terrasig
Posts by this author
October 22, 2009
While many folks 'round these parts have been focusing on tweets and posts from the Society for Neuroscience meeting, several of our geology blogger colleagues have been at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA).
Geobloggers rock and we've got a great outcrop at ScienceBlogs…
October 20, 2009
Science journalist, Steve Silberman, just brought to my attention that Rob Walker at The New York Times wrote an article that last week on the method behind Pandora online radio. The article, The Sound Decoders at Pandora, made me go back through my archives to my own visit three years ago with…
October 19, 2009
Rebecca Skloot, journalist, University of Memphis writing professor, and author of the upcoming book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (pre-order here), just brought to my attention this commentary by Dr Pieter Cohen in the New England Journal of Medicine entitled, "American Roulette --…
October 18, 2009
The always-outstanding neuroblogger, SciCurious, put up an excellent post overnight on a presentation she saw at the current Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) in Chicago. Therein, she wrote about a poster presentation she saw on the relationship between iron, cholesterol, and…
October 12, 2009
I can't believe October's here already and it's time again for our annual social media challenge to raise money for US science teachers. Last year, eight generous, erudite, and good-looking Terra Sig readers donated at total of $1,972 to impact the lives of 1,865 students.
I've got started a…
October 10, 2009
This month, DrugMonkey is hosting the Diversity in Science Blog Carnival, started by DN Lee of Urban Science Adventures! to celebrate the scientific contributions of individuals from underrepresented groups. To celebrate US Hispanic Heritage Month, DM asked for us "to write and submit your posts…
October 7, 2009
Welcome visitors coming from a recommendation by Dr Carmen Drahl at C&ENtral Science, the blog of the American Chemical Society's Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN):
Terra Sig has a fantastic post about the chemistry prize. The money quote: "If I see electrons being pushed around, it's…
October 5, 2009
The tweet came just about an hour ago announcing the well-deserved and much-predicted award of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider, and Jack Szostak for their work on "how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase."
I wrote…
October 2, 2009
The Clinical and Translational Science Network (CTSciNet) section of Science Careers has just published a superb article by Karyn Hede on the issues of depression precipitated during the rigors of medical education. Hede is a freelance writer in Chapel Hill and has contributed before to Science…
October 2, 2009
I can't believe October's here already and it's time again for our annual social media challenge to raise money for US science teachers. Last year, eight generous, erudite, and good-looking Terra Sig readers donated at total of $1,972 to impact the lives of 1,865 students.
DonorsChoose.org is "an…
September 30, 2009
Here's a new tenure-track faculty position just posted at Science. A great position in a great department at a great school in a great place to live. IMHO, of course:
The University of Colorado Denver
Department of Cell and Developmental Biology in the School of Medicine
We invite applications…
September 29, 2009
When writing the other day about how blogging has been of benefit to my career, I neglected to mention my recent invitation to the board of Science Communicators of North Carolina (SCONC).
Founded in June 2007 by Karl Leif Bates and Chris Brodie, and now headed by President Ernie Hood (Radio In…
September 28, 2009
I'm happy to report that Drugmonkey will be hosting the next installment of the Diversity in Science Carnival.
So I ask you to write and submit your posts in honor of scientists whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central or South America. Submissions can be submitted…
September 26, 2009
This morning, I once again get to join in with a group of noted journalists, authors, educators, and all-around people-who-do-things-I-can't for the annual advisory board meeting of the M.S. in Medical and Science Journalism Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of…
September 24, 2009
Question for the lab geeks out there regarding general methods for antibody detection of specific analytes in cells, serum, and urine.
Do you have a favorite book, chapter, or any other reading material that you would use to guide students through designing and validating their own ELISA for a…
September 22, 2009
As state university systems are making budget cuts and furloughing professors while have to expand course sections to meet burgeoning enrollment, one solution may be to tap the expertise of retired professors in the area.
The Research Triangle area of North Carolina, home to over a dozen colleges…
September 20, 2009
I'm not drinking these days but scribbler50 at Behind the Stick is still my favorite bartender.
This week, it may be the Devil or it may be the Lord, but you're gonna have to serve somebody.
Yea verily, go forth this morning and read.
September 18, 2009
Prof Tara Smith thought it important enough to come back from her hiatus to explain why she's doing the same for her kids.
That's why.
Addendum (20 Sept 2009): In my rush to put up a very quick post on Friday, I just saw that Revere at Effect Measure put up a detailed post on why we should always…
September 17, 2009
From today's article by the always-interesting Sarah Avery at the News & Observer:
After several failed attempts to extract the item, Manley was referred to another doctor, who suggested removing the entire left lung. "I said, no, I wouldn't be doing that," Manley says.
That's when he decided…
September 16, 2009
If you are in the area, this looks really good:
Award-winning author Gary Taubes will speak at next week's Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) Research Conference:
"Why We Get Fat: Adiposity 101 and the Alternative Hypothesis of Obesity"
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
12:00 noon to 1:00 pm
North…
September 15, 2009
As I've been more than swamped as of late, I wanted to offer up some of insightful posts my colleagues around the blogosphere (I can just get in about 20 of the my most recent feeds from Google Reader while making the coffee, although putting the laptop on the range top is probably a bad idea.).…
September 11, 2009
[Here is why I will always remember. This was posted here originally on 11 September 2006.]
Let me tell you about John Michael Griffin, Jr.
Griff, as he was known in high school, was a friend of mine.
Late in the first half of our lives, he stood up for me physically and philosophically, for…
September 9, 2009
Update: Visitors arriving by search engine may care to read our followup post on 20 November following M.D. Anderson's filing of legal action in this case.
The premier US cancer hospital and research center in Houston released a statement today distancing themselves from a Dallas company claiming…
September 7, 2009
. . . or as Dr Barrett refers to it more accurately, Insurance Reform.
On Friday, Sarah Avery of the News & Observer reported on her interview with the now-retired Pennsylvania psychiatrist who started the Quackwatch.com website in 1996 following years of investigating fraudulent health…
September 3, 2009
In the United States, this is currently National HBCU Week (presidential proclamation here) and yesterday marked the end of the annual academic conference on HBCUs ("Seizing the Capacity to Thrive!") in Washington, DC. HBCUs span from Michigan and Ohio to Texas, Florida, and the US Virgin Islands…
August 31, 2009
The Boulder County coroner announced today that the July death of a Boulder teen was indeed due to opioid intoxication from preparation of a poppy pod tea.
Jeffrey Joseph Bohan, 19, of Boulder, was found dead in his friend's Boulder home about 6 p.m. July 21 after drinking poppy-pod tea the night…
August 29, 2009
In today's Letters to the Editor of the News & Observer, well-known substance abuse treatment researcher Dr Wendee Wechsberg bemoans the potential cost-cutting of religious studies and women's studies at Meredith College in Raleigh, NC.
The irony: Meredith College is a well-regarded private…
August 27, 2009
Today's post comes to your courtesy of yet another of my revered Canadian colleagues: pharmacist Scott Gavura, author of the excellent Science-Based Pharmacy blog.
Back in April, 21 Venezuelan polo horses from the Lechuza team died at the U.S. Open Polo Championship in Palm Beach County, Florida…
August 26, 2009
[Sort of a repost from the last three years, updated appropriately - APB]
Seven years ago at 11:24 am EDT (1524 GMT), your humble blogger was handed the keys to a whole new vocabulary of love.
The gift came in the form of a 7 lb 13 oz (3,544 gm), 20.5 inch (52 cm) bundle of drooling, peeing,…