Clik here to view.
Cosmological inflation, water in proteins and JFK: The enigma of ignorance
I was immersed in the American Chemical Society's national meeting in Dallas this week, which meant that I could not catch more than wisps of the thrilling announcement from cosmology on Monday that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why the new NIH guidelines for psychiatric drug testing worry me
ChlorpromazinePsychiatric drugs have always been a black box. The complexity of the brain has meant that most successful drugs for treating disorders like depression, psychosis and bipolar disorder...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why Google Flu is a failure: the hubris of big data
It seemed like such a good idea at the time.People with the flu (the influenza virus, that is) will probably go online to find out how to treat it, or to search for other information about the flu. So...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Giving ourselves a treat after a hard week
It was a too busy week for the Phactors, but let's not dwell on that. The Phactors treated themselves to a nice dinner out at a quite wonderful new twist on dining out. A couple of young (comparatively...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Milkweed pollen?
Here's a pretty interesting science news article about a study by an Argentine colleague of mine, Dr. Andrea Cocucci (Hi!), and it's about pollen completion of sorts, but look what someone used to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Life isn't fair; science isn't fair
TPP is in a bit of a funk. This happens to many people who anticipating some hints of spring wake up instead to an overnight snow fall. First, my watch thinks it's Jan. 1, 2005, and then my toast gets...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A green, sustainable New York City?
Well, if you can do it for NYC, you can do it for almost anywhere, but really, folks? Think about it for a moment. If you only consider food, you have to have an area about the size of Connecticut...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Zombie Mosses Rise Again
Rising from the depths, mosses that have been frozen in suspended animation for hundreds of year grow again! You may recall that zombie mosses were in the news last summer, well they are back. In this...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A very depressing perspective on climate change
As an educator, you try to stay optimistic. But then at times you run into a commentary that just has the ring of truth, the clarity of severe pragmatism, and you don't like the conclusions it reaches....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Big prep of MAP7 DNA
We're almost out of the standard DNA that we use in our transformation assays. It's chromosomal DNA of a strain called MAP7 (because it contains point mutations conferring resistance to seven...
View ArticleClik here to view.
High-throughput method for detecting intramolecular hydrogen bonds (IHBs)
We have talked about the importance of intramolecular hydrogen bonds (IHBs) as motifs to hide polar surface area and improve the permeability of molecules a couple of times here. The problem is that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lab materials getting thin
Come on spring! It's hard to teach a plant taxonomy lab without some spring flora to work on. Some Cornus mas and some Bradford pear finally decided to flower after a week and a half in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Feeling less depressed about that article - retraction has been issued!
Well, TPP was feeling down when be blogged about a depressing news article on climate change based on a published study, which has now been retracted because the journal was worried about legal...
View ArticleClik here to view.
MicroTwJC 45: When Antibiotic Resistant Compete (A video presentation)
This summary of the latest Microbiology Twitter Journal Club is going to be different in two ways. Firstly, it's late. Secondly, it's a video. I noticed a while ago that my explanations of papers...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Origin of life video
I just did a reddit Science AMA today, and whenever you talk about evolution, invariably the question of the origin of life comes up. It's not my field, as I am not a chemist, but here is a great video...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Starry, starry night
Who doesn't know about Vincent's painting? TPP took one look at this image, and von Gogh's painting came immediately to mind. And it turns out this image was by a Vincent too, Vincent Brady. But...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Boldly brewing what no one has ever brewed before
OK, Klingon beer is mighty geeky even for a Star-Trek fan from days of yore. But Klingon beer? If memory serves TPP rightly, Romulan ale was way more famous, but probably too hard to get the shipments...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Can prayer improve your self-control?
Self control is a depletable resource. Struggle to maintain your self control in one task, and you’ll find it harder to resist temptation in the next one.There are things that you can do to blunt this...
View ArticleClik here to view.
You state/country is what you eat?
At first TPP thought that the maps might be trying to represent the diversity of foods characteristic of a particular country, but Australia is considerably more than some shrimp on the barbie. Too...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ice is nice, and will suffice
This scene is enough to make you cry for a coniferous forest. Here's a forest scene from Durham, NC, after a 2-day ice storm in early March this year. Ouch! It hurts just to look at this. Any tree...
View Article