Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, probably has a saltwater ocean under it’s surface, at least per an analysis of data from the Cassini probe. Take it away NASA and JPL: For the first time, scientists working on NASA’s Cassini mission have detected sodium salts in ice grains of Saturn’s outermost ring. Detecting salty ice indicates [...]
… isn’t about the uninsured. Paul Begala put it concisely on Real Time with Bill Maher last week: (Most relevant part starts at 3:35.) My transcript: What we’ve really spent our money on, in this system, is trying to figure out to not cover people who have paid for their premiums. There was a hearing [...]
A recent column of mine responded to a question/rant about naturopathic medicine: A dear friend of mine is about to enter a prestigious program of naturopathic medicine. There—in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars and five years of his life—he will study homeopathy, osteopathy, water therapy, etc. Apparently, after gaining his ND credential, he [...]
As a pathogen, influenza is the cat’s pajamas; influenza puts the ortho in orthomyxovirus, the segments in its RNA genome and the misery in sneeze droplets everywhere. Let’s unpack H1N1 and H5N1. The ‘N’ in both stands for neuraminidase, a fancy way for saying “snot eating enzyme.” The virus needs to get to the juicy [...]
Dendreon, a Seattle-based biotech startup, just completed a successful phase III trial on an entirely new kind of cancer treatment.
Many of you already know of my skepticism of compact fluorescent lightbulbs. Now utilities are joining in the hate: CFLs use about twice as much energy than previously claimed. Lightbulbs, TVs, ovens, baseboard heaters–whatever–draw energy from alternating current with varying degrees of efficiency, due to the funkiness of alternating current. Allow me to explain, by [...]
As a part of writing up my PhD thesis, I adapted this figure from Gilbert’s Developmental Biology, Fourth Edition: (This figure is my own. Click for a much larger version–suitable for printing on an 8.5×11 sheet of paper.) When I write about embryonic stem cells, I’m often saying something like this: Making a new mammal [...]
Regulated cascades pop up all the time in biology–particularly in complex organisms. Whether coagulation, development or differentiation of specific cell types, they all follow the same general pattern.
Some new work, in the field of skeletal muscle differentiation, points to another way beyond the divine to generate a cascade.
1. In the best way we can, in the face of no viable alternatives beyond doom. From NOAA: NOAA’s National Weather Service has issued a report that analyzes forecasting performance and public response during the second deadliest tornado outbreak in U.S. history. The report, Service Assessment of the Super Tuesday Tornado Outbreak of February 5-6, [...]
Preventing “children from being taught in public schools that ‘same-sex marriage’ is the same as traditional marriage” however does cause demonstrable harm. Kenneth B. Clark’s “Doll Test” tells us that letting proposition-8 stand will damage children who are biologically determined to be attracted to the same sex–telling them their capacity for love is wrong and beneath that of the heterosexual majority.