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There Oughta Be A Law. And, Actually, There Is One

There Oughta Be A Law. And, Actually, There Is One

Oct 07 2009 | comment(s)

They say the world is changing. Let’s check that out empirically.

We might run a couple of sample surveys, to see how people’s behaviors or attitudes change between the two questionnaire mailings.  A colleague, however, suggests panel sampling.

Morning Science Quote

Morning Science Quote

Oct 07 2009 | comment(s)

Man may be excused for feeling some pride at having risen, though not through his own exertions, to the very summit of the organic scale; and the fact of his having thus risen, instead of having been aboriginally placed there, may give him hope for a still higher destiny in the distant future. But we are not here concerned with hopes or fears, only with the truth as far as our reason permits us to discover it; and I have given the evidence to the best of my ability.
Is this site opened for phishers?

Is this site opened for phishers?

Oct 07 2009 | comment(s)

I start my activity on these pages by pointing to a security problem we have here. I found it when viewing one of my comments to a news article where a new comment appeared:
http://www.scientificblogging.com/comments/24095/Re_2009_Peer_Review_Sur...
I thus wrote there this, which indeed is unfortunately true:
The comment by Tiffany is a spam. It only says "Nice" but points to some shop with cheap bracelets. Tiffany should be removed and then one can remove also this comment.


I would think that it should not be possible to insert a link into the signature.

This is opening this site to miscreants who could link us to phishing sites. This should be fixed!
Climate change, 18th century style

Climate change, 18th century style

Oct 07 2009 | comment(s)

Scientists hope weather data from 18th century ships' logbooks will shed light on how the climate has changed in the past 200 years, according to this BBC report.
How to succeed in blogging (or have better vision)

How to succeed in blogging (or have better vision)

Oct 07 2009 | comment(s)


As posted on Indexed.
P.S. Suck it, biatch.
Can Herbal Medicines Reduce Risk Of Diabetes?

Can Herbal Medicines Reduce Risk Of Diabetes?

Oct 07 2009 | comment(s)

Herbal medicines are more common in Asian countries to treat pre-diabetes (impaired glucose tolerance or IGT), the precursor of diabetes but is there any hard scientific evidence to confidently recommend their use?

No.  That doesn't mean they aren't a viable treatment but, or that they haven't worked in some people, just like the confounding placebo effect, but more research would be needed to establish whether Chinese herbal medicines can reduce the likelihood of developing diabetes the way advocates claim.
Autism Gets A Genome-wide Study

Autism Gets A Genome-wide Study

Oct 07 2009 | comment(s)

A study combining family- and population-based approaches has uncovered a single-letter change in the genetic code that is associated with autism.  The finding implicates a neuronal gene not previously tied to the disorder and more broadly, underscores a role for common DNA variation. In addition, the new research highlights two other regions of the genome, which are likely to contain rare genetic differences that may also influence autism risk.
Two Men Plus Two Cell Membrane Channels Plus Two Synchrotrons: One Nobel Prize

Two Men Plus Two Cell Membrane Channels Plus Two Synchrotrons: One Nobel Prize

Oct 07 2009 | comment(s)

Soon the world will learn who won the 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Do you remember Peter Agre and Roderick MacKinnon of the following announcement?

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2003

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2003 “for discoveries concerning channels in cell membranes”, with one half of the prize to
Peter Agre
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA
“for the discovery of water channels”
and one half of the prize to
Roderick MacKinnon
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Rockefeller University, New York, USA
“for structural and mechanistic studies of ion channels”. [1]

Two Cell Membrane Channels
Conservation Conundrum - Discouraging Sportsmen Has Meant Less Money For Conservation

Conservation Conundrum - Discouraging Sportsmen Has Meant Less Money For Conservation

Oct 07 2009 | comment(s)

There is a subset of people in the environmental conservation movement who hate their fellow man - they like nature but don't think anyone outside of their companies should enjoy it, they should just pay companies to raise money for advocacy.
I love the Nobel Prize...(and foam, sometimes)

I love the Nobel Prize...(and foam, sometimes)

Oct 06 2009 | comment(s)

I always like to hear who got the Nobel Prize (well at least the one in medicine, anyway- I am definitely not a physics person), because lately it is almost someone who researched something that I remember learning about in school, when it was "new". 

This year, it's telomeres- the particular sequences on the ends of chromosomes that protect the actual genes from getting broken down.  It's also nice to see 2 women getting the prize.  Oh, and a man, too, don't want anyone to think I wasn't paying attention.
CDF Kisses Another New Physics Effect Bye-Bye

CDF Kisses Another New Physics Effect Bye-Bye

Oct 06 2009 | comment(s)

Do you remember the "e-e-gamma-gamma-met"  event ? I am sure you do not. It is an incredibly striking event that appeared toward the end of the Tevatron Run I in the CDF data. One event that was so incredibly striking, so impossible to produce through standard model processes, that many in my experiment felt sure that it was going to be the portal through which we would enter the realm of Supersymmetry, or other fancy new physics scenarios.
How To Evolve A Pandemic Flu Virus

How To Evolve A Pandemic Flu Virus

Oct 06 2009 | comment(s)

Most years, we generally don't worry about the flu (unless we're paid to worry about it, or we belong to an especially susceptible population). Yet some years, like this one, threats of a pandemic flu virus make it on everyone's radar screen. So exactly what is it that makes a flu virus reach pandemic proportions?

A group of researchers at the US Centers for Disease Control, Mt. Sinai and Harvard recently used engineered versions of the disastrous 1918 flu virus (don't try this at home!) to learn just what makes a flu virus go global.
Squid Can Regenerate, But They're No Sorcerer's Brooms

Squid Can Regenerate, But They're No Sorcerer's Brooms

Oct 06 2009 | comment(s)

I get some bizarre hits from my google squid alert, like this opinion piece discussing the "Democratic Squid." Squid-A-Day has nothing to say about Chicago, the Olympics, or Obama's foreign policy, but at least I can set the record straight on biology:
Love Star Wars + have access to filming device = chance of a lifetime!

Love Star Wars + have access to filming device = chance of a lifetime!

Oct 06 2009 | comment(s)

In the parlance of those younger tech addicts of the acronym persuasion - OMG. Times a million.

You can be in Star Wars.

"Whaaaaaaaat?!?", you exclaim while knocking the X-Wing model on your desk over in your haste to push your glasses back up your nose and flip your Jedi robe back over your shoulders.
The International Space Station-- Gone By 2016?

The International Space Station-- Gone By 2016?

Oct 06 2009 | comment(s)

Just why do we have a space station, anyway? That's a question of relevance, because it turns out we might not have one after 2015. The International Space Science Station (ISS) is a football-field sized structure able to support six people 220 miles above us. It is a symbol of international cooperation, a marvel of technology, a new site for tourism and, to some, a project to be terminated in 2015.

What we've gotten from it? Some intangibles, some useful stuff.


  • advancing our space capability


  • increasing our limits on how long people can live in orbit


  • keeping nuclear scientists from going rogue after the breakup of the Soviet Union


  • research that benefits Earth


Men And Hearing Loss: Do We Just Rock Harder Or Are We Too Stupid To Turn Down The Volume?

Men And Hearing Loss: Do We Just Rock Harder Or Are We Too Stupid To Turn Down The Volume?

Oct 06 2009 | comment(s)

Men suffer noise-induced hearing loss more than women, it seems.   Guys just rock out more, you might think.  Better to burn out than fade away, and all that.  

But it's primarily married white guys who can't turn the volume down, which means our families will have the next 70 years of repeating everything twice, and louder, because, let's face it, guys with rock star fantasies won't wear hearing aids.  What's to be done?

Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is a preventable though increasingly prevalent hearing disorder that results from exposure to high-intensity sound, especially over a long period of time.   Thanks, iPod.  Now turn down the Journey, gentlemen.  If you haven't stopped believin' by now, you never will.
Nobel Musings

Nobel Musings

Oct 06 2009 | comment(s)

Three deserving, outstanding scientists have won the Nobel of medicine. As a footnote, Blackburn's outstanding career has included dismissal from Bush II's bioethics committee over her dissent on the Bush administration's stem cell policy. Telomore biology is interesting and important and relevant to cancer, but personally I think Jack Szostak's work on the origins of life is even more interesting. On my hard drive I've got a folder labeled 'Szostak', whose contents include these interesting studies: 'Synthesizing Life' (a review, subscription required)
Considering Free Will: Moral Responsibility

Considering Free Will: Moral Responsibility

Oct 06 2009 | comment(s)

In the last article we considered the formation of choices as providing a set of predetermined responses to various situations.  It is this phase of data gathering and assessment that sets the groundwork for our moral responsibility.

Specifically it is erroneous to consider that choices are evaluated and determined solely at the point of action, but rather, default states may well be set within the brain based on our training and indoctrination.  It is these default states that represent the possibility of choices that we can base a decision on.
Future Medicine - 'Closed' Heart Surgery Using Gene Therapy

Future Medicine - 'Closed' Heart Surgery Using Gene Therapy

Oct 06 2009 | comment(s)

Everyone's heard of open heart surgery but closed heart surgery could one day be just as ubiquitous, according to research from the Universities of Michigan and Minnesota in the FASEB Journal.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heart failure is a condition where the heart cannot pump enough blood and oxygen to meet the needs of other body organs. Approximately 5 million people in the United States have heart failure, about 550,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, and more than 287,000 people in the United States die each year of heart failure. The most common causes of heart failure are coronary artery disease, hypertension or high blood pressure, and diabetes.