apalazzo | July 14, 2006After the World Cup I've been racing through a month of neglected work (thus no time to blog). Big stories in Cell Biology: actin gets arginylated (spell?), mRNA targetted to the ER gets degraded in times of stress, and the major paradigm shift in the Golgi (the biggest two papers this year, IMHO).
OK enough of that ... time for my Friday special:
Click here to view a larger version.
OK this one will be HARD (very, very, hard). Here is the clue:
Near where the Earth shook, like it never did before or since (as far as we can tell).
A further hint: think different hemisphere.
BTW last week's…
apalazzo | July 12, 2006This will be my last entry on this topic (i.e. the World Cup) ... c'est fini après ça. Here is Zidane's interview:
For all those of you that don't understand le français, I'll translate a couple of things ...
He was first asked if there was bad blood between the two teams, any insults being thrown about. Zidane says that there wasn't anything too bad, there's always a lot of tension but nothing that doesn't usually go on in a big game. He never had any problems with anyone of the Italian players, not even Materazzi. Then they switch to the incident, Zidane says, that nothing had happened…
apalazzo | July 11, 2006I've been subcloning today and my brain feels like mush. (All you non-biologists have no fear, subcloning = cutting and pasting DNA). Then I get an email from an old friend ... "look at this natural hallucinogen video" ... yeah whatever, you stare at the moving pattern and then turn away and ... yow! I've never seen anything like that before ...
My guess is that having looked at this pattern long enough, our brains compensate by generating signals that counter the moving patterns. These reverse-swerving patterns then "taint" all incoming information. Any better explanation?
apalazzo | July 10, 2006I just got home from work, sat down in front of my laptop, and read this article from the Guardian. At the risk of turning my blog into a football/soccer gossip column, here's the article:
An Italian lip-reader last night claimed to have deciphered the words Marco Materazzi said to Zinedine Zidane that provoked the French captain into butting him in the chest during Sunday's World Cup final, the great midfielder's final act before a red card ended his career in top-level football.
According to the BBC, Materazzi said, "I wish an ugly death to you and all your family," and then told Zidane to…
apalazzo | July 10, 2006Wow, the events of yesterday are still bouncing around in my brain. Lots of dodos are blaming Zidane for the loss. Give me a fxxking break. Zidane was sent off with 10min to go and no gas left. If it was anyone's fault, blame Trezeguet who missed his penalty kick. To me the key moment was a couple of minutes earlier when Zidane ALMOST scored. Remember, it's the second half of OT after a long month, everyone is exhausted and out of nowhere Zidane, one of the oldest players in the tournament, plays a "one-two" splitting the Italian defense. This is capped with a header to the Italian goal,…
apalazzo | July 9, 2006
How can I say this? I'm happy for Gli Azzurri, but life isn't perfect.
The day started off superbly. Having won a bet on the Italy-German semifinal, we had an incredible brunch on Veit's roof deck in Beacon Hill. (Thanks Veit, we need to have more bets!) On the menu: smoke salmon, croissants, eggs, waffles, champagne and many other goodies.
The plan: head down to City Hall Plaza to watch the game.
It was the beginning of a bittersweet day.
(many more comments and pics below the fold)
The World Cup in Boston.
Bitter: I'm burnt to a crisp.
Sweet: Watching the game in City Hall Plaza with…
apalazzo | July 8, 2006This is so funny. A series of photos of the winning goal in the France-Brazil game. Poor Roberto Carlos, I guess that's why he retired.
BTW - Germany-Portugal is shaping up to be a good game. It's 2-0 right now, but it would be 4-0 if not for the Portuguese goalie, Ricardo.
Update: Schweinsteiger, GOOOAAALLLAAAZZZZZZOOOO! A hat-trick for the man with the great name!
apalazzo | July 8, 2006Yes, it's true, Kyle MacDonald of my hometown (Montreal) has successfully achieved his dream: trade one red paperclip for a house.
Incredible.
apalazzo | July 8, 2006This world cup has been marked by beautiful games and people accusing refs of making bad calls. David Hirshey in today's NY Times OpEd section:
Several months before the 1999 Women's World Cup, I accompanied the United States national team to Brazil for a series of exhibition matches. One afternoon, at a training facility outside São Paulo, I was pressed into service to help officiate an intra-squad scrimmage. The team's coach, Tony DiCicco, handed me a red flag and told me to raise it if I detected any infractions.
The field was about 30 yards shorter than the regulation size, which is…
apalazzo | July 7, 2006From Wednesday's Boston Globe - (I know it's a wee bit late): Setbacks for medical research (OpEd).
For the first time in three decades, federal funding for the National Institutes of Health was cut this year. The reduction, which followed two years of level funding, not only imperils the development of lifesaving scientific breakthroughs but also has a detrimental impact on regional economies that are dependent on innovation -- and New England is at the forefront.
...
From 1998 to 2003, federal investment in NIH doubled, with 15 percent increases each year. While budget realities make such…
apalazzo | July 7, 2006OK here is the satelite photo:
Click here for a larger image.
Here is the hint:
Cells Divide, but sometimes they Can't
What is the mystery campus? And what in the world does the hint mean?
(BTW last week's hint is still up for grabs ... there are plenty of clues in the comments.)
apalazzo | July 7, 2006It's Mitosis, with a nifty soundtrack. Enjoy!
Previously:
More Biology Rap
Protein Synthesis Rap
apalazzo | July 6, 2006I had read a couple of reviews about all the recent ruckus in this field. I was going to write something ... but I only have so many hours in a day. Now the newest paper has now surfaced. Pure Pedantry has the details. And so I guess I'll end up writing about it anyway.
So how did this all start? Because I'm lazy (and frankly have a ton of work to do) here is what I posted on Pure Pedantry:
...the big papers came out a couple of months ago. In the first paper a bone marrow from a GFP expressing mouse was transplanted into a native mouse. The native mouse developed GFP expressing oocytes (…
apalazzo | July 6, 2006No soccer today. So instead of spending time watching others run around, go read the two papers, published in last week's Nature on Golgi maturation.
Proteins that need to traverse, or be embedded, within membranes are synthesized on the surface of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). At the ER membrane, proteins are cotranslationaly inserted through (or into) the memebrane via a pore called the translocon. Most of these "translocated" proteins are then delivered, through vesicular transport to the Golgi complex, where they are modified. How? Well sugars are covalently attached, sugars are…
apalazzo | July 5, 2006This up at Nature: The 50 most popular science blogs.
No surprise, Pharyngula and Panda's Thumb head the list (based on technorati's rankings).
Big surprise: The Daily Transcript is tied for #38.
To read more, check out what PZ Myers had to say.
(OK I promise that I'll write a REAL science entry soon - in fact two major Golgi papers are out that give evidence for cisternal maturation ... more details will follow shortly).
apalazzo | July 5, 2006Well it was an incredible game. Both teams played impressively well. Italy had the advantage in the first half, Germany had the advantage in the second half. Overtime varied between end to end play, and exhausted players walking around. As the final whistle approached, Italy kept on substituting in forwards. The turning point was when Iaquinta came in. Italy kept on going down the right flank generating momentum. Gilardino -- post. Zambrotta -- crossbar. And then the last two minutes:
Incredible. Simply incredible. Pirlo is a smart player, and Grosso always seems to show up in the last key…
apalazzo | July 4, 2006Here I am, with my affiliations to Italy, the land of my origins, in a "German" lab. Many bets are on the line. So can Gli Azzurri make it? Although history may predict that the home team has an advantage, Germany has never defeated Italy in either the Euro Cup or the World Cup. There has always been some bizarre logic, akin to numerology, associated with the World Cup:
- Latin teams have always won the Cup when it was played in latin countries (except once). Non-latin teams have won 3/5 cups on non-latin soil.
- European teams have never won the Cup outside of Europe, but they've won every…
apalazzo | July 4, 2006Yesterday, while driving up to Ipswich to spend the day at Crane beach and watch the see the annual July 3rd Fireworks, a group of us gabbed about the transient nature of being an academic.
Living from place to place, moving until you are in your late 30s, an academic is expected to travel and see the world. You live in various places; experience the day to day hustle of different cities, towns and often countries. You absorb the local customs, the ideas, the history. You attempt to form relationships with coworkers ... but in the end it's all very transient.
I've made many good friends…
apalazzo | July 2, 2006Why did France beat Brazil? Because they have the greatest living soccer player.
... and then the winning goal (note how at the beginning of the play, Zidane flips the ball over Ronaldo's head):
Incredible, one of the best games of this World Cup.
apalazzo | July 1, 2006Direct a change at one site.
Point to the little man in your head.
Get your blood sugar running.
These are a few Canadian scientific discoveries. Who, who and who are these famous Canuks?
Some Canadian Science Links:
Science Canada
David Suzuki Foundation
Discovery.ca