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How to study: a re-repost
This seems timely to repost.Since a new semester is about to begin I think a post on how to study would be apropos. So here is an advice column for students looking for some techniques to improve their...
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One more hydroxyurea experiment
I've now shown fairly convincingly that being competent does not enhance H. influenzae's ability to cope with hydroxyurea, which stalls replication forks by blocking the synthesis of the dNTP...
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Teaching Critical Thinking
One question I grapple with is 'how do we get students to ask questions about, or rather to question, peer reviewed research papers?' This is based on my experience that undergraduate students and even...
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TMI Friday: Self Inflicted Gunshot edition
In some ways, I envy the USA. Every citizen has a right to arm themselves with an array of high power assault weapons. Every citizen has the right to feel the power of spraying each other with burning...
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Gin and Tonic - a classic story
Most people don't know that some classic drinks have some great stories attached to them. No drink or story better than that classic of the British Empire gin and tonic. So many health benefits!...
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Wow! That's some avocado!
Coming soon (?) to a market near you, megavocado (better than their name). That's a seriously big fruit!
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What a strange game!
Dear Mr. President,Let's keep this simple. War is a strange game; the only winning move is not to play. This lesson should be clear to you by now. The USA did not win in Iraq; it has not won in...
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Hot and dry
Through mid-August the summer of 2013 has been quite nice; never hot and wet enough. But the last 2 weeks have been very hot and very dry. Dry enough that many plants need watering. Nothing as...
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On the Road with Crabs
I'm still on the road, so there won't be any new posts until next week. (One highlight from the trip so far has been a pair of signs we passed in Western New York late at night. The top sign read...
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Standardized zucchini
Us scientists often have problems with less than precise instructions and let's face it, recipes are often a prime source of loosey-goosey instructions. So when a recipe asks for you to grate a...
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The Antedoninae: (Relatively) Big-Bellied Feather Stars
Several individuals of Antedon bifida attached to a kelp stipe, photographed by Bernard Picton. The feather stars and other crinoids are both the most divergent and least known of the modern...
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We may lose the most important antibiotics you've never heard about
This is a story about the most important human antibiotic you've never heard of. It is one that has protected us long before Fleming, Domagk and Ehrlich were even born. We may be on the verge of losing...
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Sounds like and goes together
Grocery stores are often a source of amusement especially with regard to mistaken labels most of which seem to occur because the people doing the labeling don't have any idea what they are labeling....
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Devout prayer uses the same bits of the brain as talking to a loved one
Just listen to a devout individual engaged in personal prayer, and it's immediately obvious that it sounds like someone engaging in a one-way conversation with a close confidant. But what's really...
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Does hydroxurea treatment induce competence in H. influenzae?
No. Here's the data. Wildtype cells at low density (3.4 x 10^7 cfu ml; no spontaneous competence) were incubated for 100 minutes in medium containing NovR DNA and different concentrations of...
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Do any H. influenzae competence genes protect against replication fork stalling?
Yes! The top graph shows two mutant strains with near-normal resistance to hydroxyurea: radC- and rec1-.Growth and division wasn't affected by 10 mM hydroxyurea but was stalled by 50 mM. This effect...
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One week left to vote
There is less than a week left to vote for our panel at SXSW -- or to leave comments (apparently comments are weighted more heavily than mere votes). There is less than a week left to vote for our...
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The black hole in the center of the galaxy
posted by @ulaulaman about #astronomy #SagittariusA #BlackHole #MilkyWay Sagittarius A* (pronounced "Sagittarius A-star", standard abbreviation Sgr A*) is a bright and very compact astronomical radio...
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Macrocycle drug review
Here's a comprehensive and useful review of macrocycle drugs in J Med Chem by Giordanetto and Kihlberg at AstraZeneca; well worth reading to get an idea of what's out there in the clinic and on the...
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A New Silesaurid from the Middle Triassic of Zambia and Evidence for Rapid...
Peecook, B. R., Sidor, C. A., Nesbitt, S. J., Smith, R. M. H., Steyer, J. S., and K. D. Angielczyk. 2013. A new silesaurid from the upper Ntawere Formation of Zambia (Middle Triassic) demonstrates the...
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