j7uy5 | July 22, 2006Coturnix
href="http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2006/07/the_perils_of_polls.php">picked
up on an
href="http://www.newsobserver.com/662/story/462624.html">interesting
study, which shows that "Simply asking college students who
are inclined to take drugs about their illegal-drug use in a survey may
increase the behavior." It is a finding that makes
researchers nervous, presumably because they do not want to encourage
such behavior.
It turns out that the effect was only seen in those persons who already
were inclined to use drugs. It seems doubtful that
participating in the survey…
j7uy5 | July 22, 2006I haven't done much frank political blogging since moving to
ScienceBlogs. But this is just too provocative to pass up.
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,1826479,00.html">
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,1826479,00.html">Afghanistan
close to anarchy, warns general· Nato commander's view in stark
contrast to ministers'· Forces short of equipment and
'running out of time'Richard Norton-TaylorSaturday July 22, 2006The Guardian
The most senior British military commander in Afghanistan yesterday
described the situation in the country as "close to…
j7uy5 | July 21, 2006
href="http://www.twinkies.com/recipe_view.asp?recipetype=Twinkies&rID=86">
Hostess Twinkies Sushi
Japanese animation, Hello Kitty, samurais, ninjas,
and Sushi are really popular right now! Here"s a wild recipe that"s
super easy to make and super fun to eat as a light and fruity snack!
href="http://www.twinkies.com/recipe_view.asp?recipetype=Twinkies&rID=86">This
recipe transforms the much loved Twinkie into a hip and
tropical flavored treat.
HT: Catty
Girls Discuss blog
j7uy5 | July 20, 2006This is from a study published in the latest NEJM: The "Gender Gap" in
Authorship of Academic Medical Literature — A 35-Year
Perspective [
href="http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/355/3/281">abstract/
rev="review"
href="http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/355/3/281">full
text/
href="http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/355/3/310">editorial
(subscription required for full text and editorial)].
First, the good news:
During the past four decades, the participation of
women in medicine has increased dramatically. Women now represent 49
percent of all medical…
j7uy5 | July 20, 2006This is
cool.This is
not.
Reading the Undercover Activist Blog, published by
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), I learned of
the development of a new type of solitude assault vehicle: the
href="http://www.gibbstech.co.uk/mediacentre/quadski.php"
rel="tag">Quadski, by Gibbs Technologies.
Searching Google Image for "quadski" returns two types of results.
The top image is from the
href="http://www.disabledskiing.ca/national/eng_home.htm">Canadian
Association for Disabled Skiing. It shows a person
using adaptive aids in order to ski. That is cool.
I'm not…
j7uy5 | July 20, 2006A lot of people are writing about this, and I do not really have
anything new to contribute. But I will say it anyway.
Researchers whom I trust, people of fine moral character,
think the restriction on federal funding for embryonic stem cell
research is bad. Despite opinions from a majority of
scientists, President Bush
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/20/washington/20bush.html?ex=1311048000&en=706eb15c10c16c16&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss">vetoed
legislation that would have allowed federal support for the research.
A supporter, Sen. Jim Talent
(R-Mo.),…
j7uy5 | July 19, 2006Ok, the ScienceBlogs new skin is up. It looks nice.
I was afraid that would happen. Now my banner looks
out of place. I will need to design a new one that uses
#f5ffe6 and/or #ebffcd. Maybe something with #ebffcd,
#ccffe0, #e0ccff, and #ffcceb. Life is nutty sometimes.
j7uy5 | July 19, 2006This is a follow-up to
href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2006/07/transgenic_drug_controversy.php">the
post from a couple of days ago. It might not make a
lot of sense unless you have read that post, or are otherwise familiar
with the issues regarding genetically-modified crops.
In general, there are valid concerns about genetically-modified crops.
However, it is important to think clearly about the issues
involved. Concerns about the technology that arise from a
generalization, may or may not
apply to a specific implementation of the technology. In
order to understand the…
j7uy5 | July 17, 2006
Some unexpected demands have impeded my progress on the "transgenic
drug" series. I've written part of what I planned to post
today. But I want to work on it some more.
In the meantime, here is a picture of noctilucent clouds, from
href="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060718.html">NASA's
APOD site. We are all relieved that the space
shuttle Discovery has landed safely. It turns out that the
space shuttle may be one reason that these unusual cloud formations
occur.
As explained by NASA:
Noctilucent Clouds Over Sweden Credit:
href="mailto:%20clearskies%20at%20bostream%…
j7uy5 | July 16, 2006There is controversy in Peru, of all places, about the experimental use
of a treatment for diarrhea in children. Diarrhea is a major
cause of mortality in underdeveloped nations, especially in children.
From the Wikipedia page on
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_mortality" rel="tag">infant
mortality:
Major causes of infant mortality in more developed
countries include congenital malformation, infection, and SIDS. The
most common cause of infant mortality of all children around the world
has traditionally been dehydration from diarrhea.
Because of the success of spreading…
j7uy5 | July 15, 2006The UM Center
for Organogenesis will have a booth at the
href="http://www.arborweb.com/annual_events_index.html">Art
Fairs in
Ann Arbor, featuring their Bio-Artography.
They'll be at
booth 155, on East University St.
href="http://bioartography.com/index2.html">
src="http://bioartography.com/thumbnails/033motoring5x7.jpg"
border="0" height="120" width="94">
href="http://bioartography.com/index2.html">
src="http://bioartography.com/thumbnails/021networking5x7.jpg"
border="0" height="120" width="101">
alt=""
src="http://bioartography.com/thumbnails/004rosebud_kidney.…
j7uy5 | July 15, 2006The
Wellcome Trust Biomedical Image Awards for 2006 have been announced.
The winners can be seen
href="http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/en/bia/gallery.html">here.
This photograph shows nerve cells growing along synthetic silk fibers.
The tiny blue dots are
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwann_cell">Schwann
cells. Schwann cells are a type of glial cell that
form myelin sheaths.
The hope is that these fibers might enable us to guide the growth of
nerve cells, in order to repair damage. The technology is
described in
href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5172422.stm">…
j7uy5 | July 14, 2006A friend and colleague of mine drives around in a cute little VW bug
powered by biodiesel. There's a peace sign on the front of
it, which helps it get better mileage. But peace sign or not,
there has been an ongoing controversy about whether biofuels are worth
anything.
In this post, I provide a little amateur analysis of the whole topic of
biofuels, and comment on the most recent study of the potential
benefits.
The controversy stems from the fact that it takes a lot of energy to
plant, transport, harvest, and process the crops needed to produce
biofuels. Some analyses indicated that…
j7uy5 | July 14, 2006This subject is not really news anymore, but I am writing about it to
call attention to a review article,
href="http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v31/n7/abs/1301082a.html">VNS
Therapy in Treatment-Resistant Depression: Clinical Evidence and
Putative Neurobiological Mechanisms. In this post,
I provide a little overview of VNS therapy, comment on some other
sources of information, and say a little bit about where I would like
the research to go next.
VNS Therapy in Treatment-Resistant
Depression: Clinical
Evidence and Putative Neurobiological MechanismsCharles B Nemeroff*,1,2, Helen S…
j7uy5 | July 12, 2006Even though electronic music is all the rage these days, people are
still figuring out new ways to make music without digital intervention.
Samuel Gaudet and Claude Gauthier, mathematicians at the University of
Moncton in New Brunswick, have developed the
href="http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20060603/fob7.asp">tritare.
This is like a guitar, but the strings branch in a Y-shape.
This results in the production of nonharmonic overtones,
something typically heard only from percussion instruments.
Meanwhile, at NYU, violinist
rel="tag">Mari Kimura has figured out how to
produce…
j7uy5 | July 11, 2006Medical interventions alway carry risks. So do other types of
interventions, such as those carried out in the name of national
security. Just as physicians must not let their enthusiasm
for healing carry them into the realm of medical misadventure, we, as a
country, must exercise prudence and restraint in the application of
force. We must be cautious about allowing our collective
might to be used in ways that defy that prudence and restraint.
Let us not forget, that in the interest of promoting national security,
we need to protect ourselves not only from external threats, but also
from…
j7uy5 | July 9, 2006I wonder how long it will be, before Blue Cross starts requiring people
to fly to the other side of the planet for liver transplants.
href="http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/004054B8-F475-4C40-872D-5E0D91D25B12.htm">Indian
medical care goes globalBy Jagpreet Luthra in DelhiSunday 18 June 2006, 21:22 Makka Time, 18:22
GMT
With hospitals in India's cities boasting first world medical care at
third world prices, the country is poised for a major share in the
multibillion dollar global healthcare market.
Until recently, holistic and Ayurvedic cures that combine herbal
medicines with…
j7uy5 | July 9, 2006Foreign Policy magazine has an article (
href="http://web1.foreignpolicy.com/issue_julyaug_2006/TI-index/index.html">The
Terrorism Index) about the Global and Perpetual War
on Terrorism. It is a compilation and analysis of the results
of a survey of 117 experts on foregin policy and terrorism.
The main finding is that 86% of the experts agree that we are
losing the war on terrorism.
It is remarkable that there is such strong agreement among experts on
this topic. Given the strength of their findings, and the
popularity of the topic, you might think that the article would gain…
j7uy5 | July 9, 2006
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Toda_Hut.JPG">
The
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toda_people"
title="Toda people">Toda people are a
small pastoral tribe of less than 1,000 people who reside in the
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nilgiris"
title="The Nilgiris">Nilgiri hills of Southern
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India" title="India">India.
Shown here is a typical Toda hut, about 3 m (10 ft.) high, 5.5 m (18
ft.) long and 2.7 m (9 ft.) wide. They are built of bamboo fastened
with rattan and thatched. The hut has only a tiny (about 0.9 x 0.9 m…
j7uy5 | July 9, 2006There are a two poems written by veterans, on the site for Yes! magazine. The magazine is a written by progressives, with the intention of trying to keep their messages positive.
When it comes to war, it is hard to put it in a positive light. But if you consider that the men who wrote those poems were traumatized, the fact that they were able to write such poems, and get them published, is at least somewhat positive.