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Should I go to this "medical" conference? Or, sometimes the universe laughs at me.

Sometimes, coincidence is a strange thing indeed. Friday, I wrote this post about yet another meta-analysis whose results are completely consistent with acupuncture being nothing more than an elaborate placebo. Later that day, less than four hours after my post went live, I received this e-mail sent, not to my work account or my other Gmail account, but rather to my account for this blog: For immediate release Contact: Karla Shepard Rubinger, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (914) 740-2100, ext 2153, krubinger@liebertpub.com 21st Annual Symposium of the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture to Be…

Robert Lancaster needs your help to keep up the good fight against Sylvia Browne

I got this e-mail the other day, and I urge everyone who's ever linked to Robert Lancaster's excellent site to do as Tim Farley requests. (While you're at it, you should consider linking to Farley's equally useful What's the Harm?): I'm writing you because your site is one of the top ranked sites (according to Google) which hyperlinks to the site Stop Sylvia Browne. As you know, Robert Lancaster has done a fantastic service to the community by creating and maintaining this site over the last two years.  Robert is currently in the hospital recovering from a stroke that he had in August.…

Thinking Blogger Award

Shalini at Scientia Natura has bestowed upon me the Thinking Blogger Award. I'm honored. I've always thought I probably think too much, so it's nice to receive some accolades for it. (Normally, I see it more as a curse.) Fortunately or unfortunately, this 'award' looks suspiciously like a meme: 1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think. 2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme. 3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative…

Kindergarten and College Blues

I must apologize to anyone who stopped by in the past week. I had planned for a week long vacation, but neglected to plan for the usual chaos on my return, so it turned out to be more like two. Today was my son's first day of kindergarten, so we've been preparing supplies and talking about the "big kid school." I can't remember... was it that scary and exciting for us, as kindergarteners? Or has it always been more of an emotional struggle for the parents? Of course, my nerves are always shot on the first day of class, even in college. I also started classes this week. I realized that…

Clones are people, too

...or at least they would be if someone had cloned a person by now. I've missed the last few "Ask a Science Blogger" questions, which I now regret. I can easily describe the qualities of an excellent science teacher, or discuss how the new science behind chaos and complexity has affected policy... but in order to answer this week's question, I need to pull out my views from the past. Ten years ago, to be specific: On July 5, 1996, Dolly the sheep became the first successfully cloned mammal. Ten years on, has cloning developed the way you expected it to? Ten years ago, I was rather shy…

God, monkeys and snakes

Darwin at his best--always questioning the very foundations. With respect to immortality,1 nothing shows me how strong and almost instinctive a belief it is, as the consideration of the view now held by most physicists, namely that the sun with all the planets will in time grow too cold for life, unless indeed some great body dashes into the sun and thus gives it fresh life.--Believing as I do that man in the distant future will be a far more perfect creature than he now is, it is an intolerable thought that he and all other sentient beings are doomed to complete annihilation after such long-…

Famous Six Degrees of Separation Study a Fraud?

Every time I see that someone has joined the Six Degrees of Separation experiment group on Facebook (which now has more than 2.5 million people in it), I think about something I posted about on Culture Dish a few years ago: At this point, pretty much everyone knows the theory of Six Degrees of Separation: That everyone in the world somehow connected through a chain of six people. What most people don't know is, the results from the study that supposedly proved the theory were seriously flawed ... The phrase "Six Degrees of Separation" was coined by inspired by a study by Stanley Milgram…

The Singularity Is Near! (The Apocolypse Shortly Thereafter)

Rev 1:16 And the robot spoke onto him "Nice Weather Today Sir" and out of his hand went a semi-automatic .22 rifle. Rev 1:17 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: Rev 1:18 I [am] he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. Rev 1:19 Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; See even the bible is foretelling the end of days when a computer offers small talk and…

No triumph today [encore edition]

Someone told me at a wine-tasting the other night that this blog is "good, but really depressing." Depressing, my eye! This blog is all sweetness and light. Just behold this entry from my first month of residency; the last thing it makes me want to do is jump off a bridge. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * I got a spot of blood on my dress today. It happened as I was on my way out of the hospital and heard the code bells ring. I ran, cursing, past two women clutching each other in a hallway, into a room where a man was lying unconscious in a chair,…

The Mountains Once Smoldered

On my way from an interview the other day, on my way home, I was winding up a mountain in a little town called Windber when the tree line broke to my right, revealing a panoramic, and quite startling sight. Spread out against the sky, like a patient etherised upon a table, so to speak, was a huge expanse of what was once the beginnings of Windber, and many little towns before and after, the remnants of a giant coal mine. Naturally, I took some time to take a closer look and a few photos. The mine itself was called Mine 40, while the town that cropped up around it, created and managed by the…

mantle to microbe: a grad student's first conference

Hi ScienceBlogs... it is GREAT to be here! I just spent the weekend with many of the scientists whose research has comprised the bulk of my reading material (ie brain-biggering) over the last 1.5 years... yikes! I also got to meet many other young scientists hoping to make a career out of this crazy science game. It was totally awesome, and quite a whirlwind. I was at the 2010 Ridge2000 community meeting in Portland, OR. It was a meeting of about 140 people united by their shared interested in better understanding what goes on at mid-ocean ridges. We represented disciplines ranging from…

Homicides in NSW and gun control

Charles Scripter wrote: [...regarding Tim Lambert's assertion of a significant decrease in homicide in New South Wales in 1920, coincident with the enactment of a gun control law in NSW in that same year...] The Lambert analysis method clearly shows that there was a significant decrease for any year one may choose, from 1910 to 1930. The statistical test shows that we can reject the null hypothesis of no change in the homicide rate in NSW between 1910 and 1930. Because the change is so highly significant, it also possible to reject the same null hypothesis by putting a step at other years…

Bearded Fireworm: A macro study of a mean-looking polychaete

They look like a cross between a caterpillar and a tricked out centipede. They crawl about with considerable agility, they are voracious feeders, and they certainly know how to defend themselves. Meet the Bearded Fireworm (Hermodice carunculata), a free-moving marine Polychaete worm. This species is widely distributed from the Caribbean, throughout the warmer waters of the Atlantic Ocean (including Florida and the Bahamas), and all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. All of the images in this post were captured in the Mediterranean, in the waters around Cyprus and Greece. H. carunculata is…

Geological Predictions for 2009

Geotripper always comes up with the best memes [Oh, wait, looks like Brian at Clastic Detritus might have priority on this one - sorry Brian!] He's made some psychic predictions for 2009. But I think his crystal ball must have some inclusions that are scattering away his mind-energy vibrational tones, because this is what I saw in the melted cheese on my pizza last night: Episodic tremor and slip on the Cascadia subduction zone occurring early this spring will trigger the long-dreaded subduction zone megathrust event. The magnitude ~9 earthquake, and ensuing tsunami, devastate the coastal…

More on Mathphobia

I've been reading The Design of Everyday Things, which I recommend as a useful and interesting way of thinking about all sorts of minor frustrations in daily life. It's also applicable to teaching - I've definitely noticed many student problems that have more to do with misunderstanding the nature and purpose of the assignment, than with misunderstanding the concepts involved. I was blown away when I realized that not everyone automatically interprets an expression like "Nc(M)" to mean a quantity Nc that is a function of a variable M, but apparently a dedicated mathphobe in the California…

The Results! Part 2

The past few days I've been learning a lot about the bacteria that surround me and realizing just how labor intensive an actually well-controlled handwashing experiment can be! Here is a little bit more of the data I've collected about bacteria on everyday objects: Dusty corners (unsurprisingly?) have the most bacteria, followed by chewed gum, then pens and computer mice. These data also show that the medium of bacterial transmission has a huge effect on what shows up on the plate. Leaving the actual object on the plate--in this case a dust bunny--allows for a lot of bacterial transfer, as…

Science is Social

I got the chance to attend a panel discussion about science and the media presented by the UK-based charity Sense About Science. The audience was primarily scientists, many of whom were angry about how science is presented in the media: the outlandish claims, the hype, presenting "both sides" of stories where there is clear scientific consensus. The panel included a professional scientist who teaches about communicating with the public, an editor at the journal Cell, and a science reporter for the Boston Globe. The panel was mostly about "traditional" media, with a little shout-out to blogs…

What kind of toxic chemcials would you be worried about from that jet crash in San Diego?

You've probably heard that a F/A-18D jet crashed in San Diego on approach to Miramar, killing 3 on the ground (the pilot ejected and is fine). A lot of the news reports noted that ~20 homes were evacuated due to 'toxic chemicals'. What sort of chemicals would you be worried about? First Responders and Bystanders Beyond the physical hazards (things under pressure like hydraulics, O2 canisters,...etc), there's all kinds of stuff to worry about like fuel, oils, hydraulic fluids, beryllium, lithium, chromium, mercury, and possibly radioactive compounds. But the biggest hazard is simply the…

What's wrong with Earth Day?

What's wrong with Earth Day? The name, for one. Earth day. Protecting mother earth. Saving the environment. What's wrong with these? They're all about the earth. No humans mentioned. For a day that's supposed to highlight the damage we are doing and to energize some action, it's woefully off the mark. The degredation of the environment is harmful for people, this is what matters. Doubtless, there are those who care about the environment for the environment's sake. You are entitled to your value but let me tell you that the majority of humanity does not share your outlook. They majority may,…

How far are we from the $1000 genome?

Still quite a way, based on this survey of second-generation sequencing users (subscription only, I think) conducted by the industry publication In Sequence. Along with a range of other questions, the survey asked users about the cost to generate one billion base pairs (one gigabase, or Gb) on their platform at the end of 2008, which is about as current as we're likely to get. I've estimated below the total cost to sequence a complete* human genome, assuming an overall depth of coverage** of 30x, for the three most widely-used second-generation platforms: The fine print Note that the number…

Surprising genetic connections between diabetes, celiac disease and HIV susceptibility

An article in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine takes a look at the sharing of genetic risk factors between type 1 diabetes and celiac disease, two reasonably common auto-immune disorders (affecting ~0.4 and ~0.1%, respectively, of individuals of northern European origin). Celiac disease is more common in type 1 diabetes than in the general population, so there's some reason to expect some shared genetic risk factors between the two disease. And indeed in this study the degree of overlap in risk genes between the two diseases is striking - out of 25 genes with a well-…

George Will: not so strong on the logic thing

His latest column chides the climate Cassandras, and makes a really bizarre argument. Did you know that there have been severe disruptions of human activity by non-anthropogenic climate change in the past? And if climate Cassandras are as conscientious as they claim to be about weighing evidence, how do they accommodate historical evidence of enormously consequential episodes of climate change not produced by human activity? We accommodate the facts of catastrophic events with no problem at all. Volcanoes have erupted and meteors have smashed into the Earth, all without any triggering or…

McCain's Own Agents of Intolerance

As the media circus over Jeremiah Wright continues, it should give us pause that the media hasn't decided to focus on John McCain and his embrace of a wide range of religious bigots. Although McCain once called these men "agents of intolerance" in 2000, he has since done a total flip-flop and openly embraced them in the 2008 campaign. Compare this to Barack Obama, who has now fully renounced his former pastor--as he rightfully should have. Whether this slanted coverage is due to racial bias, or just to the fact that these outrageous conservative white religious figures are so ingrained in…

Take Action on CHIP!

As I've mentioned previously, the Senate Finance Committee is considering a $35 billion expansion to the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP or CHIP), which is currently scheduled to expire in September. Incredibly enough, President Bush has already declared that he will veto such a bill. This is the same president who, just a year ago from tomorrow, used his first veto after five and a half years of office on, of all things, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act. It appears, then, that the President will be the most significant obstacle to overcome in passing an expansion of…

"Moderate" Republicans Pander to the Religious Right

As 2008 approaches, many of the Republican contenders for the Presidency will try to paint themselves as moderates. An article in today's Washington Post, though, underlines why we should be weary of their empty rhetoric. Romney, who is expected to formally enter the presidential race today in Dearborn, Mich., has been particularly aggressive. In October he held a casual gathering at his Boston home for a who's who of social conservative leaders. Falwell and evangelist Franklin Graham munched on sandwiches and sipped soup alongside former presidential candidate Gary Bauer and pastor Richard…

An Inconvenient AP Story for Republicans

Yesterday, the AP released a story describing the general approval within the scientific community of the science behind Al Gore's new documentary An Inconvenient Truth The AP contacted more than 100 top climate researchers by e-mail and phone for their opinion. Among those contacted were vocal skeptics of climate change theory. Most scientists had not seen the movie, which is in limited release, or read the book. But those who have seen it had the same general impression: Gore conveyed the science correctly; the world is getting hotter and it is a manmade catastrophe-in-the-making caused by…

The Big Fake "Fiscal Cliff"

From the moment I learned about the impending "fiscal cliff," I was skeptical. Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) recently wrote in an email blast with a subject line "An Artificial Crisis" something that should be shared widely. Washington and the talk shows are captivated by talk of the “fiscal cliff”: the combination of automatic spending cuts and revenue increases scheduled to take effect at the end of the year. Unfortunately, this is the wrong conversation for America to be having. The fiscal cliff is an artificial crisis created by renegades who used America’s statutory debt limit to hold the…

Building Our Future: Interview With a Cranky New Jersey Taxpayer

This article was written with Corina Hernandez, a Public Administration major at Kean University. The "college student" is fictional. On Election Day, New Jersey voters will be asked: Do you approve the "Building Our Future Bond Act?" This bond act authorizes the state to issue bonds in the aggregate principal of $750 million to provide matching grants to New Jersey's colleges and universities. Money from the grants will be used to build, equip and expand higher education facilities for the purpose of increasing academic capacity. Cranky taxpayer: Are you kidding me? New Jersey is already…

The Unbearable Lightness of Dying?

Death has been everywhere in the news media since the announcement of Bin Laden's demise on Sunday. How this historic event will affect global terrorism is unknown; perhaps the most important news of all was of the treasure trove of computers and files found in Bin Laden's luxury "compound." With this event in mind, I came across today one of the strangest (some might say creepy) studies I have ever read - a biochemical study on death and dying. Researchers have found that death and dying can invoke euphoria and something like an "unbearable lightness." Seriously. In a study published in…

Friday Flash Fun: SpaceChem

It's been a while since we had some Friday Flash Fun here at SciencePunk, but this one really blew me out of the water. SpaceChem is currently causing quite a stir amongst the gaming websites: Escapist Magazine gave it the Genre Buster award and Rock Paper Shotgun hailed it as "one of the year's best indie games". Deservedly so, in my opinion. SpaceChem puts you in the shoes of a junior materials chemist, blasted into the depths of space to work for a pan-galactic mining corporation. Your job is to build complex molecules from the basic chemicals mined out of these planets. At your…

World's Science Academies Endorse Teaching of Evolution (Duh!)

Today, the Interacademy Panel on International Issues (IAP), an organization of 92 scientific academies from around the globe, released a statement endorsing the importance of teaching evolution as a fundamental scientific principle. The IAP emphasizes the following uncontested evolutionary facts: In a universe that has evolved towards its present configuration for some 11 to 15 billion years, our Earth formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago. Since its formation, the Earth - its geology and its environments - has changed under the effect of numerous physical and chemical forces and…

How do you really feel, Dr. Wakeley?

I'm currently working my way through John Wakeley's book on Coalescent Theory. (The website has a few pre-publication chapters if you want to take a peek.) In his introductory chapter, Wakeley introduces the concept of gene genealogies. He's careful to point out that, unlike the phylogenies we construct using inter-specific data, we don't actually use intra-specific gene genealogies to infer the relationships of the sequences we've sampled: Readers used to "tree thinking," which is the subject of Section 1.1, will have little trouble seeing the close connection between gene genealogies and…

Watson's Genome

Last year, Craig Venter became the first single person to have his genome sequence published (doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0050254). That genome was sequenced using the old-school Sanger technique. It marked the second time the complete human genome had been published (which led to some discussion as to whether the publication deserved to be published in a high profile journal like PLoS Biology), and the first time all of the sequence came from a single individual. This past week, Nature published the second complete genome sequence of a single individual (doi:10.1038/nature06884). Like Venter,…

DonorsChoose.org ScienceBlogs Challenge 2007

Some of you may recall that last year we held a sort-of fundraiser to support science education. The program was organized through DonorsChoose.org, a non-profit dedicated to getting money to teachers to support in class projects. Each teacher submits a proposal requesting funds for their desired project, and prospective donors select which project they would like to support with their donation -- hence, Donors Choose. Last year evolgen readers raised over $500 ($881 to be exact), and ScienceBlogs readers in total raised over $15,000 (with Seed chipping in another $10,000). This year we've…

That Crab Has Flies

Among my many pet peeves are when people refer to Drosophila as fruit flies (they are not). Real fruit flies (Tephritids) feed, mate, and lay their eggs on live fruit -- for this reason, many are agricultural pests (e.g., the medfly). Drosophila, on the other hand, feed on the micro-organisms found primarily on rotting fruit or other rotting plant parts. For this reason, I like to think of Drosophila as one of the most refined insects because they prefer fermented sugars (like beers and wines). While the majority of Drosophila feed on rotting plant material, some have found an even more…

SCIENCE SPRING SHOWDOWN: Octopus Region -- 2nd Round Preview

1st ROUND RESULTS | PRESS CENTER | PRINTABLE BRACKETS After the excitement of the first round action in the Octopus region, we can only hope that the second round is half as dynamic. The big upset last round saw Unipotent knocking off Totipotent. There has also been an interesting twist, as Internal Medicine was disqualified for a positive steroid test. That means Surgery advances to play the Invertebrates. In the other matches this round, we will see Genomics take on Photosynthesis, Unipotent challenge Phylogenetics, and HIV play Psychology. #1 Invertebrates vs. #9 Internal Medicine #8…

I love snopes.com

Every so often, I'll get a forward from some friend or family member (usually not one who started using the Internet in college or grad school, as I did), warning us of some scam, some crime, some upcoming law, or some such. 99+% of the time, this is some sort of hoax. A quick search of the web will reveal that it's a reasonably well-known hoax; I'll respond to the whole list letting everybody know about this. One of the best places for this sort of thing is snopes.com. Indeed, I received an E-mail this evening that was, on the face of it, fairly alarming. Fortunately, a quick visit to…

Insanity, werewolves and the lunar eclipse tomorrow.

We all know that the full moon turns you into a werewolf or just plain stark raving mad. Well at least according to this website: The full moon is credited for a lycanthropic man's moonlight metamorphosis into a dangerous howling beast - the werewolf (in North American cultures, or a horse or goat in Brazil, or a tiger in India, and so on). In a less Anthropomorphic vain, many believe that the full moon is responsible for an increase in abnormal psychological behaviors such as suicides and violent crimes. As I shared the introduction of this article to this point with the nurse at my…

Screaming chicken killer

From the Improbable Research blog and Reuters: BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- Hundreds of chickens have been found dead in east China -- and a court has ruled that the cause of death was the screaming of a four-year-old boy who in turn had been scared by a barking dog, state media reported on Wednesday. The bizarre sequence events began when the boy arrived at a village home in the eastern province of Jiangsu in the summer with his father who was delivering bottles of gas, the Nanjing Morning Post reported. A villager was quoted as saying the little boy bent over the henhouse window, screaming…

So…then fecal transplants could be a kind of mind control?

This is an amazing "discovery"! Someone named JA Tetro has been selling interviews and articles to women's magazines and other credulous sources, claiming that your microbiome is the key to compatibility. Tetro says that when you kiss your date, his or her germs make their way into your mouth’s ecosystem. And if it’s a match, you’ll want to keep smooching. This study does one amazing thing, it shows you that kissing is the best way to find a mate for the long term. It might sound really gross but if the bacteria from the other person harmonizes with your bacteria, your immune system is all…

Genetics of virgin birth in the Komodo dragon

I've just read the article on the parthenogenetic Komodo dragons in Nature, and it's very cool. They've analyzed the genetics of the eggs that have failed to develop (the remainder are expected to hatch in January) and determined that they were definitely produced without the aid of a male. We analysed the parentage of the eggs and offspring by genetic fingerprinting. In the clutches of both females, we found that all offspring produced in the absence of males were parthenogens: the overall combined clutch genotype reconstructed that of their mother exactly. Although all offspring were…

Rio Rancho Creationism Policy Overturned

The School Board for Rio Rancho, New Mexico has rescinded "Policy 401" which is said to have supported the teaching of creationism. Let's have a look. I managed to grab a copy of the policy from the Rio Rancho Public Schools web site ... presumably it will disappear shortly: The Rio Rancho Board of Education recognizes that scientific theories, such as theories regarding biological and cosmological origins, may be used to support or to challenge individual religious and philosophical beliefs. Consequently, the teaching of science in public school science classrooms may be of great interest…

Devil vs Darwin

Headline: Poll finds more Americans believe in devil than Darwin DALLAS (Reuters Life!) - More Americans believe in a literal hell and the devil than Darwin's theory of evolution, according to a new Harris poll released on Thursday. It is the latest survey to highlight America's deep level of religiosity, a cultural trait that sets it apart from much of the developed world. It also helps explain many of its political battles which Europeans find bewildering, such as efforts to have "Intelligent Design" theory -- which holds life is too complex to have evolved by chance -- taught in schools…

Sex Difference in Sex Drive

According to a story in the last issue of Psychological Science: ... for most women, high sex drive is associated with increased sexual attraction to both men and women. For men, however, high sex drive is associated with increased sexual attraction to only one sex or the other, depending on the individual's sexual orientation. These results suggest that the correlates of sex drive and the organization of sexual orientation are different for women and men. [This is a repost from Gregladen.com] This is one of those studies where a perfectly good (i.e., falsifiable) hypothesis was being tested…

CERN: "Atoms ... we smashes them"

The Large Hadron Collider has produced some data! Geneva, 23 November 2009. Today the LHC circulated two beams simultaneously for the first time, allowing the operators to test the synchronization of the beams and giving the experiments their first chance to look for proton-proton collisions. With just one bunch of particles circulating in each direction, the beams can be made to cross in up to two places in the ring. From early in the afternoon, the beams were made to cross at points 1 and 5, home to the ATLAS and CMS detectors, both of which were on the look out for collisions. Later,…

The Art of Not Looking Like a Fool (A fish story)

When I am in the mood to fish, and I'm at the lake, I pay special attention to the water. I notice things moving or splashing. I notice the behavior of the terns, the herons, the bald eagles, the loons, and the mergansers. Those fish eating birds are watching the fish and have a better view than I do, and more incentive as well. But mostly I watch the surface of the water. And here is what I've learned: Most of the time you can't see below the surface, out any distance from the shore. You can't tell what is going on at the surface because waves, or ripples caused by a light breeze,…

Pluto Gets Consolation Prize, Will Thumb Nose at Astronomers Forever

Pluto is the ninth planet in our solar system. In our planetary mythology, it is the ninth planet, it is small, far away, cold, and there is an important cartoon dog named after it. But astronomers decided a while ago that Pluto is not a planet. That throws everything out of balance. Nine Planets is not just some number (nine, in this case) and the word "planets." It is a balanced equation, an iconic formula. Like the Holy Trinity. Or the Ten Commandments. Or the Three Stooges. Can you imagine a world in which there are only two stooges? Well, Pluto has been given a kind of…

How does bacon impact the body's physiology?

The question was asked by a Science To Life reader using the "Make a Request" icon. He asked: I am interested in how bacon impacts the body. Is it filling because it has fat that is useful for delaying hunger and quelling the appetite? Is it not damaging because of nitrates or nitrates used in production/preparation? Is it not to be avoided as a fatty heavy protein the body finds hard to metabolize? To answer this question, I turned to fitness expert and author Louiza Patsis MS. Here is her response: High levels of nitrates have been linked to adverse health effects in humans, such as…

T-Rays help uncover hidden art

Scientists are using T-Ray technology in a new way-to help uncover murals that have been hidden under layers of plaster or paint in old buildings. T-Rays (which are pulses of terahertz radiation that were previously used in space shuttle devices) have now been applied to this new technology by a team of researchers that includes scientists at the University of Michigan and the Louvre Museum. Their findings are published in a paper entitled "Terahertz imaging for non-destructive evaluation of mural paintings," in the February 2008 edition of Optics Communications. "Terahertz is a…

Scientists identify genetic basis of common diseases

A consortium of UK researchers has identified genetic markers associated with common diseases like diabetes and coronary disease. The researchers identified small variations in the human genome that appear to be associated with a predisposition to certain diseases. According to the authors, who published in the June issue of Nature, this research is important because the identification of variants, genes and pathways involved in particular diseases offers a potential route to new therapies, improved diagnosis and better disease prevention. What they did: The scientists extracted DNA from…