Now on ScienceBlogs: Will Quantum Fusion Save the Day?
Preclinical research has a problem, but that doesn't mean religion is better Remember Vox Day? Sure, I bet you do, at least if you've been a regular reader of this blog more than a year or two. If you're a really long-timer, you probably remember him even better. Let's just put it...
Happy Anniversary ACT UP Technically, it was a few days ago, but I missed it. Here's Rachel Maddow's coverage: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy...
"Eat the Sun": Sun-worshiping fantasy versus reality Almost exactly a year ago, I came across a bit of woo so incredible, so spectacularly stupid and unbelievable, that I dedicated one of the last segments I've done in a long time of Your Friday Dose of Woo to...
Are you worried about spider bites? Have you been getting bitten by a lot of spiders lately? Are you concerned about Brown Recluse Spiders?...
Dan Burton's last antivaccine hurrah? A couple of months ago, I couldn't help but rejoice when I learned that Indiana Representative Dan Burton had finally, after twenty years in the U.S. House of Representatives, decided to retire after the end of this term. I thought...
Experimental Biology 2012 - Tuesday & Wednesday I have had a lot of fun at this year's Experimental Biology conference. I always enjoy attending the symposia to listen to current research news as well as interact with fellow comparative physiologists at all levels of training. Here...
Stanislaw Burzynski: Kind-hearted strangers and a failure of medical journalism About two and a half weeks ago, I was disappointed to learn that Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski had somehow managed to delay justice again. At the time, I didn't know what had happened other than that his hearing before the Texas...
Showing more pride in comparative physiology Meet Dr. Heidy Contreras, a Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of Arizona and the latest winner of a Starbucks gift card for showing off her pride in comparative physiology at the 2012 Experimental Biology meeting!...
Tuesday's comparative physiology posters at EB 2012 Here are my favorite posters from today's session: -Scott G, Schnurr ME, Yin Y, Johnston IA. "Embryonic temperature produces persistent effects on the capacity for thermal acclimation in adult zebrafish" Scott et al., found that exposing embryonic zebrafish to...
California Cow Is Mad The USDA has just confirmed that a dairy cow in California had bovine spungiform encephalopathy (BSE) sometimes known as "Mad Cow Disease," which causes Creutzfeldt-Jakob, a deadly human disease affecting the brain. The animal was about to be, or was in the process of being,...
No, Virginia, cancer care in Europe doesn't suck, contrary to what a recent paper implies The U.S. is widely known to have the highest health care expenditures per capita in the world, and not just by a little, but by a lot. I'm not going to go into the reasons for this so much, other...
Meet the final What's New in Comparative Physiology t-shirt contest winner!! Meet Patricia Villalta, from the University of South Alabama College of Medicine, our final winner of the "What's New in Comparative Physiology" t-shirt contest! The letter explaining her reasons for being excited about the Experimental Biology conference were inspirational. May...
Experimental Biology 2012 - Monday (continued) Highlights from the afternoon seminars: D. Schlenk, "Estrogenic activities in marine wildlife: potential causes and population impacts" Dr. Schlenk has been studying the estrogenic effects of Bifenthrin, a pyrethroid insectide in fish populations. He observed that male fish exposed...
Experimental Biology 2012 - Monday G Highlights from the morning sessions Hypoxia inducible factors in health and disease G. Haddad, "Genomic information controlling the adaptation to long term hypoxia: insights from flies and humans" Dr. Haddad's laboratory has discovered that hypoxia tolerance is inherited in...
The annals of "I'm not anti-vaccine," part 10: Titanic, Oklahoma City, or the Holocaust? It's not infrequent that I come under fire from antivaccinationists for, ironically enough, calling them antivaccinationists. "Oh, no," they protest, "I'm not antivaccine. How dare you call me that? I'm actually a vaccine safety advocate." Of course, when you probe...
Some Thoughts on a Mechanism for Cell Suicide You might not think of cell suicide as a sexy subject - but it is actually quite hot. Cells off themselves for any number of reasons: In embryonic development, cell suicide helps shape the growing organism. In adults, suicide is...
Experimental Biology 2012 - Saturday I arrived in beautiful San Diego this afternoon and just checked in to the conference. I am really looking forward to the Walter Cannon Lecture this evening as well as the APS 125th Anniversary Opening Ceremony and beach party!...
What happens if I eat mold? A common concern people have is the outcome of eating food that is moldy. This happens when you are not paying attention to what you are eating and suddenly realize that you just ate half a sandwich made with bread that has some mold on...
Still angry that those X-Ray Glasses never worked? There's an app for that! This is woo, right?...
Thanks, antivaccinationists. Thanks again for the measles. Thanks again, antivaccine activists. Thanks for the measles. Again: Last year was the worst year for measles in the U.S. in 15 years, health officials said Thursday. There were 222 cases of measles, a large jump from the 60 or...
Does sitting = death? There is a study that shows that people who sit more per day die sooner, despite other factors such as overall health. It is reported in The Atlantic and written up here....
Update on California bill AB 2109: It moves on despite the antivaccine movement It just occurred to me that, even though there was news about it, I never mentioned what's happened recently with respect to California bill AB2109. As you might recall, I wrote about this bill about four weeks ago. In brief,...
More exciting comparative physiology sessions at EB 2012! In looking through the online program for this years' EB, I came across additional comparative physiology seminars that I am very much looking forward to attending (to see the prior list of must-see seminars, click here): Monday April 23rd:...
X Minus One for vaccination Yesterday was a bit of a rough patch; so today there won't be the usual Orac magnum opus to which you've all become accustomed. Instead, maybe I'll do a briefer post with semi-random thoughts. Of course, even Orac's shorter posts...
“Lying is exclusively for doctors I have to see for something once and don't trust, or don't have a relationship with. My regular docs have all the info, and I have no problem giving them all the gory details.” Staceyjw on Your daily healthy imagination question: Have you ever lied to your doctor? Why?
Orac 04.13.2012
PZ Myers 06.17.2009
Orac 04.30.2012
Tim Lambert 09.12.2011
ERV 11.26.2011
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Some engineers use cranes and steel to make their designs reality, but synthetic biologists engineer using tools on a different scale: DNA and the other molecular components of living cells. Synthetic biology uses cellular systems and structures to produce artificial models based on natural order. Read these posts from the ScienceBlogs archives for more:
Pharyngula May 30, 2007
The Loom January 31, 2008
Discovering Biology in a Digital World July 2, 2006