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NIOSH Struggles to Help Flavoring Workers

As weâve noted before, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health was the federal entity that responded most appropriately to respiratory problems among workers exposed to the butter-flavoring chemical diacetyl. They evaluated the hazards at workplaces using diacetyl and recommended steps to reduce exposures; as affected workers were probably sad to learn, though, NIOSH doesnât have the power to set standards for workplace hazards. OSHA has that responsibility, but its progress on the diacetyl issue has been disappointing, to say the least. NIOSH does have one important power:…

Cholera and Chaos in Zimbabwe

The official figure for cholera deaths in Zimbabwe is 565, but The Independent cites a senior health officialâs report that the death toll is closer to 3,000. On Wednesday, riot police in Harare used batons to disperse and beat a group of doctors and nurses expressing anger over the outbreak. Barry Bearak summarizes the countryâs grim conditions in the New York Times: The cholera epidemic and the new crackdown on dissent come in a country already mired in desperation. The government is paralyzed by a stalemated power-sharing deal, and the official inflation rate is 231 million percent.…

The Ayn Rand Deprogrammer: Submissions Solicited

Sciblings, I request your assistance in an important venture. I recently learned that Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead was a top read among UC Berkeley undergrads in 1987 and 1997. This dismaying fact drove me to start assembling a reader, The Ayn Rand Deprogrammer. I've spent the last several weeks reviewing possible texts for this important new work. Here is the first candidate for inclusion, and going forward, I would appreciate any suggestions that you have for the Deprogrammer. Mary Gaitskill: Two Girls, Fat and Thin I spent much of my vacation reading Mary Gaitskill's Two Girls, Fat and…

Open letter to the American people

My Fellow Americans, In a very short time, you will be given the chance to exercise one of the greatest and gravest responsibilities for citizens of the world's most successful democracy. On that day, you will be choosing between two candidates, both tireless public servants whose personal stories show our nation's ability to nurture the success of people who have had diverse and remarkable personal journeys. As often happens during a heated campaign, there has been some divisive rhetoric and appeals to some of our baser natures. I wish to make it perfectly clear that at a time when our…

TEOTWAWKI!

The end of the world is a common religious idea. The end of this planet and the end of time itself are ideas not unknown to cosmologists, but are not exactly an immediate threat. To certain religious groups, the threat is now, and is welcome. "Signs" are everywhere. Of course, we've been down this road before, in the 9th century, a few times in the 19th century, and of course in 2000. Turn on the TV any Sunday---there are plenty of preachers reading and reading and reading, and of course finding signs of the imminent apocalypse. Hey, there's that whole "Left Behind" series of books…

How to deliver a message

Bloggers are an odd bunch. Some are "serious journalists", some glorified editorialists, but most are just folks with access to a computer. This was the genesis of the blogosphere---individuals writing whatever they wanted, not knowing (but hoping) that maybe a few others might read their work. As it turns out, there are some excellent writers out there that we might never have read were it not for the internet. But most still maintain an independence of spirit and of thought. Yes, there are "corporate" bloggers out there. For instance, one of the local hospitals has an internal blog…

Kucinich and UFOs

Today's WSJ picks one of Dennis Kucinich's old scabs: just what happened with this whole UFO sighting claim that he made? Remember that back in October, Kucinich mentioned the incident in a debate, but he has smartly kept the matter quiet since. Well, apparently, this incident happened when Kucinich was staying at Shirley Maclaine's house (Maclaine was away at a performance), with Maclaine's security guard, Paul Costanzo, and Costanzo's anonymous ex-girlfriend: The day was strange from the start. For hours, Mr. Kucinich, Mr. Costanzo and his companion noticed a high-pitched sound. "There…

Want to Water During a Water Shortage? Plant New Landscaping!

The Southeast is having serious water shortages. Just look at Lake Lanier, the main water source for Atlanta. Ouch! So, what do you do when you live in Palm Beach, FL, there is a water shortage, fines for washing your car or watering your lawn except during specified hours, and serious enforcement efforts in place? The Journal's Robert Frank tells us: ...According to the rules, residents who put in "new landscaping" can water three days a week, instead of the usual one, for 30 days after the planting. Once that period ends, homeowners can plant yet again -- and resume the thrice-a-week…

Epstein: FDA Deprives "Informed Patients" Choice in Care, But So Does the Market

Okay, I'm going to open a can of worms, and I'll need the commentors to help me with this one. Last week, Professor Richard Epstein of the University of Chicago School of Law published an oped in the Wall Street Journal. Epstein's a charming fellow, and I like him, but I wouldn't want to live in a world where he is in charge of things! Most of the article discusses pharmaceutical regulation and the changing winds in Congress. But he ends with this whopper, which isn't really even related to his main argument, and exposes the Journal's editorial excess: But neither Congress nor the FDA has…

Mark Mathis doesn't like me

Mark Mathis does not come off as a nice man in interviews. You may have listened to the SciAm interview, a truly painful experience in which he made claims about evolution and then backtracked when confronted with his mistakes…and admitted that he knew nothing about the subject. He's done it again in an interview with a Detroit weekly (scroll down to the "Unevolved" article on that page). I confront Mathis with this point, and he counters that evolutionary theory is also untestable. This is patently untrue—to give just one example, scientists have witnessed speciation, the arisal of a new…

MRSA ST398 in US swine

A little over a year ago I put a post up documenting research out of Canada which found methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in Canadian pigs. This had also been seen in Europe (with a lot of research coming out of the Netherlands). What I didn't note at the time was that we were gearing up to start some sampling of our own on area swine farms. Some of you saw that we presented the results of that research last year at ICEID and ASM; now the paper is out describing our pilot project in PLoS ONE. (Note: the paper was available earlier, but now they seem to have removed it…

Summer reading 3: Good Germs, Bad Germs by Jessica Snyder Sachs

Balance is a tricky thing to find in area, and medicine is notorious for its trade-offs. A drug that may make you well in the long run may also have side effects that make taking the medicine difficult. Even drugs that we often think of as typically innocuous, such as antibiotics, can have an enormous cost associated with their use, both at the individual and the population level. Sachs covers our love-hate relationship with antibiotics and germs in general in her book, Good Germs, Bad Germs. More after the jump... Sachs opens her book with a dramatic example of the cost of our "war"…

Upcoming Iowa events on evolution and intelligent design

It's a new year, and it will be a busy one here in Iowa when it comes to evolutionary biology. I want to highlight two upcoming events: Iowa City's first annual Darwin Day celebration featuring a lecture by Massimo Pigliucci, and an upcoming symposium on evolution and intelligent design, featuring John Haught and Wesley Elsberry. These events will be held in February and March, respectively; more information on both of them after the jump. Event Number One: Iowa City's First Annual Darwin Day Celebration About: A celebration of science in general and biology specifically, with events…

Federal Mine Inspectors Lost in the Line of Duty

When MSHA's Gary Jensen, 53, died last week in a rockburst at the Crandall Canyon mine, it had been 26 years since a federal mine inspector had died in the line of duty.  Mr. Jensen joined MSHA in 2001 as an inspector.  He had worked for nearly 30 years as a coal miner, and was especially skilled in roof control.  He is survived by a wife and four children, with one remarking that one of his father's trademarks was putting himself before others.   In a 2003 document marking MSHA's 25th anniversary, the agency offered a small tribute to the 16 federal inspectors who lost their…

Friday Blog Roundup

Several bloggers have been following the story of Julie MacDonald, the deputy assistant secretary who oversaw the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Serviceâs endangered species program and resigned in disgrace last week, after it was revealed that sheâd been giving industry lobbyists internal agency documents. GrrlScientist at Living the Scientific Life, James Hrynyshyn at Island of Doubt, and Andrew Leonard at How the World Works have details on this and other problematic MacDonald actions. The House Natural Resources Committee held a related hearing (âEndangered Species Act Implementation: Science…

Ohio can't catch a break

As I've mentioned previously, I'm an Ohioan, born and bred. I was living in the state when all the Discovery Institute shenanigans were ongoing, resulting in the addition of a "critical analysis of evolution" lesson plan (which was removed this past February). Of course, that hasn't stopped the anti-evolution folks in the state. RBH reports on the latest attack on science education in Ohio--and you may (or, may not) be surprised at what they're going after now: Now, consistent with the creationist tradition of repackaging old trash, we learn that the creationists on the Achievement…

Silverstein: How the "Serial Abrogators of 'Human Dignity'" Can "Keep Their Wealthy American Friends"

I just received my July issue of Harper's Magazine, complete with an article about lobbying and public relations in Washington. Unfortunately, the article is behind a paywall, but it's too good for me not to share some highlights. It seems to me that this article screams for a legislative intervention and for an ethical rule at newspapers: the strengthening of the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (You can search registrations under FARA here), and a requirement for oped writers to disclose their financial conflicts of interests. After all, what makes this all possible is newspapers…

Friday Random Ten

What kind of music does a math geek listen to? Capercaille: Who will raise their voice?. Traditional celtic folk music. Very beautiful song. Seamus Egan: Weep Not for the Memories. Mostly traditional Irish music, by a bizzarely talented multi-instrumentalist. Seamus Egan is one of the best Irish flutists in the world; but he also manages to play great tenor banjo, tenor guitar, six-string guitar, electric guitar, bohran, and keyboards. Gentle Giant: Experience. Gentle Giant is 70s progressive stuff, with heavy influence from early madrigal singing. Wierd, but incredibly cool. Tony…

A 'demonic Quetzalcoatlus' skeleton!

I said in the freaky giraffoid Barosaurus article that I had one last thing to say on the 'demonic Quetzalcoatlus' meme. It's pretty incredible. Yes, world, I give you: an actual skeleton of a real 'demonic Quetzalcoatlus'. Well, a published drawing of one, anyway... Just like the animals depicted in those various sources from the 1970s, 80s and 90s, this skeleton shows all the characteristic features of its 'artistic meme': it has a long neck (made up of many small vertebrae, and hence presumably quite flexible*), a relatively short skull, a lump-like, posteriorly projecting crest at the…

Weirdest cat ever. Seriously.

It's very funny how things sometimes work out. I had absolutely no plans whatsoever to cover cats at Tet Zoo this week. Then, on Friday, I watched the documentary that featured the pogeyan* and, obviously, decided that it was worth covering. And, during the County Museum visit on Saturday, my encounter with the Hayling Island Jungle cat was totally fortuitous: I'd forgotten that it was there, and probably would have missed it were it not for the fact that Chris Palmer got it out of its cabinet. Yesterday, I received some very interesting photos from Ryan Norris at the University of Vermont.…

The Category Structure for Linear Logic

So, we're still working towards showing the relationship between linear logic and category theory. As I've already hinted, linear logic has something to do with certain monoidal categories. So today, we'll get one step closer, by talking about just what kind of monoidal category. As I keep complaining, the problem with category theory is that anytime you want to do something interesting, you have to wade through a bunch of definitions to set up your structures. I'll do my best to keep it short and sweet; as short as it is, it'll probably take a bit of time to sink in. First, we need a…

My Take on Framing: Don't Frame Framing as Spin

Ok, I give up. I've stayed out of the framing debate until now, but I just can't take it anymore. As much as I respect people like PZ and Larry Moran, the simple fact is: they've got it wrong. And not just them: there is a consistent problem with the political left in America when it comes to things like framing, and it's a big part of why we've lost so many political battles over the last decade. "Framing" is not spinning. And even the most vocal opponents of framing are doing framing in their arguments. It's unavoidable. Whether you like it or not, framing is an inescapable part of…

Scientia Pro Publica -- It's Almost Here!

Image: wemidji (Jacques Marcoux). Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (And thus knowledge itself is power) -- Sir Francis Bacon. The next edition of Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) will publish this Monday and as usual, it is seeking submissions and hosts! Can you help by sending URLs for your own or others' well-written science, medicine, and nature blog essays to me or by volunteering to host this carnival on your blog? Scientia Pro Publica is a traveling blog carnival that celebrates the best science, environment, nature and medical writing that has been published in the…

Scientia Pro Publica -- Will Publish Monday!

Image: wemidji (Jacques Marcoux). Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (And thus knowledge itself is power) -- Sir Francis Bacon. The next edition of Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) will publish this Monday and as usual, it is seeking submissions and hosts! Can you help by sending URLs for your own or others' well-written science, medicine, and nature blog essays to me or by volunteering to host this carnival on your blog? Scientia Pro Publica is a traveling blog carnival that celebrates the best science, environment, nature and medical writing that has been published in the…

Creationists freak out over Darwinius

How are the creationists reacting to the discovery of Darwinius masillae? With denial and outrage, of course, but one thing that is an interesting datum is that they are all responding to the extravagant hype surrounding it. The fossil is important and has a significant place in the evolutionary record, but the way its purchasers and the media have described it with overblown rhetoric has actually damaged public perception. It's an interesting transitional form from an early point in the history of primates, and the sloppy media coverage had people expecting a revivified Fred Flintstone…

Death by religious ignorance

Hodgkin lymphoma is one of the more curable forms of cancer — the 5 year survival rates for patients who are middle-aged or younger is over 90%, and for kids, it is over 95%. These results assume, of course, that the cancer patient is actually treated with modern medicine — neglect that, and all bets are off. You're almost certainly going to die of it. Daniel Hauser is a 13 year old victim of Hodgkin lymphoma here in Minnesota. Doctors give him a 5% chance of surviving the disease, not because he has some particularly lethal form of the cancer, but because his mother is a religious fruitcake…

The Darwinius hype is beginning to burn

Oh, man. I'm willing to keep saying that Darwinius masillae was an important discovery, but the PR machine is making it hard to do so without cringing. Carl Zimmer has the History Channel ad for their program on it. Oh. My. Dog. "The most important find in 47 million years"? "A global event: this changes everything"? This is not helping. It is inflating a good discovery beyond all reason, and when the public hears the creationists declare that it's one fossil of a monkey-like creature, and they're right, it's going to damage the credibility of science. Seed Media has a bit of a scoop: they'…

Why negative results are usually not published

Cameron comes up with several persuasive reasons in Why good intentions are not enough to get negative results published: The idea is that there is a huge backlog of papers detailing negative results that people are gagging to get out if only there was somewhere to publish them. Unfortunately there are several problems with this. The first is that actually writing a paper is hard work. Most academics I know do not have the problem of not having anything to publish, they have the problem of getting around to writing the papers, sorting out the details, making sure that everything is in good…

My picks from ScienceDaily

One-third Of Americans Lose Sleep Over Economy: One-third of Americans are losing sleep over the state of the U.S. economy and other personal financial concerns, according to a new poll released today by the National Sleep Foundation (NSF). The poll suggests that inadequate sleep is associated with unhealthy lifestyles and negatively impacts health and safety. Genes Important To Sleep Discovered: For many animals, sleep is a risk: foraging for food, mingling with mates and guarding against predators just aren't possible while snoozing. How, then, has this seemingly life-threatening behavior…

Transition and the new Cabinet

There are rumors aplenty, but take them with caution, about potential members of the Obama Administration. Despite understanding, on a cerebral level, what Obama is trying to do, on a visceral level my instinct is to use the majority to implement progressive policies fast and forcefully, to have enough time for those policies to take hold and demonstrate to the people that they are good - two years of gradual economic recovery, new jobs, affordable health-care, serious environmental programs and such can lead to further increase in Dem numbers in Congress instead of decline, and would ensure…

The importance of stupidity in scientific research

Now this is a title of a paper in a scientific journal that will make one's eyebrows go up: The importance of stupidity in scientific research (by Schwartz J Cell Sci.2008; 121: 1771) : I recently saw an old friend for the first time in many years. We had been Ph.D. students at the same time, both studying science, although in different areas. She later dropped out of graduate school, went to Harvard Law School and is now a senior lawyer for a major environmental organization. At some point, the conversation turned to why she had left graduate school. To my utter astonishment, she said it was…

New carnival - The Giant's Shoulders!

In the wake of great success of the Classic Science Papers Challenge, gg of Skulls in the Stars and I have decided to turn this into a regular monthly blog carnival. Thus, gg has set up a carnival homepage and issued the call for posts and hosts. You can read more about the carnival - named "The Giants' Shoulders" - on the About page. In brief, once a month, the carnival will alight on one of the participating blogs. What kinds of blog posts are eligible? Classic Papers - your blog post should describe what is in a paper that is considered to be a classical paper, or explanation why you…

My Picks From ScienceDaily

Young People Are Intentionally Drinking And Taking Drugs For Better Sex, European Survey Finds: Teenagers and young adults across Europe drink and take drugs as part of deliberate sexual strategies. New findings reveal that a third of 16-35 year old males and a quarter of females surveyed are drinking alcohol to increase their chances of sex, while cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis are intentionally used to enhance sexual arousal or prolong sex. How 'Horse Tranquilizer' Stops Depression: Researchers have shown exactly how the anaesthetic ketamine helps depression with images that show the…

New and Exciting in PLoS ONE

There are 41 new articles published this week in PLoS ONE. A always, make comments and ratings while browsing and reading the articles. Here are just a few picks - titles I found interesting - but you should go and check all the others as well: Nutrition or Detoxification: Why Bats Visit Mineral Licks of the Amazonian Rainforest: Many animals in the tropics of Africa, Asia and South America regularly visit so-called salt or mineral licks to consume clay or drink clay-saturated water. Whether this behavior is used to supplement diets with locally limited nutrients or to buffer the effects of…

Iron Science Teacher

Yesterday, a few of my friends from PLoS and I went to the Exploratiorium to see the Iron Science Teacher show. Lots of pictures (and a little bit of running commentary) under the fold: First, the stuff outside: Then we went inside. The place is huge - I'll have to come again when I have more time to explore (this was lunch-break only). Hands-on, hands-on, hands-on...and kids - gazillions of them - are having great fun. The show is (almost) every Friday during the summer and you can watch the video of each Iron Science Teacher show, including the one we saw yesterday (I have not see…

Icelandic woman mistreated at JFK, shackled and deported

This is hair-raisingly scary: Iceland complains to US about treatment of tourist in New York: REYKJAVIK, Iceland: Iceland's government has asked the U.S. ambassador to explain the treatment of an Icelandic tourist who says she was held in shackles before being deported from the United States. The woman, Erla Osk Arnardottir Lillendahl, 33, was arrested Sunday when she arrived at JFK airport in New York because she had overstayed a U.S. visa more than 10 years earlier. Lillendahl, 33, had planned to shop and sightsee with friends, but endured instead what she has claimed was the most…

New on....

...the computers and the Web: If you are not clear about the difference between the Net (aka Internet), the Web (aka World Wide Web) and the Graph (aka Social Graph), then this post is a must read (via Ed). He explains much more clearly what I had in mind before, e.g., here. In order to use the Net, the Web and the Graph, you do need some kind of a machine, perhaps a computer, and Greg Laden puts together a dream (or nighthmare) setup for you! Speaking of dream computers, I could not resist... as you may have seen before, Professor Steve Steve and I got to play with the XO laptop back at…

My picks from ScienceDaily

How Well Do Dogs See At Night?: A lot better than we do, says Paul Miller, clinical professor of comparative ophthalmology at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Why Quitting Smoking Is So Difficult: New findings clarify the brain mechanisms that explain many aspects of dependency on nicotine, the addictive substance in tobacco. Among them: Individual differences in brain chemistry can have a profound effect on a person's susceptibility to addiction, and smoking may predispose adolescents to mental disorders in adolescence and adulthood. In addition, researchers have identified a potential…

Amazing Numbers in Biology

Have you ever wondered what is the inactivation temperature of the avian influenza virus? How far a flea can jump? How long a royal albatross incubates its egg? How many stomata are on the leaf of a geranium? How many ommatidia are in the compound eye of a dragonfly? If these and other questions keep you awake at night, now you can find the answers that you seek in a new book, Amazing Numbers in Biology by Rainer Flindt (New York: Springer Verlag, 2003). Basically, this delightful book is the Guiness Book of World Records for the natural world. Even though much of this data has long been…

Update: Disappointment

Are you ready for me to be freed tomorrow from the nuthouse? Well, according to rumor, tomorrow will be my release date. The reason has nothing at all to do with my own sanity, since I am still certifiably insane, but rather, the reason is that the person caring for my birds is demanding that I pay her $2500 for the priviledge (nevermind that one of my expensive and rare parrots died while under her care) and she is demanding that I pay her immediately so she can use it to pay college tuition. What's the problem with this picture? When I first met my bird care taker, mere minutes before I…

Science Café Raleigh - A Nuclear Renaissance

Our July Science Café (description below) will be held on Tuesday 7/20 at Tir Na Nog on S. Blount Street. With the disastrous BP Gulf oil spill now continuing into its third month, every day we are reminded of the challenges our country faces with regards to our energy production and consumption. Can nuclear energy be a viable answer for some of our energy needs? Our café speaker for the evening will be Dr. David McNelis, the Director of the Center for Sustainable Energy, Environment, and Economic Development at UNC's Institute for the Environment. It should be an interesting evening…

Required reading for the day

Two things: the first is Sean Carroll's discussion of what kinds of questions science can answer, and what the answers tell us about the universe. And, without fail, the scientific judgment comes down in favor of a strictly non-miraculous, non-supernatural view of the universe. That's what's really meant by my claim that science and religion are incompatible. I was referring to the Congregation-for-the-Causes-of-the-Saints interpretation of religion, which entails a variety of claims about things that actually happen in the world; not the it's-all-in-our-hearts interpretation, where religion…

Regarding The AP-Ipsos Poll of Book Readers

tags: books, AP-Ipsos poll, book reading As you know, I am trying to learn more about your reading habits and book choices, so I was surprised to learn that one in four adults say they have read no books at all in the past year. Of those who did read, women and seniors were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices. This is according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll that was released Tuesday. Several more findings in this poll include; The average person polled claimed to have read just four books in the last year. So basically, half of the respondents read…

Old Turkey Buzzard

tags: Mackenna's Gold, Jose Feliciano, music, film, movies, streaming video Really amazing footage and wonderful music by José Feliciano about turkey vultures, from the movie, Mackenna's Gold -- is this a film I must see? You tell me! [5:24] "There's an old story. The way the Apaches tell it... ...a man was riding in the desert and came across a vulture... ...the kind they call turkey buzzards in Arizona, sittin' on a rock. "Hey", the man says, "how come you old turkey buzzard's sittin' here? "I saw you flying over Hadleyberg, and I didn't want to meet up with you... "...so I turned around…

London Update: Where Did All The Time Go?

I leave on Wednesday afternoon for London for the European Science Blogging conference, sponsored by NATURE -- wow, I can hardly believe this day is almost here! To say that I am very stressed out is an understatement. The thing that bothers me most is the fact that I have no vacation planning experience, so I am learning as I go, and even though I have a steep learning curve, there are only so many hours in a day, which means that even though I am learning more about what I should be doing, I don't have the time to accomplish everything before I leave. First and foremost: planning what I…

Endangered Parrots Produce Third Chick for Houston Zoo

tags: conservation, captive breeding, Houston Zoo, St. Vincent Parrot, St. Vincent Amazon, Guilding's Amazon parrot, Amazona guildingii, ornithology Adult St. Vincent Amazon parrot, Amazona guildingii. Image: Orphaned [larger view]. The Houston Zoo in Houston, Texas, successfully hatched another endangered St. Vincent Amazon parrot, Amazona guildingii, on 28 May 2008. The young parrot was the third of this species to hatch at the Houston Zoo, which is the only zoo in the United States to successfully breed this species in captivity. The chick was named Vincent after the father of the…

They aren't honest enough to write this

This is an entirely fictional manifesto, but it could be the game plan for a lot of rather devious pro-religion people right now — I could almost imagine it as the mission statement for the Templeton Foundation, for instance. It is the objective of we, the New Creationists, to undermine not simply evolutionary theory, but science as a whole. It is this form of inquiry which has caused the greatest damage to our version of events. It must be destroyed at all costs. The primary method for attaining our goal is Reaching a Middle Ground. This means that we are to seek, purely in the eye of the…

Frontiers of Knowledge Award goes to Robert J. Lefkowitz for G-protein coupled receptors

I had a good fortune to hear Dr. Lefkowitz speak once. Great guy. From the press release: The prestigious BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Biomedicine category goes this year to Robert J. Lefkowitz, MD, James B. Duke Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator at Duke University Medical Center. This is only the second year the award has been given. Dr. Lefkowitz's research has affected millions of cardiac and other patients worldwide. Lefkowitz proved the existence of, isolated, characterized and still studies G-protein-…

iPod iChing -ides of March

New month, new iPod divinations... So, oh mighty iPod, what is in store for us this month then? Whoosh goes the randomizer. Woosh. The Covering: Going to California - Led Zeppelin The Crossing: Jóla Jólasveinn - Ragga Gísla The Crown: Now and Then - Arlo Guthrie The Root: Day of the Lords - Joy Division The Past: The Firebird: Dance of Kashchey's Retinue The Future: The Sow Took the Measles - Burl Ives The Questioner: Wie? Wie? Wie? - Mozart (Magic Flute) The House: Dust My Blues - Elmore James and His Broom Dusters The Inside: I don't Need the Pressure Ron - Billy Bragg The Outcome: Út…

Self-Annihilating Fields

There is a curious phenomenon in our general subject of study, which I have anecdotally noted over the years. Some sub-fields self-reinforce, people working in them are all very impressed with each other, they all think, or say, that what everyone else is doing is terribly clever and they're all doing very impressive research and we're all just so important and good. Now, this is an over-generalization, but it is true, for example, that most cosmologists, or string theorists, will tell you how all the others in their field are really better than anyone else in other fields, and how even if…