The CERN average of searches for rare B decays to muon pairs has been shown yesterday in a talk given by Mitesh Patel at the "Physics at the LHC" conference, which is being held in Vancouver (BC) this week. And the results are not very encouraging for supporters of Supersymmetry: the data is compatible with a Standard Model signal, but there is almost no space left for additional contributions due to the exchange of virtual SUSY particles in the loops producing the decays.

The fourth FQXi essay contest “Which of Our Basic Physical Assumptions Are Wrong?” is underway.

 

A major function of microRNAs is to inhibit messenger RNA (mRNA) translation by binding to a specific 3’ untranslated region (UTR) through sequence complementation. In a recent study published in the March 2012 issue of Cell Stem Cell, Boutet et al. discovered that Pax3 transcripts in muscle stem cells in vivo can have both long and short 3’UTRs, an effect controlled by differential poly-adenylation patterns during the course of development. While Pax3 transcripts with long 3’UTRs are susceptible to translational inhibition by miR-206, transcripts with short 3’UTR are profoundly resistant to miR-206. 

In the last few weeks there has been a sugar tsunami in the media. CBS reported about sugar toxicity. Mayor Bloomberg banned the serving of sugary drinks greater than 16 fluid ounces in New York City. The FDA turned down a request from the Corn Industry to re-name high fructose corn syrup as "corn sugar". And then there is that huge advertising campaign that denies that sweetened beverages are driving the obesity epidemic.

Browsing, as I do from time to time, recent German news in thelocal.de, I came across

Schoolboy cracks age-old maths problem

Miss Wombles,

1. Person first language. Learn about it. This is the first clue that indicates to me that you are not equipped to have this type of discussion. --part of a new comment on a two-year-old post

The post, in itself, and the remainder of the person's comment aren't what's important here. Plenty of folks have tackled this issue of person-first language. Lydia of Autistic Hoya has done so several times. Stuart Duncan has covered it. I'm pretty sure there are few long-term bloggers in autism-land who haven't handled this issue.

I started a new job this spring. After a long search in a tough market, I landed my dream job as a senior professor and administrator at a top research university – a university that did not retain a headhunter for its search.

Talks at other schools had progressed to first or second interviews before fizzling, and they fizzled due to the ineptitude of the universities’ search firms. The headhunters deserve a whipping, and this column administers ten lashes.

Parents of children with neurological conditions and disorders and mental health issues are often faced with the frightening and difficult decision of whether to medicate for specific issues and behaviors. Parents are already stressed, worried, and expecting the worst when they walk into a psychiatrist's office, and it doesn't help when they've already been through the gamut of pediatricians, psychologists and other health professionals who have an opinion on the diagnosis of mental health issues in children and the role medication should play in the treatment.

Around 100,000 years ago, human evolution was in a rut, modern human ancestors consisted of 5-10,000 individuals living in Africa.

Yet modern humans somehow emerged from this population bottleneck, expanding dramatically in both number and range, and replacing all other co-existing evolutionary cousins, like Neanderthals. What caused this bottleneck in the first place?  Answers range from gene mutations to cultural developments like language to climate-altering events, like a massive volcanic eruption. 

Maybe there is another possible factor: infectious disease.