terrasig | November 11, 2009I was just going through my unread Twitter stream from yesterday and found a link to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education entitled, "A Scientist's Guide to Academic Etiquette," with a tagline about scientists lacking in social skills.
Recognizing the truth in that statement, I fired up the post to the very pleasant surprise of learning that the author is none other than the Grande Dame of the science blogging community, Female Science Professor.
Female Science Professor is the pseudonym of a professor in the physical sciences at a large research university who blogs under that…
terrasig | November 11, 2009
A bit off-topic of the blog but a science building on campus is hosting a discussion with Guadeloupe-born footballer, Lilian Thuram. He was considered to be one of the best players in Europe; his best-known accomplishment of his 15-year career playing defender with Monaco, Parma FC, Juventus, FC Barcelona and the French national team, is contributing to France winning the 1998 World Cup.
However, Thuram was forced into retirement in 2008 following a diagnosis of cardiac hypertrophy (ventricular, I assume, and pathological, not typical "athlete's heart"). The same condition claimed Thuram's…
terrasig | November 10, 2009I missed this note on Friday at the Wall Street Journal Health Blog but the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has made available some great new curricular resources through their Centers of Excellence for Physician Information Program (NIDA CoEs) (press release)
"Physicians can be the first line of defense against substance abuse and addiction, but they need the resources and the training," said NIDA Director Dr. Nora D. Volkow. "Our long term goal is for doctors to incorporate screening for drug use into routine practice like they currently screen for other diseases; to help patients…
terrasig | November 9, 2009Hella HeLa!
Skloot is PWned, as it were.
I learned late last night that author Rebecca Skloot was to be featured on the cover of this week's issue of Publishers Weekly. So, I clicked on the site this morning before the coffee was even done brewing and there is our wordsmithing hero.
I know that "The Making of a Bestseller 2010" is sure to make any author nervous but my reading of the manuscript tells me that the prediction is entirely consistent with the work.
Regular readers will know that we featured Ms Skloot here last week to brainstorm about her upcoming, self-supported book tour…
terrasig | November 8, 2009Yesterday, the real-life mailbox brought the Pharmboy household the Fall 2009 issue of DukeMedicine connect, a biannual publication on current news from the Duke University Health System. Produced by DUHS Marketing and Creative Services, it "strives to offer current news about health topics of interest" to its readers. This issue is not yet online but you can see the Spring 2009 issue here.
What caught my eye was a cover teaser titled "Detox Delusion" and an article on detoxification diets focusing on an interview with Beth Reardon a nutritionist with Duke Integrative Medicine.
(Note added…
terrasig | November 6, 2009
Father Joe Vetter, director of Duke University's Catholic Center, is protesting trial participant accrual for a study being conducted on campus directed by Dr Dan Ariely, the James B Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics in the Fuqua School of Business (story and video). Ariely is also the author of the best-selling book, Predictably Irrational, an engaging, science-based examination of the rational and not-so-rational influences that contribute to decision-making. The new and expanded version of the book ranks #442 on Amazon.com book sales in the United States.
Look for that number to…
terrasig | November 6, 2009
I should probably create a new blogpost category just for erectile dysfunction dietary supplements adulterated with authentic or synthetic analogs of prescription phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE5) inhibitors (e.g., Viagra, Cialis).
However, FDA has already created a page for this earlier this year after dozens of companies have been identified as putting real drugs into their erectile dysfunction products.
Do the brains behind these companies not realize that FDA is now monitoring every erectile dysfunction supplement for all manner of PDE5 inhibitors?
Apparently not:
For Immediate Release: Nov. 5…
terrasig | November 5, 2009
Some readers may be aware that Rebecca Skloot is about to release her much-anticipated book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a story that is about much more than the black Southern woman whose cervical cancer gave rise to the most famous human cancer cell line. (Crown, 2 Feb 2010, preorder here).
HeLa cells, as they are known, have played a role in the development of vaccines for polio and cervical cancer, the part of last year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Harald zur Hausen, and the PhD thesis 20 years ago of a certain natural products pharmacology blogger.
Having been…
terrasig | November 4, 2009Lookie what came in to my e-mail box overnight after yesterday's post about the hypotrichosis treatment, Latisse® brand of bimatoprost.
Hmm...I have a few ideas who might have sent this (no profanity, so it wasn't Comrade PhysioProf). And very interesting that this comes just a week before FDA holds an opening hearing entitled, "Promotion of FDA-Regulated Medical Products Using the Internet and Social Media Tools. For your information, here's the PDF schedule courtesy of colleague John Mack - Pharma Marketing Blog and @pharmaguy. John is currently running a survey in his masthead to solicit…
terrasig | November 3, 2009I am running out of eyelash puns having written at least six posts since the summer of 2007 on a class of anti-glaucoma drugs that have been harnessed for their cosmetic side effect: promotion of eyelash growth. Bimatoprost (Lumigan®) and latanoprost (Xalatan®) are members of the prostamide class of drugs that can manage some forms of glaucoma by reducing intraocular pressure. When administered as eye drops, the drugs mimic the effect of endogenous prostaglandin PGF2α, acting as a local hypotensive to promote outflow of aqueous humor from the eye through the trabecular meshwork.
Invoking the…
terrasig | November 1, 2009Miss Cellania is the very clever 'nym of a Kentucky-based full-time blogger, radio producer, and more-than-full-time mother. She consistently puts up very imaginative and insightful content at her home blog but in her other gigs at mental_floss and Geeks Are Sexy. I love mental_floss so that's where I first learned of Miss C. (She's also been very kind to link to us on occasion despite her reputation for
During my Sunday morning leisure reading and catch-up on my Twitter feed, I came across her post from Thursday on how small towns are affected when they are the setting for blockbuster…
terrasig | October 31, 2009This post appeared here originally on 31 October 2007
Have you ever wondered, perhaps on 31 October, why witches are depicted as riding brooms?
The answer is alluded to by Karmen Franklin at Chaotic Utopia in her post as to why witches need to know their plant biology.
The excerpts I'm about to give you come from a superb and accessible pharmacology text entitled, "Murder, Magic, and Medicine," by John Mann, host of the BBC Radio 4 series by the same name.
Witches"Double, double toil and trouble
Fire burn and cauldron bubble" - Macbeth IV, i
Hallucinogenic compounds called tropane alkaloids…
terrasig | October 29, 2009No, this is not the same old beaten horse.
Revere at Effect Measure, one/some of the best public health writers on the web, has written a splendid piece on the difference between the two types of blogging in response to the denial of his registration at the Knight Science Journalism Tracker. Revere has intended to comment on their coverage of the Brownlee and Lenzer cover article on swine flu at The Atlantic.
I was going to pick out some excerpts but the whole post is so clearly written and important in its entire context that I refer you to read it in its entirety.
I don't believe that I…
terrasig | October 28, 2009Meet squalene:
Squalene is a 30-carbon branched structure made from isoprene units in the production of cholesterol and other endogenous compounds such as glucocorticoids and sex steroids.
We all have squalene in our bodies. We NEED squalene. All mammals make squalene. Even fungi make squalene (for a compound called ergosterol that is required in their cell membranes).
So ubiquitous is squalene is that it is extracted commercially from shark liver oil. Squalene is intentionally added to cosmetics sold as "natural."
Squalene is also a component of a vaccine adjuvant that has been used for…
terrasig | October 28, 2009Just a quick follow-up from our last two posts about Amy Wallace's article, "An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All," in Wired magazine about vaccine developer Dr Paul Offit and the anti-vaccination movement:
Wired has now compiled Wallace's tweets from the last two days into blog-readable narrative.
Only a week after Wired published "An Epidemic of Fear", we've received more reader responses than any other story in memory. Journalist Amy Wallace has received hundreds of messages, weighing in on all sides of the issue, and posted some of those comments on…
terrasig | October 27, 2009
Case in point:
A few days ago, I sang the praises of last week's article in Wired magazine by Amy Wallace on pediatric infectious disease and immunology specialist, Dr Paul Offit, and the anti-vaccination movement in the US.
Wallace's article has been widely heralded by the scientific community but has evoked the wrath of several anti-vaccination groups and individual followers.
When the target is a man, their motives are questioned and their intellect maligned. But when the target is a woman, guess what happens? Here is a compiled thread from a series of tweets yesterday from Amy Wallace…
terrasig | October 26, 2009While working on a science-rich post and writing an exam, something came across Twitter that is, well, too good to just be seen only on Twitter.
Fullsteam is the name of the plow-to-pint Southern microbrewery in Durham, NC, no-longer-in-planning-but-not-quite-done and I have written about the tweeter several times. The imagination behind brewing a beer with sweet potatoes (it's awesome, btw) or kudzu comes from the very same mind that burped into his iPhone for the benefit of shared education with his daughters.
The result:
I use Google voice search all the time and have been very…
terrasig | October 26, 2009
Over the weekend, registration opened for ScienceOnline2010, the fourth annual science communicators conference to be held January 14-17, 2010, in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina.
Please join us for this free (but donations are accepted) three-day event to explore science on the Web. Our goal is to bring together scientists, physicians, patients, educators, students, publishers, editors, bloggers, journalists, writers, web developers, programmers and others to discuss, demonstrate and debate online strategies and tools for doing science, publishing science, teaching…
terrasig | October 25, 2009
One of the most engaging and clearly-written pieces of science journalism over the last year or so was published in Wired magazine last week. Amy Wallace's, "An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All," is part interview with rotavirus vaccine developer, pediatric infectious disease physician, Dr Paul Offit, and description of the anti-vaccination movement in the United States.
Wallace's work is the centerpiece of a collection of smaller articles providing science-based information about vaccination that also refutes common anti-vaccination myths including "…
terrasig | October 23, 2009Before my colleague DrugMonkey gives me more grief about not yet having a CafePress shop (theirs here) to sell and give away paraphernalia related to this blog, I have a question for you, the always erudite and good-looking reader of this humble blog.
You see, I don't know exactly what text to put on T-shirts, coffee mugs, and thongs, that properly reflect the name recognition - dare I say, "brand" - of this blog. When I first started the blog on 15 December 2005, I thought that Terra Sigillata was a great name and a great metaphor for the natural product medicines I try to write about…