Category: Science
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Who’s Afraid of Gay Incestuous Monkey Sex?
Sociologists are. Or so says Inside Higher Ed. Sociologists — especially those who study sexuality — have for years done research that was considered controversial or troublesome by politicians or deans. Many scholars are proud of following their research ideas where they lead — whatever others may think. But at a session Monday at the…
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No! Bad media!
Do I have to roll up a newspaper? Big Tom warned me in today’s cranks post of the ABC news’ headline Global Warming Tipping Point in ’09?” in regards to this paper from the Hadley Centre on new more sophisticated modeling techniques. Could they be more boneheaded? Fortunately, nowhere in the article do they mention…
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Do microwaves “nuke” the nutrients in food?
No. However, there is never a shortage of crankery from Mike Adams who asserts Microwave ovens destroy the nutritional value of your food. There may be too much idiocy here to address but let’s get started. The rise of widespread nutritional deficiencies in the western world correlates almost perfectly with the introduction of the microwave…
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A fundamentalist dilemma – gay and lesbian mice
How will the homophobes greet this latest article in Nature describing a pheromone “switch” in mice that when inactivated – even in adult mice – appears to change their sexual orientation? Briefly let’s go over what the researchers found.
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Now this is why political appointees shouldn’t have a say in science
We already knew from former Surgeon General Carmona’s testimony that this was happening, but now the WaPo brings us a specific example of science being squelched by a political appointee. It’s not only inappropriate, but just despicable. A surgeon general’s report in 2006 that called on Americans to help tackle global health problems has been…
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The Independent needs its environmental credentials to be taken away
Between electronic “smog” and their incessant bleating that every weather event is due to global warming, I have come to the conclusion that the Independent, with stories like this one, are trying to bring down the science of global warming from the inside. It’s official: the heavier rainfall in Britain is being caused by climate…
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How to live longer – eat less protein?
This article in PLoS caught my eye today. It’s entitled, “Calories Do Not Explain Extension of Life Span by Dietary Restriction in Drosophila”, and is an extension of the body of science showing that caloric restriction in a variety of animals, from fruit flies to non-human primates, may dramatically extend life-span. Currently the mechanism is…
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Update on the Bees from PloS
Those who are interested in the Colony-Collapse Disorder phenomenon will probably enjoy this paper from PLoS entitled “What’s Killing American Honey Bees?” It lays out the history of mass bee die-offs – which have been recorded extensively by apiarists, and discusses whether or not major concern needs to be paid to the problem. I still…
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Tangled bank #82
Greg Laden writes a very nice tangled bank. It’s a model for what a good carnival post should look like I think. And he was kind enough to link our discussion of Uncommon Descent’s remarkable ability to predict the past. Definitely worth a click.
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Reprogramming adult cells into embryonic stem cells
As promised, I’m going through the three papers from last week about the re-programming of adult cells into an embryonic-like phenotype. Since it is three papers I’ll go through first what’s common to all three, and then what each group did special. First of all, let’s summarize the method one more time.