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Occupational Health News Roundup

Last week, a 44-year-old soldier on his third deployment to Iraq opened fire at his U.S. military base near the Baghdad International Airport, killing five service members and wounding three others. Sgt. John Russell had been sent to the combat-stress clinic at Camp Liberty by his superiors, and two of the five people he killed worked at the clinic. The Christian Science Monitorâs Gordon Lubold writes about the role of deployment length and frequency in soldersâ mental-health issues: The case has focused further attention on the effect that multiple, extended deployments are having on…

Thanks, Minnesota!

Our countryâs food-safety system may leave a lot to be desired, but the New York Timesâ Gardiner Harris reminds us that we should be grateful to the epidemiologists who let us know an outbreak is occurring at all. And it turns out that many of these alarm-sounding professionals work in Minnesota. âIf not for the Minnesota Department of Health, the Peanut Corporation of America might still be selling salmonella-laced peanuts, Dole might still be selling contaminated lettuce, and ConAgra might still be selling dangerous Banquet brand pot pies,â Harris reports. Detecting a food-borne outbreak…

A good question

Sometimes my email contains a few good and sincere questions — and here's an example. This is probably the most common rock on which creationists founder: a profound misconception about what evolution says, and a natural human desire to see a guiding plan to the world. I'm tormented. I appreciate the struggle many creationists are having about evolutionary science. I find myself tormented as I observe the world around me. What I seem to be focused on is how a plant or animal is self aware of it's need to evolve? How does a tree know how to "evolve" it's seed to fly on the wind? How would a…

Dear Leo, Thanks.

I received an email today from Leo Gerard, the Int'l President of the United Steelworkers, the 850,000 person-strong union of men and women employed in Canada and the U.S. who work in the metals, rubber, chemicals, paper, oil refining and the service industries.  His email simply read: Excellent video celebrating 60th anniversary of UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  Please watch and remember how powerful it is to treat every human being and our planet with dignity.  Regards, leo. Dear President Gerard. Thanks. Watch it (00:04:31) Here are the "lyrics." Every man, woman…

Occupational Health News Roundup

Forty years ago today, a series of explosions ripped through the No. 9 Mine in Farmington, West Virginia and killed 78 workers. For nine days, families and friends of trapped miners waited in the hope that some of the miners would survive â but none did, and the mine was finally sealed, with the bodies still inside. The Charleston Gazetteâs Paul J. Nyden collects stories from those who lost loved ones in the disaster. Bonnie Stewart and Scott Finn report for NPRâs All Things Considered that a memo written by a federal investigator and then forgotten for decades can explain why those men died…

High C8 Levels in DuPont's Chinese Workers' Blood

In "DuPont finds high levels of C8 in Chinese workers," Ken Ward of the Charleston Gazette writes that workers at the Changshu, China plant had average blood concentration of about 2,250 ppb of perfluorooctanoate (PFOA), an agent used to make the non-stick compound Teflon.  Ward writes: "DuPont Co. has found high levels of the toxic chemical C8 in the blood of workers at a new Teflon plant in China, despite company promises to greatly reduce exposures and emissions.  ...DuPont installed its new Echelon technology.  DuPont says this technology allows it to make 'low-PFOA' products. The…

Bush EPA sets new rules for lead in air: mirabile dictu

by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure Here's some public health man-bites-dog news. George Bush's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did something right: The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday set stringent new standards for airborne lead particles, following the recommendations of its science advisers and cutting the maximum allowable concentrations to a tenth of the previous standard. It was the first change in federal lead standards in three decades.[snip] The new standards set the limits for exposure at 0.15 micrograms per cubic meter of air, down from 1.5 micrograms, and…

Judge Myers presiding

Man, I'm away on vacation and you rowdies get all raucus and rude in the comments. The powers-that-be at Seed have received a complaint about your heinous behavior, and have asked me (politely, and with assurances that I have full control over how to handle this situation) to address it. Here is the complaint: Dear Sir/Madam I wish to complain about offensive sexual language directed towards me on one of your blogs. I have included the full quote below and a link to the offensive comment. I would appreciate your attention on this matter as I consider this deeply offensive. Thank you Brenda…

California May Tackle Chemicals in Consumer Products

It looks like California is once again picking up the slack for a federal agencies failing in their regulatory responsibilities. In this case, theyâre addressing the issue of chemicals in consumer products, as a step toward a broader âGreen Chemistry Initiative,â which is âaimed at promoting development of safer chemicals with policies to spur green design, manufacturing, use and disposal.â The Sacramento Beeâs Steve Wigand explains this latest move from California: The two-bill deal, negotiated among legislators, the Schwarzenegger administration and environmental and chemical industry…

Schwartz Resigns From NIEHS

The tumultuous tenure of Dr. David Schwartz, who directed the NIH National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, is over. Bob Grant at TheScientist.com reports: During his time as NIEHS director, Schwartz's leadership was often questioned. Scientists and lawmakers criticized Schwartz in 2005 when he pushed for privatizing the institute's journal, Environmental Health Perspectives, and last August more than 100 NIEHS researchers voted no confidence in Schwartz to protest his management. Later in August, Schwartz took a temporary leave while NIH and NIEHS reviewed his management and…

Should parents worry about HPV vaccine?

That's the question posed by CNN yesterday. It's a good question. Any time a new vaccine or treatment is available, safety is a concern. Pre-marketing testing is likely to miss very rare reactions, so the government monitors new drugs when they hit the market. Gardasil has so far been quite safe, which does not rule out very rare problems that my crop up as more people are vaccinated. Added to the general level of suspicion regarding Gardisil is Merck's very aggressive marketing campaign aimed at the public and at state legislators. All that aside, Gardasil is probably a good idea.…

Denialists' Deck of Cards: The 2 of Clubs, "No Problem"

I'm very proud to be on Scienceblogs with Mark, and for my first posts, I'm going to be introducing the Denialists' Deck of Cards, a humorous way to think about rhetorical techniques that are used in public debate. Those who pay attention to consumer protection issues, especially in product safety (especially tobacco, food, drugs), will recognize these techniques. The goal of classifying them in this way is to advance public understanding of how these techniques can be used to stifle reform in consumer protection or on other issues. So, the Denialists' Deck is extremely cynical. But it is…

Tagged!

Blogging will probably be light this week; while I was in Ohio a week ago for a happy event, this weekend was much the opposite, and I'll be out of town part of the week at a memorial service. In the meantime, though, I got tagged (twice!) with a meme that I've already seen pop up recently on Scienceblogs, and since it's Kate's first meme ever, well, how can I refuse? The rules: to make it short and sweet, the meme just asks for 8 random facts, then I'm supposed to tag 8 others. I'll comply with the first; for the latter, anyone who's not been hit already, feel free to consider yourself…

BP's Safety Record on Trial

On March 23, 2005 a series of explosions ripped through BPâs Texas City refinery. The disaster claimed the lives of 15 and injured many more. (You can read some of the press coverage here and here.) Here are a few interesting tidbits fresh from the courtroom where BP lawyers are working to discredit the claims of four workers injured in the blast. These particular cases are the first to reach the courtroom, as at least 1350 of 3000 claims filed against BP have been settled behind closed doors. In case anyone had any doubts that BP knew of warning signs, read on. Back in March, I wrote about…

Friday Blog Roundup

Declan Butler, Reporter updates us on the situation of the six health workers facing death in Libya. The five Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian medic were sentenced to death on the charge of deliberately infecting Libyan children with HIV, despite scientific evidence that the infections resulted from hygiene lapses and contamination of medical material. Butler reports that Libyaâs Supreme Court will rule on the health workersâ appeal on July 11th and that the EU is working towards a settlement with the Libyan childrenâs families. He credits campaigns by scientists and others (in which Butler…

MSHA's Stickler & A Stick (Maybe)

MSHA issued a news release yesterday announcing that eight mine operators have been put on notice for potential enforcement under the "pattern of violation" provisions of the Mine Act.  MSHA's release does not list the names of the mining operations, but the Charleston Gazette's Ken Ward is reporting that two of the mines are metal/non-metal operations and six are coal mines, including three in West Virginia. In his written statement, MSHA' Assistant Secretary Richard Stickler said: "The purpose of these letters is to put mine operators on notice about the repercussions they face if…

Occupational Health News Roundup

Remember the Capitol tunnel workers whoâve been fighting for safer working conditions after years of being exposed to asbestos on the job? (Theyâve been featured in previous roundups here, here, and here.) They stirred up Congressional interest in the safety hazards in the Capitol tunnels, and Congress put pressure on the Architect of the Capitol, which is responsible for the operations and maintenance of the U.S. Capitol Complex. Now, the Architect of the Capitol and the Office of Compliance (which addresses workplace safety and employment rights issues for workers in the legislative branch…

Breaking FDA's User Fee Habit

By David Michaels The campaign by policy experts to have Congress end the user fee system that funds FDA is picking up steam. The Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) allows FDA to collect money from drug makers in exchange for faster reviews of their new products. But PDUFA makes the FDA dependent on the drug makers for a big piece of its budget, and the money comes with lots of strings â especially ones that limit FDAâs spending on drug safety. (Here is last week post on the NY Times editorial opposing PDUFA.) In todayâs Washington Post Cindy Skrzyckiâs The Regulators column has a…

Catching Up and Looking Ahead: A response to Dr. Robbins

Dr. Tony Robbins recent response to my draft on OSHA at 35 makes the important point that economic developments are often more powerful than public health initiatives as determinants of environmental and occupational illness. I agree with his thought that predictive models of exposure might facilitate anticipatory public health strategies rather than our more typical efforts to catch up after the fact. It is with this in mind that we need to focus on forward looking ideas rather than dwelling on the frustration that comes from a close look at worker protection in the OSHA years. Here are…

Party tonight at Confined Space (sigh)

Cross-posted at Effect Measure by Revere Tonight The Reveres are putting on their party clothes and headed for Jordan Barab's place, Confined Space. Truthfully, this party is also a wake, because Jordan is closing up shop tonight and has invited everyone over (that means you, too) to celebrate his last post. We'll be gathering in the Comment Thread. That's the bad news. Here's the good news. Jordan is closing the blog because he has a new job on Capitol Hill (for the non-Americans, that's where our legislative branch is located), working for the Committee on Education and Labor in the US…

New attack on Christians

...by Christians. I've mentioned before that I'm on the Answers in Genesis mailing list. In addition to the junk mail it gets me (as described in the post linked above), I also get their monthly newsletter, describing new events in the "culture war" and asking for money. This month's version is just too precious. More below... The newsletter is devoted to trashing the clergy letter project and especially Evolution Sunday. For those unfamiliar with the latter, a quote from their website: On 12 February 2006 hundreds of Christian churches from all portions of the country and a host of…

Some posts from elsewhere worth checking out

A lot on my plate this morning, but if you've not seen these already from yesterday, check out Respectful Insolence, where Orac has a post on using chemical castration as a treatment for autism. Just when you think things couldn't get any crazier... PZ also has a post drawing your attention to a statement in this week's Science magazine: Medicine needs evolution. The citation of "Evolution in Action" as Science's 2005 breakthrough of the year confirms that evolution is the vibrant foundation for all biology. Its contributions to understanding infectious disease and genetics are widely…

Now this is the genetic fallacy

Hey Luskin. This is what a genetic fallacy actually looks like. The Darwinists devoutly desire to avoid the true history of their creed, and usually the media assist in the cover up--unknowingly, I would like to think. The "Inherit the Wind" trope that is monotonously employed by journalists--not to mention Judge Jones of Dover, PA fame--derives from the play and movie of that name. But this cliché, which is the source of what many journalists think about the subject, was fiction and not even aimed at the evolution issue so much as the danger of McCarthyism in the 1950s. The real Scopes…

B. rex!

Another bit of text from the Ten Bird Meme of 2006. This time: well, you already know... also called the Shoe-billed stork, She-billed stork [not a typo], Whale-bill or Whale-headed stork, Balaeniceps rex is a long-legged big-billed waterbird of central Africa, and a specialist denizen of papyrus swamps. Though known to the ancient Egyptians, it wasn't described by science until John Gould named it in 1851. Before that time it was a cryptid, as an 1840 sighting of this as-of-then-unidentified bird had been published by Ferdinand Werne in 1849 (Shuker 1991). Standing 1.4 m tall, the Shoebill…

Categories and SubThings

What's a subset? That's easy: if we have two sets A and B, A is a subset of B if every member of A is also a member of B. What's a subgroup? If we have two groups A and B, and the values in group A are a subset of the values in group B, then A is a subgroup of B. For any kind of thing **X**, what does it mean to be a sub-X? Category theory gives us a way of answering that in a generic way. It's a bit hard to grasp at first, so let's start by looking at the basic construction in terms of sets and subsets. The most generic way of defining subsets is using functions. Suppose we have a set, A.…

Friday Random Ten, June 30

It's that time of the week again, when I bore you with my bizzare taste in music. Quite an eclectic mix this week. Spock's Beard, "Thoughts". A track from an oldish Spock's Beard album. SB is an American neoprog band, which sounds something like a blend of old Genesis, Kansas, and Rush. Very good band. This isn't my favorite of their albums (that would be "V"). Gentle Giant, "Way of Life". A classic song off of a classic album. Whirligig, "Mister Fox". An interesting little ballad by a wonderful NYC based Irish band. Peter Gabriel, "San Jacinto". Peter Gabriel at his absolute best. He's…

Simplices and Simplicial Complexes

One thing that comes up a lot in homology is the idea of simplices and simplicial complexes. They're interesting in their own right, and they're one more thing that we can talk about that will help make understanding the homology and the homological chain complexes easier when we get to them. A simplex is a member of an interesting family of filled geometric figures. Basically, a simplex is an N-dimensional analogue of a triangle. So a 1-simplex is a line-segment; a 2-simplex is a triangle; a three simplex is a tetrahedron; a four-simplex is a pentachoron. (That cool image to the right is…

Who wants to argue with Gandalf?

The hype machine for that drecky novel and movie, The DaVinci Code, is rather appalling: I simply don't see what the appeal is in a poorly written and unbelievable conspiracy theory about Jesus, and the protestations from Catholics are accomplishing nothing other than to fuel further interest in a very silly story. All I can imagine is that it's feeding the same hunger for religious fables that drove the sales of those ghastly Left Behind books. Anyway, the only good thing I've seen emerge from the schlockfest yet is Ian McKellen and his comments on the Today show, written up in US magazine…

New and Exciting in PLoS ONE

There are 16 new articles in PLoS ONE today. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Mendeley, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with just one click. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites: Looking for Landmarks: The Role of Expert Review and Bibliometric Analysis in Evaluating Scientific Publication Outputs: Objective: To compare expert assessment with bibliometric indicators as tools to…

God's own war

President George W. Bush was a god-fearing child given control of our military apparatus…or perhaps he was a child manipulated by a military that found religion a convenient hook. Frank Rich describes the internal propaganda used during the war. What I find shocking is that Bush received regular intelligence briefings with covers that invoked a combination of G.I. Joe war imagery and militaristic bible verses. Take the one dated April 3, 2003, two weeks into the invasion, just as Shock and Awe hit its first potholes. Two days earlier, on April 1, a panicky Pentagon had begun spreading its…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Plants Absorb More Carbon Dioxide Under Polluted Hazy Skies: Plants absorbed carbon dioxide more efficiently under the polluted skies of recent decades than they would have done in a cleaner atmosphere, according to new findings published this week in Nature. Why You May Lose That Loving Feeling After Tying The Knot: Dating couples whose dreams include marriage would do well to step back and reflect upon the type of support they'll need from their partners when they cross the threshold, a new Northwestern University study suggests. A Warm TV Can Drive Away Feelings Of Loneliness And…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Photos Reveal Myanmar's Large And Small Predators: Using remote camera traps to lift the veil on Myanmar's dense northern wild lands, researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society have painstakingly gathered a bank of valuable data on the country's populations of tigers and other smaller, lesser known carnivores (see photo attachments). These findings will help in the formulation of conservation strategies for the country's wildlife. Erectile Dysfunction Related To Sleep Apnea May Persist, But Is Treatable: For sufferers of sleep apnea, erectile dysfunction (ED) is often part of the…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Despite 'Peacenik' Reputation, Bonobos Hunt And Eat Other Primates, Too: Unlike the male-dominated societies of their chimpanzee relatives, bonobo society--in which females enjoy a higher social status than males--has a "make-love-not-war" kind of image. While chimpanzee males frequently band together to hunt and kill monkeys, the more peaceful bonobos were believed to restrict what meat they do eat to forest antelopes, squirrels, and rodents. Did Termites Help Katrina Destroy New Orleans Floodwalls And Levees?: Three years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, people still…

Tear Down This Myth

Will Bunch of Attytood recently published an interesting and important book - Tear Down This Myth: How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our Future. On his blog, Will provides an excerpt and commentary: Twenty years gone - but Reagan still matters. About this time one year ago, unceasing Reagan idolatry hijacked the race for the White House. Sometimes it was voiced in the name of policies on immigration or toward Iran that were the exact opposite of what really happened a generation ago. The power of this political fantasy - expressed mainly, of course, on the GOP side…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Infidelity Produces Faster Sperm, Swedish Fish Study Finds: Until now, it has been difficult to prove that fast-swimming sperm have an advantage when it comes to fertilizing an egg. But now a research team at Uppsala University can demonstrate that unfaithful females of the cichlid fish species influence the males' sperm. Increased competition leads to both faster and larger sperm, and the research findings now being published in the scientific journal PNAS, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, thus show that the much mythologized size factor does indeed count. The Un-favorite…

ScienceOnline'09 - introducing the participants 4

Let's highlight some more of the participants of this year's ScienceOnline09 conference: Karen James is the Director of Science for The Beagle Project, writes the Beagle Project Blog and also works full time at the Natural History Museum in London doing original research in the Department of Botany. At the conference, Karen will be on two panels: Hey, You Can't Say That! and Blogging adventure: how to post from strange locations. Anne Jefferson is a hydrogeologist at UNC-Charlotte and blogs on Watershed Hydrogeology Blog. Clinton Jenkins is an ecologist and researcher in the Pimm group at…

Science Change.gov

Under Bush, Science Learned It Must Speak Up: Barack Obama received a relatively quiet endorsement on Aug. 23 from 61 of the country's Nobel laureates in physics, medicine and chemistry -- scientific heavyweights who used the occasion to both call for a scientific renewal in America and critique the state of American science at the end of the Bush era. "During the administration of George W. Bush," their open letter charged, "vital parts of our country's scientific enterprise have been damaged by stagnant or declining federal support. The government's scientific advisory process has been…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Crafting Your Image For Your 1,000 Friends On Facebook Or MySpace: Students are creating idealized versions of themselves on social networking websites -- Facebook and MySpace are the most popular -- and using these sites to explore their emerging identities, UCLA psychologists report. Parents often understand very little about this phenomenon, they say. Oh, What A Feeling! Regaining Ability To Interpret Emotions After Severe Brain Injury: People who have lost the ability to interpret emotion after a severe brain injury can regain this vital social skill by being re-educated to read body…

My picks from ScienceDaily

With Skate Eyes, Scientists Peer Into Human Disease: Paradoxically, the photoreceptor cells in our retinas release more of their neurotransmitter, glutamate, in the dark, when there is nothing to see, than they do in the light. This is doubly surprising since although glutamate is a major signaling molecule in the retina and throughout the central nervous system, it is also a potent cytotoxin that, in large doses, can kill nearby cells. New Algorithm Significantly Boosts Routing Efficiency Of Networks: A time-and-money-saving question shared by commuters in their cars and networks sharing…

Today in OA

Citation Statistics (pdf): This is a report about the use and misuse of citation data in the assessment of scientific research. The idea that research assessment must be done using "simple and objective" methods is increasingly prevalent today. The "simple and objective" methods are broadly interpreted as bibliometrics, that is, citation data and the statistics derived from them. There is a belief that citation statistics are inherently more accurate because they substitute simple numbers for complex judgments, and hence overcome the possible subjectivity of peer review. But this belief is…

My Picks From ScienceDaily

Huge Genome-scale Phylogenetic Study Of Birds Rewrites Evolutionary Tree-of-life: The largest ever study of bird genetics has not only shaken up but completely redrawn the avian evolutionary tree. The study challenges current classifications, alters our understanding of avian evolution, and provides a valuable resource for phylogenetic and comparative studies in birds. Cocoa Genome To Be Sequenced: May Benefit Millions Of Farmers, Help Sustain World's Chocolate Supply: The United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), Mars, Incorporated, and IBM intend to…

My Picks From ScienceDaily

Living Fossils Have Long- And Short-term Memory Despite Lacking Brain Structures Of Modern Cephalopods: Robyn Crook from the City University of New York reports that Nautilus, the ancient living ancestors of modern cephalopods, have both long and short-term memory, despite lacking the brain structures that modern cephalopods evolved for long-term memory. Slide Rule Sense: Amazonian Indigenous Culture Demonstrates Universal Mapping Of Number Onto Space: The ability to map numbers onto a line, a foundation of all mathematics, is universal, says a study published May 30 in the journal Science,…

My Picks From ScienceDaily

Why Female Deer Like A Stag To Be A Big Noise In The Forest: Impressive antlers may be the most eye-catching attribute of the male red deer, but it's the quality of a stag's mating call that attracts the female of the species, a new study from the University of Sussex has discovered. Surprising Origin Of Cell's Internal Highways: Scientists have long thought that microtubules, part of the microscopic scaffolding that the cell uses to move things around in order to hold its shape and divide, originated from a tiny structure near the nucleus, called the centrosome. Now, researchers at…

International Carnival of Pozitivities

An e-mail from Ron Hudson just popped up in my mailbox: Dear Friends of the International Carnival of Pozitivities (ICP): The 13th consecutive and first edition of Year Two of the ICP will be hosted at ScribeSpirit eZine. We, myself and the hosts Jody and Jolen, are now seeking submissions for this first edition of the new year. Please visit our last edition and the ICP Homepage to read the details of this project. All twelve existing editions are available via links from the homepage. If you are living with, working to treat or cure, or concerned about HIV/AIDS and its potential effects…

I get email

I was wondering why I was getting the sudden upsurge in hate mail, and one kind messenger was generous enough to tell me his source. In an ironic way, with naughty words. You might not want to look below the fold if you're 3 years old or younger. Received: from QMTA01.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net (qmta01.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net [76.96.30.16]) Message-ID: <49B40AE7.2010807@comcast.net> Date: Sun, 08 Mar 2009 13:13:59 -0500 From: "Baker, James M. " <usnvet@comcast.net> User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.19 (Windows/20081209) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: pzmyers@gmail.com Subject:…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Velociraptor Had Feathers: A new look at some old bones have shown that velociraptor, the dinosaur made famous in the movie Jurassic Park, had feathers. The discovery was made by paleontologists at the American Museum of Natural History and the Field Museum of Natural History. Personal Genomes: Mainstream In Five Years, But Who Should Have Access?: Imagine this: you visit your clinician, undergo genetic testing, and then you are handed a miniature hard drive containing your personal genome sequence, which is subsequently uploaded onto publicly accessible databases. This may sound like science…

SciVee.com

Video is taking over science communication. And why not? Now that paper is outdated, the limitations of that ancient technology should not apply to scientific publishing any more. Just because paper cannot support movies does not mean that modern scientific papers should shy away from using them. Last week saw the launch of SciVee, essentially an aggregator of science movies. Now, you may ask - why do we need yet another one of those sites? There are several out there already. Journal of Visualized Experiments is a real journal - the videos are submitted and reviewed first and, if…

Me and the Copperheads

Last week I had lunch with a good old friend of mine, Jim Green. He got his degree in Zoology, then a law degree (patent law) and is now coming back for yet another degree in biological and chemical engineering. He did his research on snakes, so we reminisced and laughed about the time several years ago (that was before Kevin joined the lab, which is why I was recruited for this study in the first place) when we were taking blood samples from copperheads. What we wanted to do is see if snakes have melatonin and if so, if it shows a diurnal rhythm in concentration like it does in other…

New and Exciting in PLoS Community Journals

Thursday night is a good time to see what is new on PLoS Pathogens, Computational Biology, Genetics and Neglected Tropical Diseases. Here are my picks for the week: Hemolytic C-Type Lectin CEL-III from Sea Cucumber Expressed in Transgenic Mosquitoes Impairs Malaria Parasite Development: Malaria is arguably the most important vector-borne disease worldwide, affecting 300 million people and killing 1-2 million people every year. The lack of an effective vaccine and the emergence of the parasites' resistance to many existing anti-malarial drugs have aggravated the situation. Clearly,…

Which Single Intervention Would Do the Most to Improve the Health of Those Living on Less Than $1 Per Day?

Since I was gone to two meetings and nobody else can walk the dog as regularly as I can, the dog spent the week at Grandma's in Raleigh. Today I went to pick her up (the dog, that is) which placed me in the car at precisely the time of NPR's Talk of the Nation Science Friday (OK, I intentionally timed it that way). And lo and behold, there was Gavin Yamey on the radio! Hey, I thought, I know this guy! We had lunch together and we exchange at least a dozen e-mails every week. Gavin is editor at PLoS Medicine and, as part of the Global Theme Issue on Poverty and Human Development, he…