Featured Articles

Rocco for President!

Rocco for President!

Jun 24 2009 | comment(s)

After weeks of painful struggling against all evidence, I think I will finally have to accept the fact that Italians actually approve their Prime Minister's behavior and libertine sex habits: the final proof be that they still voted for his lackeys at the last round of administrative elections. However, being a male in a male chauvinist country, I feel I am not very well represented by Berlusconi in this regard. Please consider:





  • he is almost 73 years old;




  • he is constantly afflicted by neck pain, which for sure must prevent him from anything but the most basic reproductory capabilities;




  • he fought a prostate cancer, which certainly took a hit in his sexual performances;
Anoplophora glabrienpennis: Beetles from China

Anoplophora glabrienpennis: Beetles from China

Jun 24 2009 | comment(s)



The Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis) with their distinct white and black coloring are natives of China, but these hardwood tree killers have been around New York since 1996. 
Total nasal epithelial cell surface area in a mouse?

Total nasal epithelial cell surface area in a mouse?

Jun 24 2009 | comment(s)

The Database of Useful Biological Numbers - great stuff, although before using any hard-to-measure number, be sure to know how the measurement was done before you trust the result.

Check these out:

Number of hairs in human eyebrows: 600

Respiratory cost for slow growing gradd: 2.4 mmole ATP/g dry weight * day

ATP requirement for the creation of an E. coli cell: 12-20 billion ATP molecules.

Average diameter of a protein in E. coli: 5 nm

Fraction of total body energy that is used to drive sodium/potassium pumps in the human brain: 10%

Serotonin content in pineapple: 17ug/g

Total nasal epithelial cell surface area in a mouse: 300 mm^2
Intranasal Insulin - Attempting to Help Diabetics Suffering from Neuropathy

Intranasal Insulin - Attempting to Help Diabetics Suffering from Neuropathy

Jun 24 2009 | comment(s)

Clinical scientists at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute are starting the first pilot study looking at the delivery of insulin via the nasal passageway as a potential new treatment for diabetic neuropathy (DPN).

About 50 per cent of people with diabetes will develop DPN, a debilitating and painful nerve disease.  Current treatment is limited to pain management only.

Cory Toth, MD, fellow, Lawrence Korngut, MD, and colleagues, have demonstrated that intransal insulin helps protect nerves in the brain and central nervous sysem (cns) of mice.  It also slowed the progression of DPN and prolonged lifespan in comparison to subcutaneous insulin.  These findings were published earlier this year in the journals Brain and Diabetes.
The Say of the Week - on Consistency and Integrity

The Say of the Week - on Consistency and Integrity

Jun 24 2009 | comment(s)

Augusto Minzolini (right), director of the TG1 news program of Rai 1, the most followed public italian TV channel, is under siege in Italy, accused of hiding the news of the embarassing story of Berlusconi and the call girl Patrizia D'Addario and the surrounding affair, which continued to make headlines on World press, but was utterly absent from Rai 1 TV news for over a week.
The Evocative Power Of Language

The Evocative Power Of Language

Jun 24 2009 | comment(s)

The Evocative Power Of Language

Most philosophical studies of how language functions have focused on semantics - how language conveys meaning.  In ordinary speech, language is not confined to the transmission of information.  It can be used to evoke strong emotions.
Review - Pedophilia: Neuropsychological Evidence Encouraging A Brain Network Perspective

Review - Pedophilia: Neuropsychological Evidence Encouraging A Brain Network Perspective

Jun 24 2009 | comment(s)

In a unique study of four previously convicted adult male pedophiles (Mage = 33.8, SD 9.7 years), utilizing structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and imaging genomics (neuroimaging combined with genetic analyses), the authors propose that small variations in genotypes are responsible for paraphilic phenotypic expression (Tost, Vollmert, Brassen, Schmitt, Dressing, Braus, 2004).
    
Energy and Organic Farming

Energy and Organic Farming

Jun 24 2009 | comment(s)

One of the pleasures of working at Reading University is being able to walk across to our Agriculture Department at lunchtime and join the table talk.  Today, they were discussing the following press release.

Rising energy costs give an important role for organic farming in securing long-term food supply

The nub of this is as follows:
Enceladus - Salty Ocean On Saturn's Moon A Lot Like Earth

Enceladus - Salty Ocean On Saturn's Moon A Lot Like Earth

Jun 24 2009 | comment(s)

An enormous plume of water spurts in giant jets from the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus and a report published in Nature provides evidence that this magnificent plume is fed by a salty ocean.

The Cassini spacecraft made a surprising discovery about Saturn's sixth largest moon, Enceladus, on its exploration of the giant ringed planet in 2005. Enceladus ejects water vapor, gas and tiny grains of ice into space hundreds of kilometres above the moon's surface.
Binary Multiplication, The Computer (and Ethiopian?) Way

Binary Multiplication, The Computer (and Ethiopian?) Way

Jun 24 2009 | comment(s)

In the 360 blog (sub-heading, “12 tables, 24 chairs, and plenty of chalk”), blogger Ξ (Xi) recently wrote about “Ethiopian Multiplication” (and followed it up with a series of interesting posts on different ways to multiply, here, here, here, and

Morning Science Quote

Morning Science Quote

Jun 24 2009 | comment(s)

When you turn the resources of modern science to the problem of killing people, you realize how vulnerable they really are.

- Physicist I.I. Rabi, quoted in Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, p. 779







The Science Of Sex

The Science Of Sex

Jun 24 2009 | comment(s)



Thinking of heading down to the Ms. Adrenaline Swimsuit Competition? Not surprising.  Sex attracts and naked bodies flaunted for all to see, attract even more. Researchers from four universities across the US and Canada prodded into our sexual habits to answer the question of what characteristics attract us to our mates. The results were published in the journal Personality And Individual Differences, with a trend line showing those with hard bodies, a curvy waist-hip ratio and strong chin lines tend to be better in bed but perhaps more apt to cheat.

Statins For Lower Cholesterol May Also Prevent Alzheimer's

Statins For Lower Cholesterol May Also Prevent Alzheimer's

Jun 24 2009 | comment(s)

High cholesterol levels are considered to be a risk factor not only for cardiovascular disease including stroke, but also for the development of Alzheimer's disease so cholesterol lowering drugs, including statins, developed in recent years may help with both. In addition to the cholesterol reducing effect of statins Amalia Dolga, PhD, of the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, and her co-investigators have demonstrated that statins can protect nerve cells against damage which we know to occur in the brain of Alzheimer's disease patients.

The results are published in the June issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.
Copy Number Variation Could Explain Evolutionary Shifts - Study

Copy Number Variation Could Explain Evolutionary Shifts - Study

Jun 24 2009 | comment(s)

Rearrangements in genomes, genes and exons can result from a glitch in DNA copying that occurs when the process stalls at a critical point and then shifts to a different genetic template, duplicating and even triplicating genes or just shuffling or deleting part of the code within them, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in a recent report in Nature Genetics. The report further elucidated the effect of the fork stalling and template switching mechanism involved in some forms of copy number variation.
Superbug Clostridium Difficile - Do Viruses Make Bacteria More Deadly?

Superbug Clostridium Difficile - Do Viruses Make Bacteria More Deadly?

Jun 24 2009 | comment(s)

In England and Wales, the national health statistics in 2007 showed that there were 8,324 death certificates which named Clostridium difficile. This is a bacterium which causes severe diarrhea in humans and animals as the underlying cause of death, a 28% increase from 2006.

Now Janet Nale of the Department of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation is investigating the contributing factors that make Clostridium difficile so aggressive to direct treatment. 

Nale said: “Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria and some can completely change the behaviour of their host bacteria, or affect its ability to cause disease. In some cases, bacteriophages have been shown to convert a mild strain to a severe one.
Saving Science For The Non-Believers?

Saving Science For The Non-Believers?

Jun 24 2009 | comment(s)

Ken Miller vs. Jerry Coyne: Can you believe in God and evolution? Many creationists say no. But so does Jerry Coyne, as well as a fair number of other non-believing scientists active in the blogosphere. If you follow the science blogging community, you've probably tuned in to, or at least overhead snippets of, the debate between the believing Ken Miller, and the non-believer Jerry Coyne. Both are well-regarded scientists, with impressive research track records, and both are very outspoken opponents of creationism and intelligent design, as well as defenders of evolution.
Editors In Web2.0

Editors In Web2.0

Jun 24 2009 | comment(s)

Many people will write columns, fiction, games, et cetera for the joy of doing it.  But that leads me to an important distinction between writing versus publishing.  Writers-- good and bad-- will write for free.  History tells us that.  But a good editor won't, and publishing great works requires great editors.

In all the Web2.0 talk of removing barriers between creators and audience, the role of 'publisher' is often considered a dark ages legacy, fit to be abolished.  But the role of editor rarely is invoked, and I think that's a mistake.  Yes, the editor is the bane to writers, but they are a hidden blessing to readers.  
A Science Of Human Language - Part #5

A Science Of Human Language - Part #5

Jun 24 2009 | comment(s)

A Science Of Human Language - Part #5


This article is a continuation and expansion of the theory of mental models, introduced in part #4.
Who's to blame - pharma or academia? Both? Neither?

Who's to blame - pharma or academia? Both? Neither?

Jun 23 2009 | comment(s)

From bench to bedside - who is the catalyst? Academics? Pharma? Everybody? Nobody? From this recent spate of articles on progesterone and brain trauma, it's tough to say.