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Don't you hear that?

"Music is perpetual, and only the hearing is intermittent." -Thoreau A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I went to the circus together. Someday, I vowed, I'll be strong, flexible, and stable enough to do the amazing hand-balancing tricks we saw. And all the while, the six-year-old girl behind us screamed her piercing, high-pitched scream, cheering the performers on. (This is totally appropriate behavior, IMO, and no children reading this should be discouraged from screaming at the circus.) Now, one of us has better hearing than the other. And while one of us found the high pitched screaming…

Weekend Diversion: The Science Channel & Dumbing it Down

Just think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize half of them are even stupider! -George Carlin Over at The Onion, I found this article about science on television, and I laughed too hard to not reproduce it here. (Link to original.) Science Channel Refuses To Dumb Down Science Any Further SILVER SPRING, MD--Frustrated by continued demands from viewers for more awesome and extreme programming, Science Channel president Clark Bunting told reporters Tuesday that his cable network was "completely incapable" of watering down science any further than it already had. "Look, we've…

Faster-Than-Light II: Information?

To follow up on the faster than light post here, let's ask another question: If you can make a way of transferring information that doesn't involve matter, is that information limited by the speed of light? First off, let's go over what information is, and then we'll talk about how transferring information without matter is even possible. Information is anything that's organized in a meaningful manner. Take a look at the following three sentences: This sentence contains some information. Tihs scnnteee cainntos smoe imnfriatoon. Not a imfro nimsoe mnoisn ctrnsnet sihto. Each of the three…

MOND vs. Dark Matter

The first serious advocate of modifying Newton's laws instead of postulating unseen (or dark) matter was Moti Milgrom, from whom today a new article appears on the astrophysics preprint archives. In particular, Milgrom asserts the following: MOND predictions imply that baryons alone accurately determine the full field of each and every individual galactic object. These predictions are contrary to the expectations in the DM paradigm in view of the following: a. the haphazard formation and evolution of galactic objects, b. the very different influences that baryons and DM are subject to during…

A Guide to Teaching Evaluations

Regardless of where you work, one of the most nerve-wracking experiences can be your performance evaluations. Why is this nerve-wracking? Because no matter how talented and capable you are, and regardless of how good of a job you actually do, there are factors that you have absolutely no control over that can affect your evaluations. This can be a boss who wants to eliminate your job, a colleague who has a personality conflict with you, or a student who doesn't like the subject you teach. Well, one of the nice things about being a teacher is that all of the students you teach get the…

Solving the Mystery of Mercury

When you look up at the night sky, what's the first and most obvious thing you see? If you answered anything other than "the Moon" you're in serious need of some new eyes, because -- in terms of size, brightness, and detail -- the Moon dominates everything else. But the one thing you'll always notice about the Moon? We always see the same face. Why is this? There's a simple explanation: all objects in the sky are like spinning tops. But some of them orbit larger bodies, which pull them into gravitational, elliptical orbits. The closer the small body is to the large one, the bigger the…

More of That Famous DI Position Shifting

As usual, the Discovery Institute is having a little difficulty settling on a coherent position on the El Tejon ID class controversy. Their first response, written by Robert Crowther, is entitled "Darwinists Want To Ban Intelligent Design From Not Just Science Classrooms, But All Classrooms." Crowther predictably fumes at us evil "Darwinists" who want the class removed, which of course implies that the course is legitimate and constitutional and therefore it is unreasonable for Americans United to file suit against it. Crowther writes: What is it that has these United Americans all upset?…

Jesse Jackson's Latest Idiocy

Suspecting that there might be some press coverage in it, Jesse Jackson couldn't resist opening his mouth and making a fool of himself yet again. This time, he's claiming that Terrell Owens is being treated unfairly: And he's being joined by fellow camera-loving glory hound Ralph Nader, who has also said the punishment is too severe. Here's Jackson's statement in whole, with my comments: "Terrell Owens did an interview last week and engaged in some unsportsmanlike speech, deemed detrimental to the team, but nonetheless free speech. He expressed some dissatisfaction with his contract, his team…

Falcons

There will be no Falcons in the Super Bowl, only Ravens, this year. But, there has been a lot of talk about Falcons lately so I jotted down a few notes and thought I'd share them with you. One year after moving to Minnesota, I relocated to the city of Falcon Heights. If you know the Twin Cities you may be familiar with the “Saint Paul Campus” of the University of Minnesota. This campus is located almost entirely within Falcon Heights, not Saint Paul, and I think this is a missed opportunity. How cool would it be to take classes in ornithology, or visit the Raptor Center, in Falcon Heights…

I, for one, welcome our new female overlords

This is the year of the woman in the US Congress and elsewhere, despite the best efforts of some to make sure that the opposite happened. This is the year in which the Right Wing carried out the most anti-woman campaign ever since suffrage, or at least, so it would appear, along with a continued attack on non-hetero persons. A defining moment in this campaign occurred in February, when the Republican controlled House carried out a nearly comical hearing on women’s reproductive rights. Three Democrats walked out of a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing on religious liberty and the…

Is there still room on the shelf for an almanac?

When I was a kid, I loved the almanac. I don't remember where they came from, but every couple of years a new one would appear in the house, and as soon as I got my hands on it, it moved into my room and anybody who wanted to look stuff up in it after that needed to see me first. And, actually, much of the time I could give them whatever info they needed if they just asked me, because I knew the contents. I have on my desk the "The World Almanac for Kids 2013" produced by World Almanac. It has a picvture of a ballerina, a frog, a football player with the New York Jets, somebody who looks…

Have A Safe 4th Of July

Earlier this week a dude driving a truck while texting meandered off the road and ran over a woman, killing her. More horrifically, she was on a bike towing a child trailer occupied by her two children, one and four years of age, so they got to watch their mom die. The man who apparently killed this woman, on a road in southern Minnesota, is Christopher Weber of Madison, South Dakota. Apparently he was texting. Assuming this happened as reported, we have here a case of someone being a complete moron and a lot of other people paying a terrible price. "A person who ... causes the death of…

Fukushima Update

Patrick J. Kiger at National Geographic News has an excellent summary of the current situation at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The plant continues to leak radioactive material into the sea, though at a rate much lower than the massive release that happened at the time of the accident. Strontium-90 (Half-life 28.79 years) has increased in proportion over various Cesium isotopes. This is a concern because while Cesium has the potential to enter the food supply in fish that pick it up, Strontium enters the food supply in a different way. In theory Cesium enters tissues and leaves…

What a difference a molecule makes...

Microbial ecology, and its relation to the development of infectious disease, is an ever-growing field of study. Of course, there are a vast number of bacterial species living amongst us, most of which do not cause us any harm. Others may infect us only when, so to speak, the stars align in a certain manner: when a number of factors collide that result in the development of a diseased state. For instance, we may already be immunocompromised due to the presence of another infection--something minor, such as a rhinovirus, or something more serious, such as HIV--and this chink in our armor…

Emergence of epidemic Clostridium difficile

Clostridium difficile has joined MRSA, SARS, avian influenza, and West Nile as a hot new emerging disease. This bacterium, a cousin to Clostridium tetani-the causative agent of tetanus--and Clostridium botulinum--the botulism bacterium--is a spore-forming anaerobe. Carried by about 3 percent of healthy adults, the bacterium is generally present as a metabolically inactive spore. The bacterium typically causes problems in the nosocomial (hospital) environment, where up to 40 percent of hospital patients may be colonized. Clinical disease generally presents as watery diarrhea and cramps, and…

Mechanism of malaria "hide and seek" coming into view

Malaria is one of mankind's oldest known killers, with descriptions of the disease dating back almost 5000 years. Each year, malaria causes 300-500 million infections, and up to 3 million deaths--about 5000 Africans die of the disease every day; one child succumbs every 30 seconds. The disease is caused by a number of species of the Plasmodium genus. (In humans, malaria is almost always caused by one of four species: Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium ovale, Plasmodium falciparum, and Plasmodium malariae, with P. falciparum causing the most severe disease). Unlike many pathogens I discuss on…

I Believe In Robert Lind

Here's my translation of a classic 1979 revue routine by Hans Alfredson and Tage Danielsson. Kramfors is a town of 6000 inhabitants in central Sweden, near the 62nd parallel. ----- TD: New religions keep popping up like mushrooms, and now it's time for the – ubiquitous in entertainment these days – Religious Corner. Sitting next to me is a fellow man [HA: “Flatterer”] ... a co-slipper on the endless unsanded sidewalk of life. And I would like to ask you a straight and direct question: do you believe in God? HA: No, in Lind. Robert Lind in Kramfors. TD: Is that someone you know? HA: No, but I…

Cant even get your science right in a botched extortion attempt...

This is an... odd... educational opportunity... Anne Bass' boyfriend mesmerized jury with frightening account of Connecticut mansion invasion: He said, "I love you, Anne" -- then prepared to die. Wealthy philanthropist Anne Bass' boyfriend yesterday mesmerized a jury with a frightening account of how three armed men "dressed like ninjas" invaded her Connecticut mansion with a "war cry," tied them up -- and then injected them with a purported "virus" that would kill them within 24 hours unless Bass coughed up $8.5 million. ... One of the knife-toting thugs then announced: "Now here's the thing…

The Advent Calendar of Physics: Faraday

Moving along through our countdown to Newton's birthday, we have an equation that combines two other titans of British science: This is the third of Maxwell's equations (named after the great Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell), but it originates with Michael Faraday, one of the greatest experimentalists of the day. Faraday was a fascinating guy, who came from humble origins-- he was an apprentice bookbinder who managed to get a job as Humphrey Davey's assistant-- to become hugely influential in both chemistry and physics. He also played an important role in science communication and…

Separation of church and state establishes a new religion!

Whoa. Somehow, I think I've ended up in the Bizarro Universe. New Scientist reports that the Discovery Institute has a problem with the information for teachers that accompanied the recent Judgment Day documentary. The teaching package states: "Q: Can you accept evolution and still believe in religion? A: Yes. The common view that evolution is inherently anti-religious is simply false." According to Casey Luskin, an attorney with the Discovery Institute, this answer favours one religious viewpoint, arguably violating the US constitution. "We're afraid that teachers might get sued," he says.…

Financiers Aren't Rocket Scientists

Kevin Drum is puzzled by default panic: If we run out of money, the federal government will stop paying some of its bills. That's bad, and it will quite likely have a negative effect on the economy. Corporations are right to be apprehensive about this. But that's all that will happen. Treasury bonds will continue to roll over and interest payments will continue to be made. That means there's no reason to sell Treasurys; no reason they can't continue to be used as collateral; no reason that access to capital should dry up; and no reason that companies will need more cash. At least, that's how…

It's Not Just Science Journalism

One of the tabs I opened last week and didn't have time to get to was this Clastic Detritus post about what it takes to get science stories in the media, which is (quoting Michael Lemonick): I get it that a stories involving science need a little something extra to make it in a magazine like Time or even near the front pages of a mainstream newspaper. Or, put another way: It should be surprising, important -- or weird and fun, failing the important. I get it that the average non-scientist out there isn't going to take the time to read an article about "ordinary" science. I get it. Our…

The Most Precisely Tested Theory in the History of Science

NASA held a big press conference yesterday to announce that the Gravity Probe B experiment had confirmed a prediction of General Relativity that spacetime near Earth should be "twisted" by the Earth's rotation. A lot of the coverage has focused on the troubled history of the mission (as did the press conference, apparently), but scientifically it's very impressive. The shift measured is very, very small-- 0.04 arcseconds over the course of a year, or 0.000011 degrees-- but agrees nicely with the predictions of relativity. I'm not sure whether to try to work this into the book-in-progress as I…

The Intelligence of Game-Playing Software

There's been some discussion lately about chess-playing software and intelligence. Some smart humans play chess well. Certain software can beat them at chess. Does this mean that the software is smarter than those humans? Of course not. For one thing, intelligence is about versatility, about being able to perform innumerable different and unfamiliar tasks that take smarts. No software in the world, least of all chess software, is anywhere near passing the Turing test. If you talk to present-day software you soon become aware that there's no intelligence in the box. If we came across a human…

Women, Part 1

As I said in my chat with PZ on Blogging Heads, Im probably not the best person to talk to about the problems women face in science. Why? Meh, my parents have always encouraged me in the sciences (CONSTRUX WHOO!). They threw me on a bus, by myself, to Space Camp when I was 10. Aunts and uncles who live in The City would take me to museums and botanical gardens and state parks when Id visit them. I had great high school teachers and college professors for my science classes. Bossman has always made it perfectly clear that sexism against me is unacceptable, and to come to him if anything…

Blitz Expert!

Back to chess! My quest for the expert title continued at the Continental Class Championship in Herndon, Virginia this weekend. Full report to come. While I was there, I played in the big Saturday night blitz tournament. Blitz chess is rated separately from regular chess, and with good reason! The time control was the traditional five minutes for the whole game, with no delay or increment. Going into the tournament, my blitz rating was an even 2000, but that was a provisional rating based on eighteen games. You need to play twenty before it becomes a real rating. The blitz tournament is…

Scalia's Dissenting Rhetoric

The Supreme Court ruled today that state laws giving the death penalty for those under 18 were unconstitutional, in violation of the 8th amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments. I'm not going to take a position either way on the ruling, since I really know nothing of the history or legal arguments. But I want to focus on the most fascinating part of Scalia's dissent in the case, where he uses - inconsistently, I will argue - the standard conservative rhetoric against the vague bugaboo of "judicial activism": Because I do not believe that the meaning of our Eighth Amendment,…

Publius on Clarence Thomas and Harry Reid

Publius, of Legal Fiction, has written an entry about the uproar over Sen. Reid's statement that Clarence Thomas has been an "embarrassment to the court". It's worth reading. While he's harsher on Thomas than I would be, he does hit on an important distinction in how one can judge a judicial opinion: As I said, Reid's error was in using the word "embarrassing," as it implies that Thomas's opinions are somehow unprincipled or intellectually lightweight. That's not true at all. Thomas's jurisprudence is the most coherent and principled of all the Justices. But that's not to say it's good. One…

Mohler fears the cookie-eating mouse

The operation was a success. Later, the duck, with his new human brain, went on to become the leader of a great flock. Irwin, however, was ostracized by his friends and family and eventually just wandered south. Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, is worried. He's afraid we're going to put a human brain in a rodent's head. No, really — it's not just a joke in a cartoon. He seriously wants to suppress research in transgenic and chimeric animals "before a mouse really does come up and ask for a cookie." Now, seriously, his worry isn't that mice…

Okay, One More

I have a couple hours before I have to get hit the road, so let me throw out one last summation on the missing explosives. The videotape provided by the Minneapolist TV station, taken on April 18th, has now been conclusively shown to contain footage of the very explosives that are now missing. David Kay, first head of the Iraq Survey Group, was on CNN last night and said the following: Well, at least with regard to this one bunker, and the film shows one seal, one bunker, one group of soldiers going through, and there were others there that were sealed. With this one, I think it is game, set…

Reconstructionism in a Nutshell

Our old pal, Rev. Andrew Sandlin, is participating in a debate with David VanDrunen on "the role of God's law in society". His opening statement can be found here, and it sums up perfectly how he and his fellow Christian Reconstructionists think. Some people find it incredible that there are people who actually want to pass laws that stone adulterers, witches and homosexuals; but these people do. First, he explains which portions of the Mosaic Law still apply today in his theological system: In addressing social and civil ethics, we do tend to focus on the Mosaic legislation because it…

Backpeddling Racists

John Scalzi, a blogger you really should be reading, has a post on his blog that is both amusing and appalling. It's about the appearance of a racist on his site in the comments, but even more about his ham-handed backtracking he tried to do. It began with this post, wherein he critiques an anti-immigration book. In that post, he included a picture of his adorable daughter Athena, who is partially hispanic, with the caption, "Behold! The Unassimilated Hispanic Menace!". The Drudge Report put up a link to the post and along comes an asshole named Mike, who leaves the following comment: "Cute…

Global Warming is Just a Hoax

This is just one of dozens of responses to common climate change denial arguments, which can all be found at How to Talk to a Climate Sceptic. Objection: Global Warming is just a hoax perpetrated by environmental extremists and liberals who want an excuse for more big government. Answer: Here is a list of "enviro-Nazis" and "left-wing loonies" who believe that Anthropogenic Global Warming is real and well supported by sound science: NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) - http://www.giss.nasa.gov/edu/gwdebate/ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - http://www.…

Defending Scalia

I know I've spent a fair amount of time lately criticizing Justice Scalia about things he has said in his recent appearances, but there's one thing he said that is being attacked on this blog that I think he should be defended about. Will Bunch, owner of the Attytood blog, says that Scalia holds the media in contempt because of this comment: Scalia expressed disdain for the news media and the general reading public and suggested that together they condone inaccurate portrayals of federal judges and courts. "The press is never going to report judicial opinions accurately," he said. And Bunch,…

Biblical Literalism and Silly Rationalizations

Matt Powell, who has been commenting here for the last couple of weeks, writes on his own blog about the bible and slavery. His post includes the following statement: And I reject a divine command theory of morality, which would teach that anything that God commanded is moral. Rather, I believe that the Bible teaches that morality flows from God's nature, and God cannot contradict his own nature. Therefore we avoid both saying that God could be absolutely capricious in His commands or decrees, and that God is subject to some prior or superior standard of morality. The first possibility could…

Physical Education

Two nights before my college graduation, I was having a beer in one of the two bars in town, and one of the Deans was at the bar, holding forth. "Do you know," he said to me and a couple of other students, "there are five people in your class who aren't going to graduate because they don't have enough PE credits?" "Really?" I said, "Who?" He looked at me, and said "What's your name again?" I always think of that when somebody brings up the subject of Phys. Ed. requirements, as the Dean Dad did a little while ago. Williams had both a Phys. Ed. requirement and a mandatory swim test (that…

Princeton Offense

There's a nice article about former Princeton coach Pete Carril and the motion offense popularly associated with his teams: Carril has not been a college coach for 11 years. But he is wearing a Georgetown cap, and people keep calling to talk about the precise pass-and-cut offense that he supposedly invented but never called the Princeton offense. "I didn't call it anything," he said. To him, it is only basketball, and it is not complicated. Carril does not understand why no one talks about other offenses the way they do about Princeton's. But people are calling him, and they are suddenly…

The Myth of Post-Tenure Collapse

Over at Pure Pedantry, Jake Young has an anti-tenure post that repeats one of the classic mistaken arguments: 1) Tenure supports bad teachers as much as it supports unproductive researchers. I can't tell you the number of bad lecturers that I have had over the years. It has to be like 90%. Science in particular is filled with a lot of very smart people, very few of whom have the slightest idea how to convey that miraculous intelligence to another scientists, much less a lay-person. As it exists now there is no incentive to teach well after you receive tenure. Teaching duties are often…

Why Doesn't Blogging Generate More Science?

Steinn responds to yesterday's post about his comments about science blogging. I'm going to continue the tradition of responding here, rather than in his comments, because, well, I need something to post today. He concedes that outreach is a worthy purpose of blogging, but continues to be concerned about blogging as a tool for more traditional science: Is blogging enabling collaborations? Is blogging leading to new initiatives? New directions in research? Providing connectivity which would not otherwise have happened? Conveying information that is important to research and otherwise hard to…

DonorsChoose Payoff: Meeting the Queen

Another day, another DonorsChoose incentive claimed. I'm actually late in responding to this one-- I missed my self-imposed 24-hour deadline because we're visiting Kate's parents outside of Boston, but I'll try to make up for it with the answer. Anyway, Helen asks: How did Emmy become part of your household? We decided we wanted a dog, and spent a bunch of time talking to local rescue groups and visiting animal shelters. We didn't have much luck, because people kept getting to the dogs we wanted before us, but persistence paid off eventually. The Mohawk and Hudson River Humane Society had a…

EO Wilson on Salon

The EO Wilson interview on Salon is worth watching a commercial for; he's an interesting and smart fellow, even where I disagree with him. I've put a few excerpts below the fold just in case you really detest jumping through those capitalist hoops. I've talked with some atheists who've suggested what they really need is a spiritual atheism. They need the sense of awe. They're competing with religious traditions, with very powerful stories, that have been passed down through the ages. Yeah, that's true. Does the scientist, does the non-believer, need that as well? Can the non-believer have…

Real Math Doesn't Use Calculators

The Dean Dad is worried about remedial math: In a discussion this week with someone who spends most of her time working with students who are struggling mightily in developmental math, I heard an argument I hadn't given much thought previously: students who have passed algebra and even pre-calc in high school frequently crash and burn when they hit our developmental math, because the high schools let them use calculators and we don't. [...][P]art of me wonders if we're sacrificing too much on the altar of pencil and paper. It's great to be able to do addition in your head and long division on…

Relativity on a Human Scale

While I mostly restricted myself to watching invited talks at DAMOP last week, I did check out a few ten-minute talks, one of which ended up being just about the coolest thing I saw at the meeting. Specifically, the Friday afternoon talk on observing relativity with atomic clocks by Chin-Wen Chou of the Time and Frequency Division at NIST in Boulder. The real technical advance is in a recent paper in Physical Review Letters (available for free via the Time and Frequency Publications Database, because government research isn't subject to copyright): they have made improvements to their atomic…

Hansen arrested in coal mining protest

James Hansen was arrested today for trespassing at a protest against mountaintop removal coal mining in Coal River Valley, West Virginia. Today Top Climate Scientist James Hansen and Actress Daryl Hannah were Arrested in Effort to Stop Mountaintop Removal Also arrested was former Representative Ken Hechler, Michael Brune of Rainforest Action Network, Goldman Winner Judy Bonds and more than a dozen Appalachian residents and allies Protest on the heels of Obama administration's new policy on the destructive coal mining practice The question is: does this diminish his scientific integrity or…

The loudness of coffee shops

The coffee shop was already loud. The walls, floor, and ceiling of the Caribou are all made of sound-bouncy materials. The equipment behind the counter is loud to begin with and is not muffled by any structure. The barista has developed the typical barista habit of banging shit on other shit as loud as he can and as often as he can. Then in walked the big loud highly annoying Christians from the local seminary.... ...I am sitting at the far south end of the coffee shop where it is dark, and they are sitting at the absolute other end of the coffee ship, by the windows. I can hear every…

Biology Never Was The Same: Mark Borrello

The best of last June Continuing with our discussion of the Evolution 2008 conference, I'd like to relate at least the essence, as I saw it, of an excellent talk by Mark Borrello. I've seen Mark speak at least three times including yesterday, and soon after his talk we continued on the topic in a conversation over lunch and beers, so my comments here are less a summary of Mark's talk at the Evolution 2008 conference than a more general reaction to what I believe to be his main points. Everyone knows that history repeats itself. Or, at least, as per Samuel Clemens, if history does not repeat…

Octopus sex

I rather like this illustration I ran across in some reading. It's a bit risqué, and reminded me of some ukiyo-e…the kind of thing you don't usually expect to find in a biology journal. This line drawing was made from a photograph of a male H. lunulata (shaded) copulating with a female. The arrow points to the male's hectocotylus, which is being inserted into the female's mantle cavity. This site gets a lot of hits in searches for tentacle sex, and I'm going to distract a lot of slavering otaku once again by talking about the real thing. Not the fantasies of Hokusai, Teraoka, or Saeki (…

Life of a squid

The heathen at IIDB are talking about squid—it's infectious, I tell you, and the godless seem especially susceptible—and in particular about this interesting paper on squid fisheries. Squid are on the rise, and are impressively numerous. We can get an idea of the abundance of squid in the world's ocean by considering the consumption of cephalopods (mainly squid) from just one cephalopod predator the sperm whale. Sperm whales alone are estimated to consume in excess of 100 million tonnes of cephalopods a year. This is equivalent to the total world fishery catch and probably exceeds half the…

Biology Never Was The Same: Mark Borrello

Continuing with our discussion of the Evolution 2008 conference, I'd like to relate at least the essence, as I saw it, of an excellent talk by Mark Borrello. I've seen Mark speak at least three times including yesterday, and soon after his talk we continued on the topic in a conversation over lunch and beers, so my comments here are less a summary of Mark's talk at the Evolution 2008 conference than a more general reaction to what I believe to be his main points. Everyone knows that history repeats itself. Or, at least, as per Samuel Clemens, if history does not repeat itself, at least it…

Viral Mysteries: Chikungunya Virus

I think a lot of kids get the wrong impression about the medical field via TV. I mean like, I like 'House'. It is an entertaining TV show. But being an MD is absolutely nothing like that. Its not really a mystery novel. Its more like 'cataract surgery 5 times today... and 15 times this week... yaaay...' and 'pap smears and prescriptions for yeast infections and UTIs all day... yaaay...' So when I had an opportunity as a 'pre-med' to do summer research, it blew mah mind!!!! Everything everyone was working on was like a little specialized mystery novel. It was both fun and frustrating,…