death being a Wayne State film student. He was found in the mens' bathroom, a syringe by his side. This highlights a disturbing new trend in drug abuse, especially bad in the Detroit area: dealers are spiking heroin or cocaine with fentanyl to give the drugs a…

Removal of a parasitic worm from the brain

Fox 10 News has a rather gruesome story about the removal of a live parasitic worm from a woman's brain, which is accompanied by a film clip  containing footage of the surgical procedure. As the film explains, the woman, who lives in Arizona, first started to experience flu-like symptoms, followed by numbness in her left arm which grew progressively worse. Neurosurgeon Peter Nakaji operated, expecting to find a tumour in the brainstem, but instead found and removed a tapeworm. It goes on to say that the woman was infected either by eating uncooked pork or unwashed food contaminated…

Stereology reveals that human infants have same number of neurons as adults

There has been a big debate over the last couple years about whether the adult human brain is capable of generating new neurons. A new study in Neuroscience by Larsen et al. provides some relevant new evidence to that debate. It used rigorous stereological measurement -- a technique called the optical fractionator -- to show that in newborn humans there are the same number of neurons as in the adult brain. This result would lend credibility to the notion that large numbers of new neurons are not being produced in the postnatal human brain. This is the first time the total number of…

Fish was fossil frog's last meal

The skeleton of Palaeobatrachus from Lake Enspel, Germany. From Wuttke and Poschmann, 2010. In On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin said of the fossil record: For my part, following out Lyell's metaphor, I look at the natural geological record, as a history of the world imperfectly kept, and written in a changing dialect; of this history we possess the last volume alone, relating only to two or three countries. Of this volume, only here and there a short chapter has been preserved; and of each page, only here and there a few lines. Each word of the slowly-changing language, in which…

Dopamine Abnormality in ADHD

A while back, Shelly wrote a nice introduction to title="Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder">ADHD at Retrospectacle: href="http://scienceblogs.com/retrospectacle/2007/07/the_neuroscience_of_adhd_1.php">The Neuroscience of ADHD.  Read that first, for background, then consider this to be a minor addendum.  There are still people who believe that href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention-deficit_hyperactivity_disorder" rel="tag">ADHD is not real.  This is a good example of the scientific findings to the contrary.  It is an open-access article (there is one every month)…

A Study of Contrasts: The Core of Narcissism

The New York Times contained two statements, in different contexts, that say opposite things.  The first appears in their "most blogged" box.  It is from July 15: href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/business/15gilded.html?ex=1342152000&en=b93e1c0193b4182c&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss">The Richest of the Rich, Proud of a New Gilded Age By LOUIS UCHITELLE Published: July 15, 2007 ...These days, Mr. Weill and many of the nation’s very wealthy chief executives, entrepreneurs and financiers echo an earlier era — the Gilded Age before World War I — when…

Facebook needs to hire the ghost of Potter Stewart.

Tara notices that social networking site Facebook has decided, in the enforcement of their policy against "nudity, drug use, or other obscene content", that pictures of breastfeeding babies are obscene. As such, the Facebook obscenity squad had been removing them -- and has deleted the account of at least one mom who had posted such pictures. Break out the Ouija board and get late Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, who famously claimed that he couldn't define obscenity, but he knew it when he saw it. As far as the legal definition goes, "obscene" seems to be roughly equivalent to "…

Stereotyping women right out of science

One of the most cunning tools of the patriarchy is the assignment of woo as a feminine virtue. Women are supposed to be intuitive, nurturing, accepting, and trusting, unlike those harsh and suspicious men. It's a double-trap; women are brought up indoctrinated into believing that being smart and skeptical is unladylike and unattractive, and at the same time, anyone who dares to suggest that intuition and soothing, supportive words are often unproductive can be slammed for being anti-woman, because, obviously, to suggest that a human being might want to do more with their life than changing…

Free ethics advice for the Pope.

When, speaking to journalists about the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa, you make a claim that the epidemic is: a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which can even increase the problem those listening who assume you are committed to honesty (because of that commandment about not bearing false witness) and that you are well-informed about the current state of our epidemiological knowledge (because, as the Pope, you have many advisors, and owing to your importance as the head of the Roman Catholic Church, leading scientists…

Leaves from the sky (Minneapolis Tornado)

Have a look at this picture (click to enlarge): We had a tornado here a couple of hours ago. It did not come near our house. It was probably an F2 or so in strength, and based on videos and the reported damage path it was about three or four tenths of a mile wide or wider at times, as it moved along a path of about 10 miles or so (maybe 20 by some reports), four of those miles being as a strong well formed twister taking out houses, toppling trees, etc. etc. As I say, it did not hit us, but it was large enough and close enough that I could hear it. You know, that freight train sound. At…

Report Suspicious Behavior

A black four door older model caddy in need of some body work and a new muffler turned into our street. The car drove quickly but furtively, the driver seeming to not quite know where she wanted to go, to the end of the faux cul-du-sac off of which each development's street radiated. A sharp left turn brought the vehicle next to a large storm sewer inlet, and out of the car flew a suspicious black thing with wires. The car roared off, too quickly to get the plate but not too quickly to be able to describe it and its occupants. An electronic, repetitive, alarm-like noise emanated from the…

It's a start

It may not seem like much when it comes to dealing with animal rights "activists" who cross the line into vandalism, harassment, and intimidation, but it's a start: Three animal rights activists who organized a campaign to harass employees and clients of a New Jersey research lab were sen tenced to prison yesterday by a judge who said their commitment to social justice had morphed into frightening and sometimes violent protests outside people's homes and offices. "The means used, the harm im posed, almost arrogantly, is serious -- and warrants serious punishment," Senior U.S. District Judge…

Non Science Fridays: Balance your Chi edition

Meathead of the Week: The Bush Adminstration Official who blocked the Surgeon General from going to the Special Olympics because it's supported by the Kennedys. "Why would you want to help those people?". New low for the Bush admin. What are they, 3rd graders? Forget that, even most third graders wouldn't use disabled people in a twisted vendetta. I had a whole mess of things to talk about today but I'm so darn excited about this that everything else would just cheapen the post... Do you feel it? It's the Chi machine! It's got 6, count 'em 6, major benefits! Let's start at the top... 1.…

Do a Good Turn Daily, and Keep Your Wits About Ye!

The next time you're tempted to act like a irresponsible jerk, take a deep breath and ask yourself this: "Would I find it refreshing to be poseyed in a chair and crapping my pants during the halftime show of Super Bowl LXII?" "Conscientious people are less prone to Alzheimer's" According to the World Health Organization, about 18 million people worldwide have Alzheimer's disease, a brain-wasting condition marked by memory loss and confusion that becomes so severe patients lose the ability to care for themselves. If you are not familiar with the devastating consequences of Alzheimer's you must…

What Planet is my Clafoutis From?

Like so many moments of culinary inspiration, this plum clafoutis is nothing like what I was thinking of prior to actually wandering into the kitchen to make dinner. I was going to make pancake dome pancakes. Pancake domes are features on Venus. They are so named because they look like pancakes: Actually, they are volcanoes. It would be trivial to make a batch of ordinary pancakes, point out the uncanny resemblance, and call it a day; it would also be cheating. Pancake dome pancakes should erupt. This, from Stofan et al. 2000 1, is roughly the mechanism I wanted: Moreover, I wanted to do…

Fukushima's Organic Produce Hot, Hotter?

Source. Local produce, such as milk and spinach, are beginning to show potentially alarming signs of radiation up to 90 miles away from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plants, according to Japanese officials. Will this be temporary or of long range concern? According to an article in The New York Times: TOKYO -- The government said Saturday that it had found higher than normal levels of radioactive materials in spinach and milk at farms up to 90 miles away from the ravaged nuclear power plants, the first confirmation by officials that the unfolding nuclear crisis has affected the…

A List of Doctors to Avoid

The Physicians and Surgeons for Scientific Integrity [sic] (aka, Doctors Doubting Darwin) are planning to Resolve the Conflict between Darwin and Design. Something tells me the conflict will not be resolved using rational discourse, but rather apologetics and obfuscation. I have reproduced a list of physicians and surgeons to avoid below the fold. (Via Red State Rabble.) This list is updated at least monthly and was last updated on June 15, 2006. Members are listed alphabetically. Name Medical Practice City and State Dr. Katherine A. Anderegg Pathology Sullivan's Island, South Carolina Dr.…

A True Ghost Story Part 4: I see dead people. Hey, It's my job!

I wrote earlier about the graves that were dug daily to receive the dead. In truth, the details of this procedure are still being worked out by archaeologists at the McGregor Museum in Kimberley, but when we were there on this particular trip, part of the grave yard to which I refer had been just discovered, accidentally uncovered during a public works drainage project. I've never seen anything quite like it in all my years as an archaeologist. It should not have been terribly surprising that there were graves in this particular patch of land, just across a small road from an existing…

Mid-week death crud open thread

I just can't shake it. Try as I might to get rid of it, it just continues to grip my body like a tick that just won't let go. I'm talking about the death crud, which I had thought originally to be a nasty cold but is now looking more and more like the flu. It descended upon me Friday night/Saturday morning and intensified over the last couple of days to the point where I did something both yesterday and today that I almost never do: Cancel afternoon meetings and come home early. In fact, I did it two days in a row--unprecedented. Naturally, a sane person might ask why I even went into work at…

Dishwashing in the Gulf

Let's start with some slightly, okay, more than slightly depressing numbers: Since the devastating explosion on BP's Deepwater Horizon rig almost three weeks ago, more than 1.7 million gallons of oil have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico and more than 250,000 gallons of chemical dispersant have been sprayed onto that spill in an effort to contain the damage. Everyone agrees that it's the enormous slick of oil that we should really worry. But in the last week, questions have also been raised about the cleaning chemicals flooding into the Gulf. Although the amount pales, as they say,…

Ed Yong of Not Exactly Rocket Science Says...

Last week, President Obama stated in his inaugural address that he would "restore science to its rightful place." ScienceBlogs has been quick to capitalise on his words by launching a new initiative called The Rightful Place Project. As an opening salvo, the Project is asking writers, bloggers and scientists from all over the world to answer this innocuous question: What is science's rightful place? Many of the others have had their say, and here's my take. Science has different sides to it. On the one hand, you have the experiments and their results; the people and their stories; the…