apalazzo
Posts by this author
September 15, 2008
I've been neglecting science lately but I just wanted to point out that Victor Ambros, Gary Ruvkun and David Baulcombe just won the Lasker Award in Basic Sciences for their work on miRNAs, small non-coding RNAs that are encoded in the genome. These 19-23 nucleotide long RNAs regulate the stability…
September 15, 2008
Here we are going to look at the best available figures for offshore drilling, specifically the areas that are currently off-limits. That's what the fight is about.
First, how much oil we consume and how much we "produce":
The bottom line is that we consume a heck-of-a-lot more, close to twice…
September 15, 2008
Again here's a simple graph that says it all.
And they say that Democrats are fiscally irresponsible.
September 14, 2008
We've been told by the talking heads on teevee that Americans will decide this election based not on the issues but on personality. However, as a scientist I firmly believe that we must make conclusions based on the data. In this series of posts, I'll try to give you access to all the available…
September 13, 2008
Well since the current US election has taken over my blog, I've done a couple of things. First, I've created a new category Election '08 where you can find all my rants on this year's federal elections. Second, I've joined a new group blog, A Vote for Science. About nine of us sb bloggers will be…
September 12, 2008
WOW! This website is order of magnitude better then Pubmed. I am totally converted!
And check this out, on the top right hand corner of Pubget are direct links to all the top journals:
(here's a close up)
With one click, BAM! You can browse through Science!
To try out Pubget, click here. And…
September 12, 2008
We ask our volunteer army to go out and fight for our country, the least we could do in return is to treat them well, regardless of whether any one of us supported the decision to send the army in the first place. One of the best pieces of legislation ever to be passed was the GI bill - it send…
September 11, 2008
In a comment to yesterday's post Rev Matt stated:
There is also a correlation between teen pregnancy and religion.
I tried to look up the stats for the US and couldn't find any. What I discovered (mostly from this study) was that in the US religiosity correlates with a lower rate of contraception…
September 10, 2008
A certain segment of the US population is obsessed with "family values" and the "culture wars". This has been on full display ever since Sarah Palin was nominated as McCain VP. But let's face it, the facts are often at odds with the religious right's core beliefs. This idea that the country's…
September 8, 2008
Sorry folks, my new apartment is not yet hooked up to the web and on top of that I was down in NYC last week. As a result no new posts. And no facts ... but as soon as I have some time I'll continue that series. If you have some facts or stats about the current state of the US please post it (them…
September 2, 2008
This weekend I moved from the Backbay to Cambridgeport, aka Junior Faculty ghetto. It's conveniently located at the near BU, Harvard and MIT. It is probably one of the most overeducated (if such a term existed) neighborhoods on the planet.
So, in today's "let's talk about the facts" entry I'll…
August 30, 2008
And I won't even talk about the whole Global Warming issue. Governmental funding of science is fundamentally important to our economic future.
First let's look at funding for the National Institutes of Health, the main source of money for biomedical research in the US:
Joseph j7uy5 @ Corpus…
August 30, 2008
This one is dedicated to the residents of New Orleans who for the past three years have been rebuilding that beautiful city.
Long live The Big Easy.
August 29, 2008
One of America's strengths was that people looked up to the US. In WWII soldiers would give up to the US on purpose, because they knew that they would be treated fairly. How do I know this - my grandfather who fought for the Italians was one of them. Imagine that power. You are so highly regarded…
August 29, 2008
I'm Canadian. Back when I lived in Canada, health insurance was never a worry. Sure you might have to wait a bit before you got it, but you could always count on being sen by a doctor when ever something is wrong. If you want you can get additional health insurance that will pay for upgrades, but…
August 28, 2008
Again here's a simple graph that says it all.
And they say that Democrats are fiscally irresponsible.
August 28, 2008
Instead of vague platitudes, Clinton uses empiricism to make his points in last night's speech - America needs to look at what happened over the past 8 years. From last night's speech:
The choice is clear. The Republicans in a few days will nominate a good man who has served our country heroically…
August 27, 2008
Fact #1: There's a clear difference between Obama and McCain on taxes.
(ht: Digby, Crooks and Liars, Washington Post)
August 27, 2008
Last night we spent the night at the Cambridge Brewing company and said goodbye to Marius Wernig who is leaving today to start his lab at Stanford. If you are looking for a lab working on a hot topic and want a patient smart and generous mentor APPLY TO HIS LAB. Trust me. (To read more, click here…
August 24, 2008
Joe Biden. How do I feel about the pick? It's okay, nothing to get excited over. At least when Biden attacks McCain, the media will echo it.
So we spent the day packing and listening to all the "pundits" on all the MSM websites. It is amazing how vacuous all these shows are. Not one iota of useful…
August 24, 2008
I've been really busy of late. Over the summer I have been mentoring two students, Gloria who sadly left us for Danesh Moazed's lab (a great choice if you ask me) and Lesley who will be leaving next week to work in a lab at Duke. I have also been busy with the RNA Data Club - last week we had our…
August 22, 2008
Maybe this will become the new Friday feature at The Daily Transcript ...
August 18, 2008
If you are a scientist, I urge you to listen to the commencement speech that Krulwich gave to the Cal Tech graduates earlier this year.
August 12, 2008
Sorry, I've been busy these past few days.
I want to respond to a comment posted by Dan and take this opportunity to broaden the discussion about how we use language to construct models.
Dan's concerns about information and life have been echoed by many out there, for example by John Wilkins. Can…
August 7, 2008
A pocket-size lensless microscope that uses on-chip optofluidic microscopy (OFM).
The sample is dragged in front of the detector and an image is extrapolated. Now imagine if every cell phone had one of these?
Ref:Xiquan Cui, Lap Man Lee, Xin Heng, Weiwei Zhong, Paul W. Sternberg, Demetri Psaltis,…
August 7, 2008
I was going to write something about the latest analysis of NIH funding in Science, but DrugMonkey did the work for me so go read his post. The bottom line is that NIH funding goes through boom-bust cycles that cause instability throughout the biomedical fields. In boom times the biomedical…
August 5, 2008
Here's an interesting micrograph of a nucleus lit up by fluorescent dextran. Besides the slightly darker areas (these are nucleoli - dense structures where ribosomes are manufactured), you'll note the small round blebs on the top of this dumbbell shaped nucleus. I run into cells like this once in…
August 3, 2008
Two weeks ago, an interesting commentary by Paul Nurse, came out in Nature.
The bottom line? We need to change how we study and understand cellular signaling cascades.
First, some background. Cellular function is governed by a network of protein interactions that act like an information processing…
July 31, 2008
My iPod has been a great addition to my life. I use it to listen to podcasts and audiobooks on my half-hour walks, to and from work. But recently two of my favorite items have gone into suspended animation.
The first one is my absolute favorite podcast, The History of Rome, produced by Mike Duncan…