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Student Blog Posts: Read 'em and Comment
There is a new blog Traveling Small with a Nucleus I want to draw your attention to. It is on the writings of students from my Eukaryotic Microbiology course. Go and read them, enjoy them, and comment...
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MolBio Carnival #17!
Apolipoprotein AI That's right, its time for the 17th installment of the molecular biology carnival where we celebrate and discuss the science and implications of molecular biology research through...
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Truth and beauty in chemistry
The mathematician Hermann Weyl who made many diverse contributions to his discipline once made the startling assertion that whenever he had to choose between truth and beauty in his works, he usually...
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Stem cell hopes for damaged hearts
As the holiday season begins, I decided to discuss some good news about real science. The promise of stem cell research just got a lot brighter. There was some very good news from the world of medicine...
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Si-C
In the science-fiction/monster movie "Monolith-Monster" (1957) fragments of a meteorite are discovered in the desert of California. The strange mineral from outer space starts to grow to gigantic...
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The turtle man
Trachemys scripta elegans (Wied) (1865) by Karl BodmerThis tale is the story of how I ended up one fine spring day leaving the confluence of two great rivers in Illinois, at the wheel of a rental car...
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Seasonal transformation
Several upcoming social events required a rapid transformation of the Phactor homestead from normal homeyness to holiday seasonal. This involves no small amount of greenery accented by red, very...
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Mosses Have a Place for Reproduction
A Rhizogonium photographed in the Philippines by Leonardo L. Co. The Rhizogoniaceae are a family of mosses found in tropical and subtropical parts of the world, with a concentration of diversity in the...
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Mole Poblano - spicy chocolate sauce
Everyone is familiar enough with chocolate as a confection; thank you Daniel Peter. But chocolate was used as a cooking ingredient long before that. This weeks lab deals with stimulants, caffeine,...
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Nonreligious girls are the most athletic
When I first read of this study, I was intrigued. According to this news report (which seems to have been picked up by a few other places over the last few days), "children with no religious...
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Kyrgyzsaurus, a new Drepanosaur from the Triassic Madygen Formation of...
Alifanov, V. R., and E. N. Kurochkin. 2011. Kyrgyzsaurus bukhanchenkoi gen. et sp. nov., a new reptile from the Triassic of southwestern Kyrgyzstan. Paleontological Journal 45(6): 639-647 DOI:...
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What is a well-landscaped campus for?
A reshuffling of lab exercises has created a couple of timing problems. Some dye plants are needed, and it's December, and a few lonely flurries are in the air. The marigolds that usually are found in...
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The values of science--and not of anti-science--should guide national discourse
I arose this morning to the Twitter news that someone I follow, Eric Shepherd, had received Twitter blockage from the Age of Autism (AoA) for tweeting a link to a list of the top 10 worst anti-science...
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Influenza - putting the Trojan into the horse but should you open it?
A trojan horse (dendritic cell) filled with virus Inspired by a recent journal club article: A number of pathogens infect via one organ but are able to move to another. Think of the likes of the...
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To Avoid Harassment, Guppies Swim with Sexy Friends
You know how it is: You're minding your own business when up swims a male guppy determined to copulate with you. It's not your fertile time of the month, you're not giving off attractive chemical...
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Autism is not the monster. Postpartum depression is, and it has some help
Having a baby changes things. I'm not talking about the unexpected terror that can come with suddenly realizing that you've got this life in your hands, one that you'll now fight helplessly, without...
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Horse hockey!
Harry Morgan died today, and the Phactor isn't feeling so good himself. As a child of the pure TV generation, Harry Morgan was almost a constant fixture from Sgt. Bill Gannon on Dragnet to Col. Sherman...
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Why drug design is like airplane design. And why it isn't.
Air travel constitutes the safest mode of travel in the world today. What is even more impressive is the way airplanes are designed by modeling and simulation, sometimes before the actual prototype is...
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Kathleen Sebelius should have attended my middle school
Kathleen Sebelius did not attend the same middle school I did.If she had, she've seen girls, ages 12, 13, 14, who were pregnant. Sometimes for the second or third time. She'd've seen girls who'd just...
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Don't panic! CoE #42 is here
In case you missed it, The Hitchhiker's Guide to Evolution (aka CoE #42) is up at the Ocelloid. Image created by Troy Britain.
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