2016
gregladen | December 31, 2016A few days ago I posted this item asking if it was really true that more celebrities have died this year than usual. That post went viral, so of course, the famous Doug McIntyre (who is, by the way, originally from Minnetonka, Minnesota) asked me to join him on KABC, McIntyre in the Morning, an LA based drive time radio show, 790 on your dial.
We had an interesting conversation, along with Randy Wang, and here it is:
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dr. dolittle | April 5, 2016
I LOVE THIS MEETING!
DAY 3 included several very interesting comparative physiology sessions.
Image of birds from Wikipedia
Eldon Braun (University of Arizona) spoke about how birds have a unique way to prevent water loss and thereby dehydration. In mammals, the kidneys are responsible for recovering water from the urine. However when birds are well-hydrated, the urine enters the colon and moves backwards up the gastrointestinal tract to facilitate water reabsorption prior to voiding the urine.
Hiroko Nishimura (The University of Tennessee) spoke about work she had done over the years…
dr. dolittle | April 2, 2016
Today marked the official start of the Experimental Biology meeting for the American Physiological Society!
The highest award the society offers a scientist is named in honor of Dr. Walter B Cannon, the physiologist (and 6th President of the society) who came up with the term 'homeostasis' in his 1930 book The Wisdom of the Body. This year's award recipient is Dr. Amira Klip from the University of Toronto. In her presentation she described her research on how poor nutrition can activate the immune system to cause insulin resistance in muscle. Fascinating! This was a grand way to kick-off the…
gregladen | January 4, 2016The year that just finished, 2015, was the warmest year recorded in the instrumental record. The actual data for December is not officially available yet, but my friend and colleague John Abraham keeps track of the global surface temperature daily and has done an amazing job at estimating the final temperature anomaly value that is eventually reported in each of several databases. He has provided a graph using his estimated value, above.
There are two major contributing factors, maybe three depending on how you count everything, to 2015 being the warmest year. The main factor is, of course…