terrasig
Posts by this author
February 25, 2008
From today's FDA Digest comes the following notice of action:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced that Brownwood Acres Foods Inc., Cherry Capital Services Inc. (doing business as Flavonoid Sciences) and two of their top executives have signed a consent decree that effectively…
February 25, 2008
[Note: I originally posted this last Thursday under another title but it got lost in other events of that day. As I find it ironic that Mr Comarow has been attacked by an alternative medicine practitioner and advocate, I find this story worthy of reposting.]
A few weeks ago the skeptical…
February 24, 2008
I promise this will be the last to say about my vasectomy and the remarkable blogospheric response to my account. But I had to share with readers this observation, something that may only be of interest to other bloggers who like to examine their reader statistics. Here is the distribution by…
February 24, 2008
Following last week's outtakes from church bulletins, the synthetic organic chemist who goes by Milkshake of Org Prep Daily sent along this for our pleasure.
February 23, 2008
You can see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood Boulevard,
Some that you recognise, some that you've hardly even heard of,
People who worked and suffered and struggled for fame,
Some who succeeded and some who suffered in vain.
Celluloid Heroes, The Kinks, 1972
Star…
February 22, 2008
I am very deeply touched (as I was literally yesterday) by the outpouring of support and best wishes from fellow bloggers on the liveblogging of my vasectomy.
For all of the dark humor and puns, you have each been instrumental in supporting my aim of telling men relatively quick and painless the…
February 21, 2008
Back in January several science bloggers had an exchange that degenerated into discussion of the process and aftermath of the vasectomy.
Well, as PhysioProf is wont to say, today I will sack up, literally. As part of my gift to PharmGirl for her [significant] bday next week I will undergo the knife…
February 20, 2008
Following the second terrorist action against UCLA's Dr Edie London and her other research colleagues, and the outcries of support that ensued, the institution is taking bold and well-justified action. This just in from Americans for Medical Progress:
UCLA is suing to protect researchers from…
February 19, 2008
For more details on this story, you can go to Mark Chu-Carroll, Orac, Mike the Mad Biologist, or the Autism Blog. I just wanted to share my personal views on the need for childhood vaccinations and support a public information campaign from the AAP.
Until I started medical blogging, I had not…
February 17, 2008
Yes, this is a science-related post, just a little off topic. We don't talk about religion much around these parts because my Catholic school upbringing and torture by nuns gives me PTSD. But I grew up in a place where your family was either Catholic or Jewish - equal-opportunity guilt.
So it is…
February 15, 2008
Apologies that I've been a bit preoccupied to put up my own content last night and today. In the meantime, I must direct you to an excellent ethics discussion by the always insightful Prof Janet Stemwedel on the research program led by Dr Edythe London, the UCLA researcher who has been terrorized…
February 15, 2008
This just in tonight from the NIH National Institute on Drug Abuse for those looking for a Ph.D.-level position outside of the laboratory:
NIDA seeks Molecular Biologist to Direct NIDA Program in Molecular Neurobiology: Under Represented Minorities Are Encouraged to Apply.
The DHHS and NIH is an…
February 14, 2008
It seems that everyone in the sci/med blogosphere is offering Valentine's posts reflecting their areas of professional interest. So, here's mine:
Your humble Pharmboy came of age with glam, punk, and New Wave music but thanks to PharmMom, RN, and her then-college-aged ER co-workers, I have a soft…
February 13, 2008
We comply with the HONcode standard for trustworthy healthinformation: verify here.
Regular readers may note that I have been diddling with the content of my left sidebar and posting a new disclaimer tab to indicate the accuracy and objectivity of the health information presented…
February 12, 2008
There are responsible ways to present medical information and irresponsible ways. I will say at the outset that I have no ethical issues with discussing complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) with cancer patients, as long as the information presented is based in fact.
So it was no surprise…
February 12, 2008
Last week, we discussed the cowardly terrorist act toward UCLA's Dr Edythe London which was then expanded upon quite forcefully by Mark Hoofnagle at his denialism blog.
While we spend a fair bit of time around these parts questioning the leadership of the US national health agency, this statement…
February 9, 2008
Nineteen years ago, University of Florida junior, Tiffany Sessions, disappeared from her townhouse complex in Gainesville, Florida. What happened to her remains a mystery today.
While a graduate student, a certain pharmacology blogger lived for two years in the same complex as Miss Tiffany up…
February 9, 2008
I'm an engineer. But a comparatively weird engineer: a feminist, radical, social justice-y engineer. In my research, I combine theoretical frameworks from women's studies, sociology, science and technology studies to apply to the study of engineering and engineering education - I like to think of…
February 8, 2008
Another Wine Experience - Spanish wines from Ribera del Duero and Rioja
By Erleichda
The gathering of Jim's Disciples met at a nearby BYOB restaurant that we had used before for the monthly wine dinner. Most of the diners were outside on the patio enjoying a marvelous summer evening, while the ten…
February 6, 2008
I'll leave my neuropharmacology and neuroscience colleagues to comment in greater detail on this story (see earlier DrugMonkey post), but this report is just in from AP on Heath Ledger's toxicology report:
The cause of death was "acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone…
February 6, 2008
I received a special missive this morning from the Foundation for Biomedical Research that reported the home of UCLA nicotine researcher, Dr Edie London, was vandalized/terrorized by a fire set to a "device" on her front porch. The story now appears at the Los Angeles Times:
London, a professor of…
February 5, 2008
For those looking for some new material here, I wanted to say that I spent my energy on the first post of the week for a piece over at the ScienceBlogs editor's blog, Page 3.14.
Readers may recall that I sang the praises of the DrugMonkey blog here a few weeks ago on the occasion of their first…
February 3, 2008
Yesterday was the 1st anniversary of Blogroll Amnesty Day, originally proposed by a reasonably prominent blogger who used the occasion to relieve himself of guilt when purging his blogroll and building back up only a list of those he reads regularly.
I learned via my new homies, PhysioProf and…
February 3, 2008
Many of us who are principal investigators of academic research laboratories operate essentially as CEOs of our little empires. Therefore, I throw out to the Terra Sig readership a very interesting Sunday morning story entitled, "Bloggin' Bosses", by Frank Nelson of the Raleigh News & Observer…
February 2, 2008
Readers and colleagues often ask why scientists care to blog, especially given increasing time demands and decreasing research funding. For me, the blog is an opportunity to have discussions with colleagues from diverse research areas all around the world. Quite often, I learn something quite new…
January 31, 2008
So concludes a paper by Drs Andrew Oswald and David Blanchflower in a paper to appear in the journal, Social Science and Medicine. (full text not yet available).
From the UK Telegraph story, the University of Warwick's Oswald explains:
"The first theory is that when you are young you have high…
January 29, 2008
. . .that's the message from Dr Bertha Madras, deputy director of the White House Office on National Drug Control Policy, to heroin and morphine users whose lives might be saved in the overdose situation by public distribution of "overdose rescue kits" comprised of a $9.50 nasal spray containing…
January 28, 2008
If you read nothing else: Men with prostate cancer should avoid any dietary supplement containing testosterone (or anything that sounds like it) or that offers claims of increased virility, sexual performance, or increased muscle mass.
Consumption of a herbal/hormone dietary supplement has been…
January 25, 2008
When Duke genetics researcher Dr Marcy C Speer died of breast cancer last August at age 47, a huge void was left in the community of her friends, her university, and her field. As Director of the Center for Human Genetics at Duke University Medical Center, Dr Speer was tremendously successful as a…
January 24, 2008
This just in from NIH tonight - the new director is a serious, well-credentialed physician-scientist and administrator. What will this mean for NCCAM and the funding process for alternative medicine-related projects? Discuss amongst yourselves:
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director, Elias A…