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inconclusive fraction-competent results
A few posts ago I described surprising results from an experiment measuring the fractions of the cells in different cultures that were competent. Here they are again: And here are the new results:...
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Angewandte Chemie retracts hexacyclinol paper. Sort of
So it seems that the infamous hexacyclinol saga has been finally put to rest and Angewandte Chemie has retracted the paper. For those chemists who might still be unfamiliar with it, it's not hard to...
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Proofs without words: Ptolemy's theorem and cosine's law
Ptolemy's theoremDerrick W. & Hirstein J. (2012). Proof Without Words: Ptolemy’s Theorem, The College Mathematics Journal, 43 (5) 386-386. DOI: 10.4169/college.math.j.43.5.386 (via Cut the Knot)Law...
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New Experiment: That Kind of Person
I just got back reviews on one of the pronoun papers. Although the paper already had seven experiments, they want two more. The worst part about it is that they are right. Luckily, the experiment they...
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Botanical Art
Plants have always been good subjects for art because pattern (genetics) combined with variation (environment) yields design. And of course prior to photography, and for many reasons still superior,...
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Does anyone else see something wrong here
Our faculty were just notified that our pre-dental student association will be holding a fund raiser over the next couple of days. They'll be selling Krispy Kreme doughnuts (Yes, yes, Ks not Cs; it's...
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Why You Itch When Others Scratch
Itching is contagious, and not only when one party has the chicken pox. The mere sight of a stranger scratching can be enough to trigger an itch in your own flesh. If you're especially prone to...
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Friday Fabulous Flower(s) - all around weirdness
OK, now before you read on, what family of flowering plants does this specimen belong to? In fact some may wonder if it is a monocot or a dicot given that the flower parts are in multiples of three....
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Wow, Moby Dick - Quasimodo version
This is pretty cool, a white humpback (hunchback?) whale. Albinism can occur in virtually any vertebrate the result of inheriting a defective recessive gene from each of two normal-appearing parents,...
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Hostess memories
Hostess is going out of business. Wow! That evokes some strong childhood memories. There was a Hostess factory near where my Father worked, and they had a day-old shop where all the Hostess products...
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Meningitis B and the future of vaccines
This week is a good week for vaccines. Indeed it is a good week for society, at least in Europe, for we have just got word that the European Medicines Agency has approved Novartis's Meningitis B...
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Estimates of fraction competent aren't very reliable
I repeated the fraction-competent assay on log-phase murE749 hypercompetent cells, as I said I should in the previous post. I did a very thorough and well-controlled experiment, but the results tell...
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Titles in Evolution overload
There are simply too many interesting papers published in evolutionary biology to keep up with. Not even just reading the abstracts is feasible. Here's a sample of what I find the most interesting from...
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Dinner club
For almost 35 years now the Phactors have been members of a dinner club. The year starts with an appetizer/tapas and wine social to plan themes for the year, and it always ends with a brunch. In...
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Under pressure, even scientists say things exist for a purpose
Promiscuous teleology is the natty term given to the tendency many people have to see purpose in the world around them. Teleology just means an explaining things in terms of goals or function, and it's...
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2012 Garden Log
This is the 3d year TPP has kept a garden flowering log for all perennials. Rather than bore everyone with a month by month run down, this year only the year end summary will be foisted upon you....
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The Molecular Circus
This blog has now moved. Join me for more pharmacological fun, and new and exciting explorations into the minute and magical world of molecules at....http://themolecularcircus.wordpress.com/ See you...
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Rainforest field trip - not this year
Sixteen years ago TPP initiated a rainforest ecology class with a field trip which is now taken over the 9-day long Thanksgiving break plus a day or two. Owing in part to its popularity, and in part...
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Monitoring from Space Shows Even This Giant Crab Can Navigate Better than You
It was crabnapping for a just cause. But the crustaceans that found themselves suddenly plucked from their burrows, stuffed into opaque sacks, and carried off through the forest couldn't know that....
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Findings: Linguistic Universals in Pronoun Resolution - Episode II
A new paper, based on data collected through GamesWithWords.org, is now in press (click here for the accepted draft). Below is an overview of the paper. Many of the experiments at GamesWithWords.org...
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