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Getting ready for some arsenic data
Any day now I hope to receive some preliminary results from the mass spectrometry test for arsenic in GFAJ-1 DNA. Â In preparation I though I should at least attempt to understand the control data that...
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That was the year that was 2011
So, farewell 2011, and hello 2012! Happy Gregorian New Year, and welcome to the wrap up of all the great science covered in Epiphenom over the past year. Let's start with what we've learned about why...
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Marginal Limpets
Shells of Emarginula solidula, photographed by Jan Delsing. For today's subject taxon, I've drawn the Emarginulini. This is a tribe within the gastropod family Fissurellidae, members of which are...
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A very merry Berry-Go-Round #47 and more
Oops. Forgot about BGR and failed to submit any blogs. My bad. But nonetheless the Roaming Naturalist rounded up some interesting December blogs for your amusement and edification.Here's an interesting...
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Chimps Prefer the 2-Point Conversion
If non-human great apes were coaching more football games, you could expect to see fewer extra points being kicked. We risk-averse humans usually prefer kicking an easy extra point after a touchdown,...
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More power of CsCl gradients
The grad student pointed out to me by email that I'd overlooked one big advantage of using CsCl gradients to clean up the DNA. Â He's not analyzing only the fractions that contain DNA, but all the...
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On the Spice Trail
A great deal of the age of exploration, or when Europe discovered the rest of the world, was driven by the money that could be made by answering the demand for spices. While seeking another piece of...
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Party loyalty oath
In Virginia you will now have to sign a GOP party loyalty oath in order to vote in the primary. This is one of the states, like here in Lincolnland, where you may decide in which party primary you wish...
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Origin of Species Book Club
OK, hopefully everybody has a copy or access to a copy of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species. Although it is not in the book, I am reading the 6th edition based on the fact it has Chapter VII...
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On autism, sAPPa, immunity, and subsets
via Wikimedia CommonsA new paper is making the rounds, purporting to link autism, a protein called sAPPa, and immune function. The paper, published in the journal FASEB**, isn't about autism, however....
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My time with Hitchens
So Christopher Hitchens died. It is sad when someone dies, mostly, and it is a good time to remember the good thing about the deceased. When the dead is a person like Hitchens, troublemaker...
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Why growing up as an American female has left me wary of men
The author as a young American girl.(Trigger warnings: assault, indecent exposure)Have you grown up female in the United States*? I did. I think about my experiences and how much they might have...
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Who invented the dichotomous key?
It's easy to take dichotomous keys for granted, and they are a wonderful tool for sorting through and calling your attention to significant details. After working your way through a complicated and...
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Why you should be at this Spring's Society for General Microbiology...
From the 26th to the 29th of March this year, Dublin - the capital of the Republic of Ireland - will host the Spring conference of the Society for General Microbiology, the UK's (make that Europe's)...
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PhD position available in Molecular Evolution!
Having got my Estonian Science Foundation grant funded recently, I have an open PhD position available! See below. ----------------- We are seeking a highly motivated PhD candidate to be supervised by...
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Nothing
Ethan Siegel over at his blog Starts With a Bang has some more interesting ideas on the physics of nothing and everything here and here.
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Why growing up as an American female has left me appreciating men
I happen to disagree.Yesterday, I posted a litany of experiences that had become so commonplace that it occurred to me only recently how much they'd shaped my attitude of wariness about men. They're...
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Some students learn too late
A recent BS graduate wants the Phactor to write a letter of recommendation supporting their application to graduate school. Now this is a good student, a nice person, but our only interaction was in a...
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