Science
drorzel | February 8, 2007Another Thursday, another early lab section. Which means it's time for another audience participation entry...
I think something like this went around ScienceBlogs once before, but if so, it was a while ago, and it's a fun question:
What's the worst job in science?
What's the nastiest, most unpleasant task facing anyone in science? Cleaning machine parts? Washing out animal cages? Justifying climate research to James Inhofe?
If you are a scientist, leave a comment describing the worst task you've had to do as part of your training. If you're not a scientist, leave a comment describing the…
oracknows | February 7, 2007I happen to be in Phoenix today, attending the Academic Surgical Congress, where I actually have to present one of my abstracts. That means, between flying to Phoenix last night and preparing for my talk, I didn't have time to serve up a heapin' helping of that Respectful Insolence⢠you know and (hopefully) love. Fortunately, there's still a lot of stuff in the vaults of the old blog begging to be moved over to the new blog; so that's what I'll do today. I'll probably be back tomorrow, given that the conference will likely produce blog fodder. (Conferences usually do.) And, don't worry.…
oracknows | February 6, 2007I know, I know. I've been a bad boy. I've been meaning to join in everyone else and produce a couple of "basic concepts" posts. Somehow, I've just been distracted. The problem is, blogging is my hobby. It's what I do for enjoyment. Writing a "basic concepts" post seems too much like work and grant writing (of which I've had way more than my fill lately).
Still, I feel obligated to do at least one or two of these posts in my area of expertise. I wouldn't want to be a ScienceBlogs slacker, after all.
pharyngula | February 6, 2007Here's a peek at a work in progress: it's got two kinds of cephalopods, Stethacanthus, and crinoids front and center. Delicious.
drorzel | February 6, 2007President Bush's budget request for next year has been released. Surprising approximately no-one who has followed current events over the last seven years, it's a mixed bag for science:
President Bush rolled out a 2008 spending plan Monday that disappointed advocates for scientific research, even as it called for hefty increases for several key programs in the physical sciences aimed at continuing the president's drive to double such spending. While they applaud that goal, academic leaders are troubled by the fact that the administration's budget plan, if adopted, would result in a reduction…
pharyngula | January 31, 2007I was thinking of doing something with this paper, but dang it, Omics! Omics! beat me to it. Read it anyway…I suppose there might be some other science in the universe left for me.
oracknows | January 31, 2007There I was, puttering around the Internet trying to procrastinate while writing yet another grant, when I came across a truly inane article by Scott Adams arguing that the entire universe must be intelligent because processes that lead to products of intelligent (machines, books, etc., made by us) must also be intelligent. (At least I think that's what he was arguing; the argument was so poorly constructed and circular that it was hard to tell. No doubt Adams will retreat to his "I was only joking" or "I was only playing with your mind" defense.) I thought of having a little fun with it, but…
pharyngula | January 30, 2007Zimmer describes some of the more recent work on Flores Man — people are still arguing over whether the fossil is of a peculiarly abnormal human with microcephaly, or whether there was a species of 'miniaturized' Homo living on the islands of the Pacific. Trying to establish common characteristics of microcephalics is an interesting project, but it doesn't answer the question. We need more fossils! Among the good news Carl mentions is the report that more excavations will be underway this year.
pharyngula | January 30, 2007One of the great developments I'm seeing is the emergence of specialized weblogs that focus hard on a specific issue, and here's an example: the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog. There's good science there on a topic of considerable importance. Let a thousand flowers bloom, I say.
pharyngula | January 29, 2007Here's a sweet idea: rebuild Darwin's ship, the Beagle in time for the bicentennial of Darwin's birth in 2009 (and also the 150 year mark for publication of the Origin).
2009 is the bicentenary of Charles Darwin's birth, an event which will be celebrated throughout the world. The Beagle Project will rebuild a working replica of HMS Beagle in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, Wales. It will provide the striking icon of Darwin's achievement around which the celebrations will coalesce, and which is already attracting the attention of TV and film companies on both sides of the Atlantic.
The replica…
evolgen | January 29, 2007The Week of Science Challenge (official website here) begins next Monday (5 February 2007). During the time of the challenge, all participating bloggers will post at least once per day on science and only science -- no anti science or non-science material.
If you would like to participate, you can sign up here by providing your blog name, email address, blog URL, and blog RSS feed. There will be an official Week of Science feed made up of all the participating blogs.
oracknows | January 28, 2007I haven't seen a Broadway play in quite a while now, but it may be time for that to change. In the New York Times, I came across an ad for a revival of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee´s 1955 courtroom drama Inherit the Wind:
This revival of the play stars two great actors, Brian Dennehy as Matthew Harrison Brady and Christopher Plummer as Henry Drummond. For those who aren't familiar with the story, Inherit the Wind is a heavily fictionalized account of the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925, not to mention a great American play. Previews begin March 19, and the play opens on April 12. I think I…
pharyngula | January 28, 2007Via Bioephemera, I've discovered this wonderful medical illustration blog, Street Anatomy. In particular, this article on the illustrator Cvetomir Georgiev has an amazing image of a dissected torso exposing a fetus in situ…and I've got a new desktop image. It's gorgeous stuff; people are so interesting on the inside.
pharyngula | January 26, 2007I was on the radio again this morning, this time to announce the upcoming Café Scientifique here in Morris, which was also announced on the university web page. Did you happen to tune in? Are you coming?
It's going to be a fun one. The chemistry discipline will be putting on a show, with discussions and demonstrations of household chemistry.
Café Scientifique: Chemistry Style
A presentation by Joe Alia, Nancy Carpenter, Jenn Goodnough, Troy Goodnough, Ted Pappenfus and Jim Togeas.
Household Chemistry
Joe Alia: Joe'll tell us what's cooking in chemistry with the chemistry of spices.
Nancy…
catdynamics | January 26, 2007John Conway joins the CosmicVariance crowd and starts with a cliffhanger on The Hunting of the Higgs
That is a very nice little bump at 148GeV
Bit of a cliffhanger, but that is good, leave 'em begging for more.
So is the Higgs at 115GeV or 148GeV or is it all delusion and there is no Higgs?
Stay tuned.
PostScript: Ok, I read it and still didn't notice it was about the end runs at Fermilab rather than first runs at LHC at CERN.
Duh!
pharyngula | January 25, 2007Chris Clarke has a new banner on Creek Running North, so of course he has to give us a grand tour of the Pleistocene. It's a Carl Buell original, you know — it's becoming quite the coup to get some Buell art on your blog.
oracknows | January 25, 2007Grant season is upon us. Every day that I'm not in the clinic and the O.R., I find myself holed up in my office pounding my head against my monitor trying to write just that perfect mixture of preliminary data, blarney, and grantsmanship to persuade the Powers That Be to give me just a taste of that increasingly precious and scarce elixir of life for my lab, grant money. All I want is just enough to keep my lab going another couple of years and to try to add another person to my lab. Right now, I'm working on an grant to go to the Army for breast cancer research and a grant to a private…
pharyngula | January 25, 2007Yesterday, I pointed out that Jonathan Wells was grossly ignorant of basic ideas in evo-devo. This isn't too surprising; he's a creationist, he has an agenda to destroy evolutionary biology, and he's going to rail against evolution…same ol', same ol'. That's nothing, though. Wells and his fellows at the Discovery Institute have an even more radical goal of fighting natural, material explanations of many other phenomena, and his latest screed at the DI house organ is against natural explanations of development. Not evolution, not evo-devo, just plain basic developmental biology—apparently, he…
pharyngula | January 23, 2007When I was a wee young lad, I remember making crystal radios and small-scale explosives for fun. The new generation can do something even cooler now, though: how about isolating your very own stem cells, using relatively simple equipment. It's fun, easy, and educational!
Step 3, "get a placenta", does rather gloss over some of the practical difficulties, though, and does require planning about 9 months ahead.
catdynamics | January 23, 2007To recap: There is a claim that penzim, an enzyme extracted from cod intestines, has strong antiviral properties, and in particular is effective in killing the H5N1 virus in vitro
The Times has a decent article on it
So, what is the big deal?
Well, probably nothing, there are no clinical trials or safety studies yet, but since the stakes are high, it is worth contemplating. Never know, this might be the silver bullet...
Penzim is a psychrophilic protease.
That is to say, it is an enzyme that breaks up protein, which works well at cold temperatures.
A good thing for arctic cod to have in…