General Science
revere | April 21, 2010Yesterday we posted on our strong support for open access publishing of tax payer supported research. We are taxpayer supported scientists (at least our NIH grants are) and we consider our work to be the property of the public, who paid for it. Whenever possible (which is most of the time) we do publish in freely accessible journals. Making data freely accessible is more controversial, but we also support this, perhaps with a reasonable grace period to allow scientists to have priority for data they expended effort to collect and with reasonable safeguards for confidentiality and privacy when…
sa smith | March 19, 2010WHOO!!
Harold Varmus is gonna be the next head of the National Cancer Institute (probably, still a non-confirmed nerd rumor)!
*excited peter griffin giggle*
revere | March 8, 2010There is so much tragedy and sadness in the wake of the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile that to bemoan the fate of research projects there seems kind of trivial. But if you are scientist your heart really goes out to your Chilean colleagues. Jocelyn Kaiser and Antonio Regalado have some details at ScienceInsider, Science Magazine's science blog:
Scientists at research universities in several Chilean cities are reeling from last week's earthquake, which overturned microscopes, set fire to laboratories, washed years of research out to sea, and took the life of a young marine biologist.…
sa smith | December 9, 2009Burns Hargis.
If Burns Hargis were a gamer, hed be Leeroy Jenkins.
Hes a newb. He messed up. And its screwed over everyone.
Apparently Hargis admitted he 'messed up', personally deciding to reject NIH funds:
Hargis told faculty Thursday that he erred in not talking to OSU scientists before quashing a research project that involved euthanizing baboons.
Hargis said he wasn't influenced by animal rights activists but said his decision was complicated and there were "confidential factors" that he couldn't discuss.
"To go through every lurid detail is simply not prudent," he told the OSU Faculty…
sa smith | December 2, 2009I love it when a research paper makes me laugh.
This paper makes me laugh.
It is AWESOME!!
Continuous Quinacrine Treatment Results in the Formation of Drug-Resistant Prions
Okay, heres the deal: Prions cause disease by making 'normal' proteins fold wrong. When they fold wrong, they clump up together to form amyloid fibrils (wrote about this in the context of HIV-1 a while back). These amyloid fibrils are super stable. They build up and build up... and cause neuronal damage. Now, weve got drugs that work super to stop the formation of amyloid fibrils, thus prion progression, in tissue…
sa smith | November 30, 2009Quite possibly one of the weirdest things I have ever witnessed in my scientific career-- The president of Oklahoma State University has 'forbidden' an ethics panel approved, NIH funded research project on 'his' campus.
What kind of abominable research are these Satan worshiping scientists trying to do? Injecting healthy infants with large doses of heroin? Telling women they have miscarried, when really scientists are stealing their fetuses for medical research? Teaching turtles to tap-dance? What?
A project to test anthrax vaccines and treatment on baboons was quashed by Oklahoma State…
sa smith | November 6, 2009Though only a handful of ERV readers are from Oklahoma, I know all of you are familiar with the handiwork of Senator Randy Brogdon.
He was the fellow who recently tried to get Creationism taught in Oklahoma public schools (FAIL).
Dude is a fucking IDiot (and just plain old idiot) who hates science:I am also disgusted with the yearlong one-sided celebration of Darwinism that OU is sponsoring on their campus.
Disgusted? Really? Not 'disappointed', or 'dismayed', or 'intrigued, so Im going to check it out', but disgusted? Fantastic.
So what happens when you combine:
1. Anti-science
2. New…
sa smith | October 26, 2009Biofortified, the PandasThumb of crop engineering, is in a contest.
A contest to win an interview with Michael Pollan and grant money for educating the public about GMOs!
GO VOTE FOR THEM NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAU!
1. Biofortified assured me that the interview with Pollan will be 'educational'. I dont think I can put into words how much I, personally, want to see Pollan grilled by some real scientists. Definitely worth a bit of obnoxious registering to vote.
2. Do you really want some anti-science, anti-GMO assholes getting $1500 to miseducate the public? Bleh its like the Discovery Institute…
sa smith | September 20, 20091. If you do know a farmer, and you grew up in a town where feed lots and Tyson plants are normal, there is nothing particularly interesting in 'Food Inc'. I had to fight off falling asleep.
2. If you dont know a farmer, but you are not an idiot, you probably will learn a couple of things. Like, we need to treat farmers and people who work in meat processing plants better, and need to do better regarding the treatment of livestock. Like the financial industry, the food industry needs more oversight via FDA/USDA.
3. If you are a complete moron who thinks chickens magically appear on…
sa smith | August 28, 2009Since ~2006, honey bee colonies in the US have been dropping dead overnight. Literally. They call it 'colony collapse disorder'. While large populations of organisms dying is disturbing, no matter the species, we need honey bees-- they help pollinate so many of our crops. I grew up in the banks of the Missouri River, around apple and peach orchards (who always had their own bee hives, and honey) and hell, I eat everything on that list...
What is killing our bees?
People have accused GMOs and wireless internet and pesticides and antibiotics... We didnt have a clue before.
It might be…
sa smith | June 29, 2009This is so awesome! Women in New York can now be fairly compensated for donating their eggs for stem-cell research! WHOOOO!
With the exception for near-sightedness, a sweet tooth, and a 'bad attitude', my family doesnt have a history of genetic diseases. It would be SO AWESOME if I could donate my eggs to a research laboratory and be fairly compensated for the time/pain/risks involved!
But lots of assholes dont want me to do that.
Remember Lisa Billy? Convinced scientists will prowl alleyways, hunting for poor black women to harvest their eggs for $20? See, if I just want to donate my…
sa smith | June 29, 2009Anne Hart is still on her anti-frankenfishscapade.
Actually, this latest article looks like she plagiarized her last article and added stuff about prions.
She still doesnt understand retroviruses or gene therapy:Farmed fish start out by having the rous sarcoma virus implanted into a specialized gene early in their embryonic development in order to amplify the fish's growth hormone. The virus acts as a carrier. It's called a vector (meaning a carrier virus). The farmed fish are made to grow faster and larger.
This specific rous sarcoma virus has been known since 1911 to cause cancer in…
sa smith | June 25, 2009Can anyone name one anti-GMOer thats not a self-indulgent, arrogant moron?
Google News alerted me to this breathless expose by an Anne Hart: "Why farmed fish are genetically altered for faster growth with a carrier retrovirus"
Now, for some reason I can only get this article via Google cache. Hopefully this means some editor pulled this article because its so mind numbingly stupid/arrogant/shrill. But somehow I doubt that.
Frequent readers of ERV could probably fix Harts 'errors' themselves, at this point, but Imagonna do it anyway :)
First, lets get this basic fact out of the way.
Raving…
sa smith | June 20, 2009No idea what this website is (Routes?), but they have some fun science themed (loosely science based) Flash games, like SNEEZE!
They also have 'DNA Hero'-- Guitar Hero with ACTG sequences, and 'Ginger Dawn'-- increase the frequency of that recessive gene, baby! LOL! And it looks like there are a few more games in the works... gonna have to investigate this site more.
sa smith | June 8, 2009On Colbert Report the other night, I saw Eric Schlosser made a new movie bitching about GMOs and food production in the US, 'Food Inc'.
Im not saying anything until I see it.
*zips-lips*
However I will use this flurry of 'OMFG LIEK GMO FOOD IS GEIVING MAH CANKER AND MAEKING MAH FAAAAAT!' news activity to talk about a super cool convergence of fresh fruit and epidemiology!
About 20 years ago, there was an epidemic of papaya ringspot virus in Hawaii. PRSV is carried by aphids, tree to tree, rendering the papaya trees dead. Well, worse than dead. More like plump reservoirs of PRSV, where…
sa smith | May 26, 2009*PUKE*
Francis 'I dont need no stinkin evidence' Collins might be the next head of the NIH:
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will likely bring on geneticist Francis Collins, leader of the Human Genome Project, as its new director, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday.
...
"NIH is a huge enterprise, and I think Francis has very good experience with getting the best out of a huge enterprise from what he did in the genome project," David Baltimore, who won the 1975 Nobel Prize in medicine, told Bloomberg earlier this year. "He's also very well liked in Congress."
Well, that should tell…
evolvingthoughts | May 4, 2009Hard on the heels of the recent media coverage (well done Channel 7!) of the death of a child from Whooping Cough due to antivaccination sentiments in Australia, comes the death of an infant due to homeopathy.
The father is a homeopathy quack, and instead of treating his child's eczema with traditional creams, he allowed his daughter to get a major skin infection, lose weight due to malnourishment, and eventually die. The good news, if it can be called that, is that the parents are on trial for manslaughter by gross criminal negligence. I would hope this foreshadows all homeopaths,…
evolvingthoughts | April 29, 2009Although Sunday Night did a very good story on the antivaccination campaign's cost in lives, it now looks like they will do a follow up that takes the antivaxxer line, if the appearance in the ads of Australia's least accurate journalist Mike Munro is any guide. Munro is a gutter journalist of UK proportions. His guiding principle is that if it doesn't have drama, then the truth has to go to create some. We'll see...
evolvingthoughts | April 28, 2009Wilkins is fragile and destablised
Intellectual tourist attacks local inhabitants
All happy bacteria are alike (or is that like each other?)
Australian current affairs gets vaccination right! [That's not a pun, it's an act of God] The original video is here.
Evolution does spreadsheets in origin of genetic code
Siris and Sandwalk go head to head on the Courtier's Reply. Neither of them are dressed.
Creationists misunderstand Deep Time. I'm shocked. I mean, it's only ten years since they were taken to task for it. Perhaps if they had millions of years to think it over...
sa smith | April 22, 2009Poor Brad Henry.
Oklahomas Democratic governor.
Fairly rational dude, always willing to go to bat for the scientific community in this state.
Tonight he is vetoing the 'UR KILLIN TEH BABBYS!' bill, which would make stem-cell research illegal in Oklahoma. Unfortunately, the House/Senate have the votes to override his veto, effectively making OK scientists who win federally approved and funded grants (or privately donated $$) criminals.
Plus side: According to this 'BABBYS! WONT SOMEONE TINK OF TEH BABBYS!' bill, stem-cell research will only be a misdemeanor.
A misdemeanor.
For 'KILLEN BABBYS…