Uncategorized
pharyngula | November 20, 2008I'm attending a lecture by Janet Browne at the University of Pennsylvania, and the organizers asked me if I'd be willing to do something a little bit unusual — if I'd be willing to blog the talk. Obliging as always, I said yes, so here I am in the front row with a borrowed laptop typing away.
I'm practicing my art in public…should I ask for an honorarium? Tips from the crowd afterwards? At least I expect to be so boring that I won't detract from the Janet Browne show.
The introductions are going on. As many of you know, Dr Browne is a distinguished historian of biology who wrote what is…
gregladen | November 20, 2008I have signed a non-disclosure agreement regarding information that I personally obtain during the recount process, but I can certainly report on the publicly available data.
The difference between Coleman and Franken at the start of the recount was about 250 votes. Two things are happening during the recount. First, we are re-counting the ballots. So, if the machine had reported 100 Coleman, 100 Franken, and 50 others, and we count them and get 100 Coleman, 101 Franken, and 49 others, then so be it. The count has changed.
In truth, when this sort of thing happened, we tried hard to…
cortex | November 20, 2008I'm a contributor to Very Short List: Science, the latest offshoot of the VSL brand. (David Dobbs is another contributor.) For those who don't know, VSL is a very short email on something interesting sent daily to your inbox. We recently featured this paper in the Science channel:
We've always known that rats were capable of complex thought: They memorize mazes and form elaborate social hierarchies. Now we're learning that they seem to think about thinking itself. Until recently, that crucial skill -- called metacognition -- was believed to be unique to humans.
Scientists at the University of…
dgmacarthur | November 19, 2008
A Nature News article describes the growing availability of technology that allows the screening of human embryos for hundreds of different genetic disorders prior to implantation.
The technology is based on the same type of chips used by personal genomics companies like 23andMe, but the chips used for embryo screening would initially be used to target known rare disease-causing mutations or large chromosomal abnormalities rather than performing a genome-wide scan for common variants (in the article, a screening company director describes the targeted diseases as "nasty, early-onset and…
jwilbanks | November 19, 2008A lot of people have asked me lately about how I compose my presentations, so I figured I might as well address it here, then link back here in future discussions. I'll start with links to four recent talks on my slideshare account. They're all CC-BY licensed PDFs (I can't yet upload them as keynote files).
The first is a talk I gave at Henry Chesbrough's class at the University of California at Berkeley's Haas School of Business, on the idea of a commons as the platform for open business models based on services. Then I gave a talk at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information…
grrlscientist | November 19, 2008Here's some more blog carnivals that are ready for you to read and enjoy;
Carnival of the Green, which focuses on collecting together environmentally-friendly blog entries from around the world.
All Things Eco, issue 25. This is another environmentally-friendly blog carnival for you to read and learn from.
cortex | November 19, 2008It's one of those modern taboos: pregnant women must abstain from alcohol. Even a sip of wine in a restaurant can lead to menacing glances from passerby, as they imagine a fetus drunk on Chardonnay. According to a new study, however, the taboo has it backwards: women who drink lightly while pregnant are less likely to have children with behavioral and cognitive problems.
The research, led by a team at the University College of London, analyzed thousands of pregnancies drawn from a large British government survey. As expected, heavy drinking mothers put their offspring at serious risk for a…
gregladen | November 19, 2008Post Election 2008, Liberals have the blues. Two kinds of blues.
First, we have BLUE STATES!!! Lots of them! Unsurprisingly, many of the submissions for this edition of the carnival are about the election. Second, we have the blues over Proposition Eight, which we Hate. Many of this edition's submissions are about this topic. In both areas, we find the usual insight and thoughtful writing.
We also have a third category this time around, called Honorable Mention. The COL is a selective carnival: Only a small number of posts get in each time compared to the avalanche of entries we…
cwilcox | November 19, 2008In medical terminology, addiction is a state in which the body relies on a substance for normal functioning and develops physical dependence. This is what you might call a "chemical" addiction - that is, if you're addicted to a substance, your body has altered its natural processes to require whatever substance you're addicted to. Substance abuse, a.k.a. 'drug use', is presumed to fall under this classification because sudden removal of said drug causes "withdrawal" and a characteristic set of signs and symptoms. New research, however, shows that drug addiction is not purely chemical.
Read…
rallain | November 18, 2008This must have been mentioned in a previous post, but I am too lazy to search. Anyway, I think have enough stuff here (at blog.dotphys.net) to finish moving stuff from my previous version of the blog. What does this mean and why do you care? You care because if you are one of the two people that read these old posts (I am one of the two) then you will see them again.
hrynyshyn | November 18, 2008Mostly because I'm tired of being a pessimist. But there's also things like this:
"Delay is not an option. Denial is no longer acceptable." Gotta love that.
h/t to Reader Brian D for directing me to the video. Much better than the print coverage of same.
sb admin | November 18, 2008Yesterdayâs Boston Globe features an interesting article on the vastly different fees that different Massachusetts hospitals charge to insurance companies. The Globe reporting team â Scott Allen, Marcella Bombardieri, Michael Rezendes, Liz Kowalczyk, and Jeffrey Krasner, with editor Thomas Farragher â analyzed private insurance data and found that one hospital can earn two or three times more than another hospital for performing the exact same procedure. Even with the same doctor performing a procedure, costs can vary wildly, with the hospitals that have greater prestige or are the only…
dgmacarthur | November 18, 2008A Nature News article discusses the ongoing 1000 Genomes Project, an international effort planning to sequence 1,200-1,500 human genomes. The discussion springs from project co-chair David Altshuler's update at last week's American Society of Human Genetics meeting on the progress of the project (in brief: 3.8 terabases down, 996.2 terabases to go).
The article provides a generally positive overview of the project's historical context, goals and progress. The one contrary note comes from Duke University's David Goldstein, who has previously publicly expressed skepticism regarding the value of…
mspringer | November 18, 2008A question before the physics: I hear Hillary Clinton is being considered for a position as Secretary of State. Let's say this is true. Why would a senator want to take that job? It's a temporary position. Eight years max, not much longer than a single term in the senate. Four years if the president doesn't get re-elected. In the senate you set your own views and political objectives. In a cabinet position you work under the orders and at the pleasure of the president. If you disagree with the president, too bad for you. Both your ideals and your reputation are largely at the mercy…
gregladen | November 17, 2008
It was one of the items in the envelope. It's a sticker, like that I can put on my car.