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Our First Blogiversary

Exactly one year ago today, we published our first post here on The Pump Handle. Itâs been an eventful year, to say the least. By far, our most popular post was David Michaelsâs âPopcorn Lung Coming to Your Kitchen? The FDA Doesnât Want to Know,â which publicized the first reported case of bronchiolitis obliterans in a consumer and the pathetic reaction from public health agencies. Of course this is just one piece of the larger butter-flavoring story, which weâve been following since our inception, mostly focusing on OSHAâs superficial responses to a hazard thatâs robbing workers of their…

California Bans Phthalates in Children's Products

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a state law that will require manufacturers to remove six types of phthalates from products intended for children under the age of three. The San Francisco Chronicle quotes the billâs author, Assemblywoman Fiona Ma: âCalifornia continues to lead the nation in protecting children from dangerous chemicals and in safeguarding our environment," she said. "AB1108 sends a clear message to the Consumer Product Safety Commission that if the Bush administration won't act, states will.â Environmental and breast cancer groups who backed the measure…

Mass market genre surprise

Today, I briefly emerged from my little academic cocoon and stepped outside. I was shocked to discover that the snow had all melted, the lakes were all thawed out, there were birds in the air, and the sun was shining — I think I somehow missed the appearance of spring. Don't worry, I'm buckling back to work in my oubliette now, but it was a bit of a surprise. But that's not what I wanted to mention. It was another surprising bit of weirdness. The reason I was dragged out of the dungeon of academe was to run an errand, and I was at Wal-Mart (don't ask)…and while I was there, bored and awaiting…

The stupidest internal NIH memo ever - or why I can't wait for the new administration

One of the great things about science is that it is open, international, and celebrates the free exchange of ideas. However, during the last 8 years we've seen some odd things at the National Institutes of Health - the premier governmental scientific institution in the world. The paranoia of the current administration has filtered down and contaminated day to day operations of what is essentially an academic health sciences campus. For example, for some bizarre reason they decided to erect a 10 foot high iron fence around the entire campus: And at the entrances every car is searched, every…

My irony meter just exploded

How stupid do you have to be for Jenny McCarthy to legitimately toss the epithet back at you? This question may seem unanswerable, but in this case, McCarthy may have gotten it half right regarding Dennis Leary. The headline at MSNBC delcares: McCarthy calls Leary 'obviously stupid' I don't know much about Leary, but like many comedians he has said something that he will probably regret and move on. In attempting to be funny, Leary scored an epic fail (you can tell it's an epic fail because Jenny did get it half right): "There is a huge boom in autism right now because inattentive mothers…

End Elitism Now!

This isn't just about politics---really. This has something to do with science. You see, one of the memes of this campaign is "elitism" (whatever that means). The appeal of Sarah Palin, we are told, is her "everyday-ness"---she's just a regular gal, not like those elitist politicians in Washington (which presumably includes her running-mate). Sarah Palin is not a "regular gal". She come from an earthy rural background, but she is clearly intelligent, politically astute, and competent, having ascended to the governorship of one of our states while at the same time raising a large family…

Detoxification: New Environmental Concerns Necessitate Action

As PalMD has pointed out, millions of Americans use detoxification to improve their optimal health and well being. But the wisdom of detoxification has an underbelly, one not discussed in the MSM: what happens to those toxins after detoxification? Unfortunately, those toxins do not just disappear. They are exuded from your body and circulate in your immediate environment, placing your family members and animal companions at risk. The toxins then magnify in their bodies, and if they detoxify, you can be retoxinated. This is what is called the deretoxification trap. An additional problem…

Putting the Rose to Bed

Okay, as Denialism's lawyer, let me get to the issue of the rose tattoo. A medical procedure is a battery. Patients consent to it, thus allowing the doctor to engage in even invasive touching without liability for the battery. The scope of consent is key, however. Many individuals have a rough sense of consent; they think that if consent is given to one thing, anything goes. But, the law takes a much more nuanced approach to consent. Thus, a patient does not consent to all forms of touching, just ones that are consistent with the procedure authorized. Was applying a rose tattoo within…

How do you say it?

I am often the bearer of bad news. I don't think I've ever been formally taught how to deliver bad news, but I've developed a style over the years, and I'm pretty good at it. I work with medical residents every day in their outpatient clinics. Most of them have never had to deliver bad news. Some people are natural communicators, and some aren't. Often, one of my residents just "gets it"---they have a great deal of empathy, can "read" the patient from moment to moment, and without any help from me, they can successfully give the news. What does it mean to give bad news "successfully"?…

Al Qaeda is apparently irritated by 9/11 conspiracy cranks too

Here's one of the more amusing news stories I've seen. Apparently Al Qaeda is irritated with Ahmadinejad's 9/11 conspiracy theories. It turns out the people who committed the atrocity are quite proud of it, and don't want people to forget it. Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader issued a new audiotape Tuesday accusing Shiite Iran of spreading a conspiracy theory about who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks to discredit the power of the Sunni terrorist network. Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden's deputy, has stepped up his denunciations of Iran in recent messages in part to depict al-Qaida as the Arabs'…

Uri Geller makes a comeback!

Watching 30 Rock and the Office tonight I kept on seeing this commercial for a new show called "Phenomenon". The story goes: The search for the impossible begins...there are those who claim special powers, but only one can be called the greatest. Now, the mind of Uri Geller, and the mastery of Chris Angel will test them all before the world, and everything you see will be live. I was cracking up because when they show Geller he's got this sign that bends behind him. I can't believe it, he still tries to milk this idea that he can bend metal like he's some kind of spoon-bending genius. I'd…

Casey Luskin - Game show audiences and national intellect: a study

I am always amused by this statement at the bottom of the Evolution News and Views website. It says: The misreporting of the evolution issue is one key reason for this site. Unfortunately, much of the news coverage has been sloppy, inaccurate, and in some cases, overtly biased. Evolution News & Views presents analysis of that coverage, as well as original reporting that accurately delivers information about the current state of the debate over Darwinian evolution. Click here to read more. That being said, Casey Luskin shows just how accurate and unbiased his little news service can be,…

A question for Luskin

Evolution news and views on me That's fascinating logic: apparently the widespread feeling that it is "sensible" to remove individuals of a particular viewpoint does not necessarily mean there's a "conspiracy" to remove individuals with a particular viewpoint. Mr. Luskin, is it the considered opinion of the DI, UD etc., that it is never acceptable to discriminate against a professor in a tenure decision based on their ideas? You know, I tolerate lots of people with different ideas from mine, and there is a broad range of ideas that are perfectly acceptable to me. If other scientists hold…

When will Maj. Freddy J. Welborn be court-martialed?

I think he's due, but he's not the only one. It's like our entire army is being turned into a pocket theocracy. When Specialist Jeremy Hall held a meeting last July for atheists and freethinkers at Camp Speicher in Iraq, he was excited, he said, to see an officer attending. But minutes into the talk, the officer, Maj. Freddy J. Welborn, began to berate Specialist Hall and another soldier about atheism, Specialist Hall wrote in a sworn statement. "People like you are not holding up the Constitution and are going against what the founding fathers, who were Christians, wanted for America!" Major…

Ed Brayton Exposes Sal Cordova's Cherry Picking

It was pointed out in a comment in our FRC post how much cherry picking resembles rank dishonesty. That's because it is. Deception is inherent in denialist arguments, and there are few better examples than Sal Cordova's selective quotation as demonstrated by Ed Brayton in Dispatches from the Culture Wars. Check out the Sal Cordova version: Charles Darwin, perhaps medicine's most famous dropout, provided the impetus for a subject that figures so rarely in medical education. Indeed, even the iconic textbook example of evolution--antibiotic resistance--is rarely described as "evolution" in…

You're also too pretty for math

I wasn't going to raise this comment en blogge, but with Dr. Isis' new post, it becomes more relevant. From Rick Fletcher on the "you're too pretty" post: It's a major issue if your department won't hire your or promote you because you are a woman. It's no surprise that a retail clerk at a small shop in a downtown area is not the smoothest operator. 25 years ago it was a common response when I was introduced as a PhD chemist: "You don't seem like a scientist." Now it's a common response when introduced, "Why are you single?" People say some dumb things. Not exactly the news. But again, it's…

Revamping funding via powerpoint and IM?

Now that a proposed increase of funding to NIH has again been shot down, scientists have to once again face the reality of intense competition for very scarce funds. However, the process of awarding research grants is, well, a bit crazy. Scientists work for months on a grant, drafting, revising, trying to winnow it down to fit the page limitations, finding collaborators and assembling potential research teams, obsessing about minutiae in the methods section. We then cross our fingers and send them off for review (which can take many months), and hope that they'll be well-received. When…

Introducing Correlations

I rarely watch TV, but I'm always up for a good nerd show. So when I was contacted from a representative of the PBS affiliate in L.A. about a new show they were doing in conjunction with WIRED Magazine, I was definitely interested. The show is called WIRED Science (you can watch the pilot or previews on the site). It's kind of like a news magazine TV show--Dateline but with science (and, well, better personalities.) The show premieres next Wednesday, October 3rd at 8 PM (7 Central). So how does this concern me, besides being an interested viewer? The reason they contacted me was…

HIV denial update #2: "alternative" treatments

A reader pointed this out to me awhile back, and it's just too absurd not to mention. You may or may not be familiar with Gary Null. He's a self-proclaimed "natural living" guru, and the writer/director of the recent HIV denial documentary, AIDS Inc.: AIDS, Inc. is a film about the multi-billion dollar AIDS industry, and how it profits from continuing fears and misconceptions about the disease....Could it be that after so many years of research, and so much money being spent, that the entire orthodox medical establishment has been wrong about AIDS, or even worse, has sought to profit on a…

When It's Hard to Recall

The recent recalls of dangerous toys and defective cribs have received a great deal of press attention, but closer analysis reveals that consumer product recalls are generally ineffective at getting most defective products out of consumersâ homes. In many cases, the vast majority of the dangerous recalled items are never returned to the manufacturer. Confusing instructions, missing or late mailing labels, and store clerks who refuse to take returns are among the problems that consumers describe. Consumer advocates point to a problem with the system, which lets companies choose whether…

Occupational Health News Roundup

Two new studies highlight concerns about what some workers are inhaling on the job. An international study published in the Lancet (free registration required to view summary) found that occupational exposures account for a substantial portion of adultsâ new-onset asthma, and that nurses have a significant excess risk of asthma. An Australian study published in Environmental Science & Technology found that several common models of office laser printers release amounts of ultra-fine particle pollution comparable to those from secondhand tobacco smoke. In other news related to what workers…

Top Drug Regulator Sentenced to Death

By David Michaels The Chinese government has apparently recognized the importance of integrity in drug regulation. According to AP: China's top drug regulator was sentenced to death on charges of corruption and negligence, state media said Tuesday, the latest development stemming from growing alarm over the country's poor food-safety record. Zheng Xiaoyu was convicted and sentenced "on charges of taking bribes and dereliction of duty" at the Beijing Municipal No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, the Xinhua News Agency said in a brief dispatch. No other details were given. Zheng was fired…

Friday Blog Roundup

The Supreme Courtâs decision in Massachusetts v. EPA was big news this week; Justin Pidot at Gristmill takes an in-depth look at the rulingâs implications, while Kevin Grandia at DeSmogBlog scrutinizes the stances of the parties opposing it. Then, of course, there was Bushâs recess appointment of Susan Dudley to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which Ian Hart at Integrity of Science describes as part of larger White House assault on science in policymaking. At the state level, Lisa Stiffler at Dateline Earth notes that Washington State is the first in the nation to ban…

Friday Blog Roundup

It looks like we're not the only ones scrutinizing the FDA. Merrill Goozner at GoozNews takes on the agency's prescription drug user fees, conflicted advisory committee members, and guidance for manufacturers, while Revere examines food safety and an experimental bird flu vaccine. Also on the topic of pharmaceuticals, Abel Pharmboy at Terra Sigillata reported that the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists has developed a policy recognizing pharmacists' right to decline to participate in therapies they find morally troubling. This set off a host of other posts: Janet Stemwedel at…

The Only Safe Asbestos Exposure: None

By David Michaels NIOSH scientist Patricia Sullivan has just published a very important study that reminds us (as if any reminder were needed) that there really is no safe level of asbestos exposure. The study looked at the causes of death among workers involved in mining, milling and processing asbestos-containing vermiculite in WR Graceâs plant in Libby, Montana. Dr. Sullivan found increased risk of lung cancer among workers whose lifetime asbestos exposure was only slightly higher than they would receive working a lifetime at the current OSHA standard. A little background: Vermiculite is…

Followup to Morgellons post--link to Collembola?

A reader sent me a link to this site, which contained a reprint of a story by CBS 47 in Jacksonville. Mostly, it was a repeat of the story I already discussed, but it added this tidbit of information: The NPA teamed up with the Oklahoma State Department of Health to study the creepy crawlers. They took skin samples from 20 patients who claim they have the bugs, but were diagnosed by their doctors as delusional. Researchers found collembolan, a microscopic critter, in 18 of the 20 patients. Collembola feed on algae, bacteria and decaying matter. They thrive in wet or damp surroundings, and…

In which I quit my job and rally against the germ theory of disease

Evolutionary biologists sometimes think we microbiology people have it easy. "No one doubts the germ theory!," they claim. Au contraire, mes amis: Do some research Tara. Then you will be ready to start from scratch again, forget the germ theory nonsense and become a real scientist. And I bet this insult will sound familiar to many used to dealing with the anti-science brigades: Evidence is all around and you have as much evidence as I do. The sole difference between you and me is that you are still blindfolded by a century of dogmatic thinking and are not able to see the evidence. You…

Martha, Martha, Martha...

Following this post about an outbreak of E. coli O157 at a daycare, I received a few emails asking thoughtful questions about food safety. One in particular asked about what food manufacturers are doing to keep their products safe, and what public health officials are doing to educate the public about how to properly handle and cook food. For the latter, I replied that we're doing what we can, but that it's difficult to reach people and get them to listen to advice on a topic where many people already feel they have enough education (I mean, food preparation and cooking isn't exactly…

Lepidoptera blogging, Part 2

I mentioned we were out camping over the weekend in central Iowa. After our first close encounter, I figured we might as well make a weekend out of it, so Sunday we headed to the Reiman Gardens at Iowa State University (and specifically, the Christine Reiman butterfly wing): The new 2,500-square-foot indoor Christina Reiman Butterfly Wing is the "jewel" of the Gardens. Designed to look like a butterfly in flight, it is a year-round tropical garden filled with exotic and native butterflies from six continents. I have tons of pictures, so I'll break them up into a few posts, starting below.…

Lyme-ese

Over at Doc Around the Clock, Dr. IBear has a nice post on Lyme disease: what it is, what it's not, and how to deal with ticks (appropriately, not as his mom removed them). He mentions this: Most of the time people who get Lyme disease don't even know or remember being bitten by a tick. Thus, it stands to reason that if you do remember being bitten by a tick you probably don't have Lyme disease. I want to elaborate on this just a bit, below. A reason many people don't realize they've been bitten is because when the tick bites the human to transmit the Borrelia spirochete, it's not always a…

Saturday roundup

Just a few things that have either been sitting in my drafts box and I know I won't have a chance to get to, or stuff I saw elsewhere that deserves a mention. Check out this excellent (and hilarious) post by Skip Evans on creationists and boobies. I've posted previously here about our eagles here in Iowa. Phil at the Bad Astronomy Blog gives links to 2 webcams, where you can watch the nests of eagles or peregrine falcons (another favorite bird of mine). They've shut down the eagle one because the eggs didn't hatch and the parents left the nest, but there's a fluffy white falcon chick (…

This is why you should never source Wikipedia

So, who has heard of the Rife Machine? It is a quack device that purports to destroy diseases by homing in on their resonant frequency, and disrupting them with radiofrequency (RF) waves (like a soundwave shattering a wine glass). I've met true believers of this stuff before, and there is little you can do to dissuade them of the magical power of these machines, that when dissected reveal they're little more than batteries with flashing LED-lights - and no capability of generating specific radio frequencies. I just got an email this weekend about recent hucksters selling these in…

More prediction of the past - from the future!

Casey Luskin is also celebrating the death of the "junk" DNA hypothesis over at Evolution News and Views. You see, a Wired magazine article has breathlessly reported what we've known for decades. And guess what? Just like Sal Cordova, Luskin has a really interesting view of the history of biology and the "junk" DNA timeline. Except he has even better proof that ID was responsible for our discovery that non-coding DNA had a function. You see, I thought Sal Cordova was a moron for suggesting that Behe's prediction of function for non-coding DNA in the late 90s was something to brag about…

It's weird. It's spiky. It needs you to identify it.

Once again I'm in that frustrating position so beloved of bloggers: where life and work just doesn't let you fritter away all those 'spare' hours preparing lengthy blog articles. In the mean time, here's one of those 'mystery pictures' to identify. What is it? Genus will do (I know the species, but that's because I have special data not available from this image). [UPDATE: no more guessing please. Answer below, comment # 31.] While I'm here I may as well mention a few things I won't get to blog about. Just did the trawling-the-journals thing. New items of much interest include the new long-…

New Feature: Comment of the Week Awards

My commenters really make my day. Because I am such a crappy commenter, I really appreciate that about you. There have been many times in my life when my commenters have been the only reason I've continued writing this blog, and there has been an indecent number of times when one or more of my commenters said something that made me decide that it was worthwhile to just stay alive at all. Every morning, the first thing I do (even before making coffee!) is read your comments. But my fondness for you and your comments is more than just idle words from me: for example, as a measure of how much I…

Friday Random Ten, Nov 24

1. **Kate Bush, "Pi"**. I've been waiting for this to show up in my shuffle for the FRT! Kate Bush, singing the digits of π! 2. **Suzanne Vega, "Knight Moves"**. This is an old favorite of mine. The lyrics have some personal significance, but it's a lovely song. 3. **Explosions in the Sky, "Have You Passed Through This Night?"**. Post rock, very much in the vein of "Godspeed You Black Emperor". Not as good as Godspeed, but still pretty good. 4. **New Grange, "Weetabix"**. Very nice bluegrass tune performed by a supergroup of sorts. For the anniversary of the founding of Compass Records…

Paul Sereno— Dinosaurs: Phylogenetic reconstruction from Darwin to the present

Oops, missed the first part of this talk due to the distractions of Lunch. Walked in as he was talking about tree vs. ladder thinking (people have a hard time conceptualizing trees) and history as a chronicle — barebones description of events — or a narrative — events linked by causal explanations. It took a century for biologists to use systematics to make testable hypotheses about evolution. Darwin himself talked at length about all kinds of evidence for evolution, but strangely neglected fossils and dinosaurs altogether. Sereno blames this on rivalry with Richard Owen, who was the big…

Random Quotes

I figured it was time I did the latest random thing to be wandering its way around Scienceblogs. [Janet has introduced the "random quotes" meme.][janet], in which we're supposed to go wandering through the [quotes here][quotes], and pick the first five that reflect "who you are or what you believe". 1. "Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right.", Laurens Van der Post, The Lost World of the Kalahari (1958). Could any quote possibly be more true? 2. "He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from…

XXVI International Association of Science Parks World Conference on Science & Technology Parks

I'll be going to IASP next week, one of several people reporting from it for Science In The Triangle. We have organized our coverage strategically - I will be there for a couple of events on Tuesday and all day Wednesday. I'll be posting here and on Twitter and Science In The Triangle will aggregate everyone's posts in one place. What is IASP?: The International Association of Science Parks (IASP) is a worldwide network of science and technology parks. IASP connects science park professionals from across the globe and provides services that drive growth and effectiveness for members. IASP…

The Best of April

April was a busy month, so I posted only 145 times. Also, posts that would have been just simple links and one-liners are now more likely to be found on Twitter (from which I import the feeds into FriendFeed and Facebook). Go through the April archives - lots of news and several excellent (or very funny) videos to be found there - but here are the "more serious" posts of the past month: First, there were several interesting events in April, often populated by friendly bloggers, e.g., Seder, Triangle Blogger Bash at DPAC and Triangle Tweetup Tonight. Probably the most thoughtful (and perhaps…

How cell controls the rate of protein synthesis

Olivia Judson is back in action on her blog, with a very interesting new post: Braking the Virus: However -- and this is where the opportunity to rewrite genes comes in -- there is more than one way to specify most of the amino acids. Glutamine, for example, can also be written as CAA. Arginine can be written in six different ways; proline, in four. The reason for this is that the genetic code has a great deal of redundancy. Although there are 64 possible codons (4 different nucleotides for each of three positions), there are only 20 amino acids to be assigned to them. This means that the…

DonorsChoose 2008 Challenge - update 2

My DonorsChoose board includes challenges like this one, for example: Science Trip For Our Amazing Urban Students: The he students deserve this. I teach 5th grade at an urban, diverse, 86% free & reduced lunch school. Our school is 55% latino population, many who do not speak English and many who were born in another country. Our school has about 12 different languages spoken throughout it. Our students come from families that are very limited financially and we want to offer them an opportunity to go on a trip that will change their lives. This trip is a once in a life time trip for…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Buying Experiences, Not Possessions, Leads To Greater Happiness: Can money make us happy if we spend it on the right purchases? A new psychology study suggests that buying life experiences rather than material possessions leads to greater happiness for both the consumer and those around them. Surfing The Net Helps Seniors Cope With Pain: Surfing the Internet could provide significant relief for seniors with chronic pain, according to new research reported in The Journal of Pain, published by the American Pain Society. Multilingualism Brings Communities Closer Together: Learning their…

Darwin Day recap

On Thursday, for Darwin's 200th birthday, I went down to Raleigh to the Museum of Natural Science to hear Carl Zimmer's talk. The room was packed - I got the last empty seat and there were people standing in the back. A very mixed audience, as Museum talks usually are - there were evolutionary biologists there from Nescent and the W.M.Keck Center for Behavioral Biology at NCSU, there were Museum staff, and then there were interested lay-people, museum-goers, with no formal background in science but interested and curious. It is not easy giving a talk to such a mixed audience - how to keep the…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Foul Owls Use Feces To Show They Are In Fine Feather: Some years ago, within the Department of Conservation Biology of the Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones CientÃficas; Seville, Spain), a recently established group (colloquially named the Night Ecology Group) started to explore the possibility of visual communication in crepuscular and nocturnal birds. Exploding Chromosomes Fuel Research About Evolution Of Genetic Storage: Human cells somehow squeeze two meters of double-stranded DNA into the space of a typical chromosome, a package 10,000 times smaller…

Blogrolling - Letter D

Continuing with asking for your help in fixing my Blogroll: Every couple of days or so, I will post here a list of blogs that start with a particular letter, and you add in the comments if you know of something that is missing from that list. See so far: Numbers and Symbols A B C Today brought to you by letter D. This is what is on the Blogroll right now. Check also the Housekeeeping posts for other D blogs I have discovered in the meantime. Check links. Tell me what to delete, what to add: The Daily Dish DailyKos - Darksyde Diaries DailyKos - My Diaries The Daily Mammal The Daily Transcript…

My Picks From ScienceDaily

Malagasy Chameleon Spends Most Of Its Short Life In An Egg: There is a newly discovered life history among the 28,300 species of known tetrapods, or four-legged animals with backbones. A chameleon from arid southwestern Madagascar spends up to three-quarters of its life in an egg. Even more unusual, life after hatching is a mere 4 to 5 months. No other known four-legged animal has such a rapid growth rate and such a short life span. Newcomer In Early Eurafrican Population?: A complete mandible of Homo erectus was discovered at the Thomas I quarry in Casablanca by a French-Moroccan team co-led…

Illinois! You elected John Shimkus? What were you thinking?

You have to watch this loon making his case for how harmless global warming is in testimony with Lord Christopher Monckton (thanks, England…really, we have enough wacky ideologues without you sending yours over here). Monckton dismisses the problem of CO2 by claiming that CO2 levels were much higher in the pre-Cambrian, and that the stuff is just "plant food". It's plant food ... So if we decrease the use of carbon dioxide, are we not taking away plant food from the atmosphere? ... So all our good intentions could be for naught. In fact, we could be doing just the opposite of what the people…

My Picks From ScienceDaily

The Newest Artificial Intelligence Computing Tool: People: A USC Information Sciences Institute researcher thinks she has found a new source of artificial intelligence computing power to solve difficult IT problems of information classification, reliability, and meaning. That tool, according to ISI computer scientist Kristina Lerman, is people, human intelligence at work on the social web, the network of blogs, bookmark, photo and video- sharing sites, and other meeting places now involving hundreds of thousands of individuals daily, recording observations and sharing opinions and information…

My picks from ScienceDaily

New Research Alters Concept Of How Circadian Clock Functions: Scientists from the University of Cambridge have identified a molecule that may govern how the circadian clock in plants responds to environmental changes. The researchers have discovered that a signalling molecule, known to be important for environmental stress signalling in plants, also regulates their circadian clock. They believe that the molecule may therefore incorporate information about environmental changes into the biological clock that regulates the physiology of plants. The research dramatically changes our current…