terrasig | March 18, 2008This issue was brought up by my fellow blogger, Joseph at Corpus Callosum, following an article in yesterday's LA Times.
For those not familiar with the concept or countries other than the US where laws may differ, generic drugs are those with the same active chemical as the originally-approved "brand name" drug. The original drug manufacturer is the one that conducts all of the preclinical and clinical safety and efficacy testing, natural product isolation and/or chemical synthesis, formulation with inactive ingredients to assure dissolution and reproducible release of the drug, etc. In…
terrasig | March 14, 2008Local wine shops are to wine what ScienceBlogs.com is to science blogs - while perhaps imperfect, they are both good at directing you to unique sources and enriching flavors. With the proliferation of information and winemakers, we can all use some educated filtering guides.
And that is how I view outstanding local vendors of wine. People who know a lot more than I spend their careers seeking out and stocking their stores with underrecognized offerings and low volume quality wines while also contributing to public education on this wonderful, life-enriching beverage.
So I was delighted the…
terrasig | March 14, 2008It's been a roller coaster of a week for Charles E Jordan High School in Durham, North Carolina. (Wikipedia history here).
As we noted earlier this week, Jordan's Shivani Sud took first prize in the Intel Science Talent Search for her work on biochemical markers of stage II colon cancer. The Intel (formerly Westinghouse) Science Talent prize is referred to often as the "junior Nobel prize."
Two and three days later, we learned the identities of the suspects apprehended in the murder of Eve Carson, student body president at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Both young men,…
terrasig | March 13, 2008[Hi Mom. Will call you soon but you really need not read this post. Love, Your son.]
Bora/Coturnix just alerted me to the FDA approval of a home sperm-check test that can be used to determine the effectiveness of one's vasectomy. The product, SpermCheck Vasectomy, was developed by Dr John C Kerr and fellow researchers at the University of Virginia through their faculty business start-up program. This test could minimize the embarrassment of the 500,000 US men who undergo the 3rd most popular contraceptive procedure by obviating the need to bring a 90-day post-vasectomy semen sample to the…
terrasig | March 12, 2008[Welcome mental_floss blog and Daily Kos readers. After you read about this outstanding young woman, you can learn more about me, my life story, and this blog here.]
If you read elsewhere at ScienceBlogs.com, you'll know that several bloggers have been discussing race and gender issues in the scientific and medical research communities as well as the challenges facing young scientists who pursue academic research careers. So, I was overjoyed this morning to see this glowing face on Shivani Sud, a local young woman of Indian heritage who took first prize in the Intel Science Talent Search (…
terrasig | March 9, 2008On this day in 1957,
A magnitude 9.1 earthquake shook the Andreanof Islands in Alaska, the second strongest quake in U.S. history (although Alaska would not become the 49th state until more than a year later), generating a tsunami that hit the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
Harry Belafonte's Banana Boat (Day-O) was number 6 on the Cashbox Top 50 music charts.
Faith Daniels, former news anchor (CBS-TV), and Mona Sahlin, leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, were born.
And, sharing the birthdate with them is little-known blogger and zebrafish guru PZ Myers of Pharyngula and the University of…
terrasig | March 9, 2008Your Humble Blogger has suddenly become the go-to guy in the blogosphere for all things vasectomy. I don't know why.
So I've embraced becoming an ambassador for the double-snip and bring you a clever radio marketing campaign from the Oregon Urology Institute in Springfield:
Guys, what would you endure for a weekend in paradise? To not only be able to watch a potential of 48 first- and second- round games of the NCAA men's basketball tournament on TV, but to do so with free pizza and total sympathy from your spouse?
Together with Justin Myers of the ESPN Radio "Sports Idol" radio show, the…
terrasig | March 8, 2008Just a hypothesis here.
A vibrant, 55-year-old Denver-area furniture executive, Lesile Fishbein, is possibly near death according to The Denver Post:
The bubbly Fishbein, one of the most recognizable faces in the metro area because of her television ads for her company, Kacey Fine Furniture, was admitted to Presbyterian/St. Luke's Hospital for emergency treatment on Tuesday. She had been given an injection for chronic back pain and suffered a serious reaction, the friends said. She was later placed on life-support, which was removed Friday evening. [emphasis mine]
The natural product and…
terrasig | March 7, 2008
Eve Carson | student body president | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
This photo was taken on Monday, 3 March. Eve was shot less than 36 hours later. The entire campus, community and alumni mourn her death. She had a ethic of public service so strongly symbolized in her response to why she does what she does. [Photo by Tony Deifell]
Primary UNC-CH website
10,000 celebrate Carson's lifeRose Hoban WUNC-FM report on celebration of life
Chancellor's message to students following arrests of suspects (13 March)
Remarks of Eve's father, Bob Carson
Remembering the student's president
Eve…
terrasig | March 7, 2008[Back by popular demand is my Friday Fermentable co-blogger, Erleichda - to read all of the offerings from my silver-tongued and golden-palated friend, see this compilation. For new readers, here is The Friday Fermentable mission statement.]
Another Wine Experience : 2002 White & Red Burgundies
By Erleichda
It was Mort's fault. As alluded to obliquely a few columns ago, it was he who introduced me to "fine wines.". So many years ago, the story has improved with each telling, I was invited to participate in my first trout fishing adventure. After hours of practice casting, I was ready…
terrasig | March 5, 2008Yesterday, we received tomorrow's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine and, yet again, I nearly walked into a tree coming back from the mailbox. This (abstract, full text), folks, is a fascinating medical detective story rivaled only by (and similar to) the discovery that Parkinson's disease could be caused by contaminant from a faulty clandestine synthesis of an analog of the opiate, meperidine. (1979, 1983)
Here's the backstory: in the US, our newly-implemented restrictions on ephedrine and pseudoephedrine OTC drug products are due to the use of these chemicals as starting…
terrasig | March 4, 2008"There's no credible evidence that what's in Airborne can prevent colds or protect you from a germy environment," said CSPI senior nutritionist David Schardt, who reviewed Airborne's claims. "Airborne is basically an overpriced, run-of-the-mill vitamin pill that's been cleverly, but deceptively, marketed."
One really needn't go any further than this money quote from yesterday's press release out of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).
With continuing investigations from the Federal Trade Commission and 24 State Attorneys General, the walls are crumbling down on the makers of…
terrasig | March 1, 2008DrugMonkey just had an interesting post about the potential influence of cocaine use trends following the 1986 death of Maryland college basketball player, Len Bias, just days after his being selected in the NBA draft by the Boston Celtics. DM's post and the ensuing discussion got me thinking tonight about a variety of issues in substance abuse, realistic assessment of risk and, ultimately, parenting.
In the comments, I mentioned that Heath Ledger's recent death might be a trigger for pop culture to pay more attention to the risks of recreational use of prescription and over-the-counter…
terrasig | March 1, 2008It's my great pleasure to congratulate Skookumchick (Rants of a Feminist Engineer) and the world of women bloggers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) on the first anniversary of their blog carnival, Scientiae. With the theme of "renewal," I'll leave it to Skookum to explain how and why she started the carnival:
I decided to start the thing-that-would-turn-into-Scientiae (name by Theo Bromine) because I had found it to be meaningful to read all these amazing blogs being written by women in science, engineering and math. I found it helpful to hear their stories, to…
terrasig | February 29, 2008A lively discussion has ensued this week across the intertubes about the ScienceBlogs.com network to which we belong and what should or shouldn't be provided as content in a blog that calls itself a science blog.
As usual, the most sober, inclusive, and non-inflammatory treatise on the topic comes from ethicist, philosopher, and physical chemist (because one Ph.D. is never enough), Prof Janet Stemwedel of Adventures in Ethics and Science: she calls it navel-gazing. I submit that her navel is among the wisest around:
Why do so many bloggers at ScienceBlogs write about stuff besides science?
We…
terrasig | February 29, 2008Bisphenol A (BPA) is currently one of the major lightning rods for controversy in consumer products and public health research. The compound is used in the manufacture of plastic bottles, polycarbonate (PC) in particular, as well as in the lining of many food and beverage cans. The compound has been recognized since the 1930s as having estrogenic activity but it appears to have developmental, carcinogenic, and neurotoxic effects at concentrations well below those at which it binds to the two forms of estrogen receptor.
Confused?
US governmental advisory committees can't even agree on BPA…
terrasig | February 28, 2008[Note: Mr. Tweedy's first post, Shaking It Off, went up on 5 March 2008]
Yesterday, London-based blogger Mo at Neurophilosophy alerted us to a new blog at the New York Times website entitled, Migraine: Perspectives on a Headache. A notable cadre of prominent migraine sufferers have started blogging about their experiences and answering reader questions. Bloggers include author Siri Hustvedt, author-journalist Paula Kamen, German neurologist and psychiatrist Dr Klaus Podoll, and noted Columbia professor and author Dr Oliver Sacks. The blog description is as follows:
More than 28 million…
terrasig | February 27, 2008I was remiss in noting that Hungarian medical student and Medical Web 2.0 guru Berci Meskó has hosted the current and rather large Grand Rounds medical blog carnival at his excellent blog, Science Roll. Fresh off his US tour that included a presentation at the Medicine Meets Virtual Reality conference and a talk at Yale University, Doctor-to-be Meskó returns in stride with the week's wide spectrum of medical blogging.
For those new readers, blog carnivals are periodic compilations of posts organized around general topical areas. For example, Grand Rounds is a general medicine carnival begun…
terrasig | February 27, 2008I started this post a couple of times early this morning but kept having to walk away from the computer in disgust and disbelief.
Regular readers know that I don't usually throw personal or demeaning statements around lightly. But today's Santa Cruz Sentinel follow-up article on the home invasion of a UC-Santa Cruz breast cancer research and her family (during her daughter's birthday party) contains the most ridiculous, heartless, conspiratory statement I have heard thus far from an animal rights activist:
[Peter] Young*, a Los Gatos native who served two years in a federal prison for…
terrasig | February 26, 2008I just received this news from Americans for Medical Progress with a link to the Santa Cruz Sentinel reporting on the home invasion last evening Sunday of a UC-Santa Cruz breast cancer and neurological disease researcher:
UCSC researcher targeted in attack - animal rights activists believed to be behind home invasion
26 February 2008 0645am Eastern
The news is disturbing, and if indeed the violent fringe of the animal rights movement is behind the attack, it represents a serious and criminal escalation in its tactics used to harass researchers. AMP joins others in the research community in…