science & society
apalazzo | December 15, 2009Two great interviews with Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer, two philosophers of science.
CBC Ideas - Interview with Simon Schaffer on Leviathan and the Air Pump
CBC Ideas - Interview with Steven Shapin on how science and truth are derived from social interactions within the scientific community
If you like these interviews, visit CBC Ideas - How to think about science although I must say that some shows are better than others.
Also for anyone who is interested in the history and philosophy of science and is ready to go beyond Kuhn and Popper, I highly recommend Leviathan and the Air Pump.…
apalazzo | December 13, 2009There's a battle going on out there. A battle for trust. Do you get the H1N1 vaccine? Is global warming true? Will you go to hell? Is the free market the best way to run an economy?
How to answer these questions? The conventional wisdom is that all members of our society should get informed. Many here at ScienceBlogs would like to convince you that the problem is anti-intellectualism. These evolution-disbelieving folk have been called deniers and the anti-science movement has been rebranded as denialism. But I think that this view of the world is not really representative of what is really…
apalazzo | December 4, 2009I'm siting at my breakfast table when I read this in the NY Times science section:
Dissection Begins on Famous Brain
The man who could not remember has left scientists a gift that will provide insights for generations to come: his brain, now being dissected and digitally mapped in exquisite detail.
The man, Henry Molaison -- known during his lifetime only as H.M., to protect his privacy -- lost the ability to form new memories after a brain operation in 1953, and over the next half century he became the most studied patient in brain science.
This dissection is being documented LIVE ON THE…
apalazzo | November 19, 2009Like Nikon, microscopes manufacturer Olympus has a yearly microscopy photo competition, this years winners are up.
First place: Dr. Jan Michels
Christian-Albrechts-University, Institute of Zoology
Kiel, Germany
Specimen: Daphnia atkinsoni (Water Flea)
Technique: Confocal laser scanning microscopy
For more go to the Olympus BioScapes 2009 Winners Gallery
apalazzo | November 1, 2009The value of having large public award ceremonies for scientists, is that it gives their work some exposure to the public.
Take for instance Shinya Yamanaka. His discovery of iPS cells in 2006 was one of the most important discoveries this past decade. It not only taught us how to generate stem cells from any normal adult cell, but it also gave us a window into celluar programming. It is now clear that going from stem cell to normal differentiated cell is not an irreversable process. According to Google Scholar this paper has been cited 1400 times!!!!
This past week Shinya was one of the…
apalazzo | October 28, 2009Well this week the University of Toronto hosts the 50th anniversary of the Gairdner Foundation.
If the Nobels are the Oscars of science, and the Lasker Awards the Golden Globes, this event is akin to the 50th anniversary of some big Hollywood studio. There are talks by many of today's hottest science rock stars and many smaller celebrations, which include lunches cocktail parties etc.
This morning we heard from Shinya Yamanaka, probably the hottest rock star scientist of our generation. If you've been asleep for the past few years, Yamanaka's lab discovered how to generate iPS cells from…
apalazzo | October 21, 2009Go and check 'em out.
4th place - James E. Hayden, Anglerfish ovary (4X)
For more visit http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/
This year's event even got covered in the New York Times.
And if you want to enter into next year's competition the deadline for entries: April 30, 2010. Get clicking.
apalazzo | October 18, 2009Well this year was a big year again for RNA at the Nobels. Both prizes were essentially given to RNA dependent processes. In the case of Telomerase, an RNA molecule, Telomerase RNA (hTR or TERC), acts as the template strand to help Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase (TERT) elongate the end of the telomere. Here's a great vid explaining the whole process:
In the case of the Ribosome - well it is only the granddaddy of all ribozymes. To illustrate this point, here's a great video from the Steitz Lab with an incredible soundtrack:
(HT: Sunil)
Links to essay's on this year's Medicine &…
apalazzo | October 15, 2009
So more than a week has gone by and there has been little press about the science Nobels. And I must say that this year's Medicine and Chemistry prizes are some of the most important in quite a while. But even between the two, the Chemistry is especially important.
Why? I'm not sure. Maybe they were overshadowed by Obama's award??? Or maybe science journalists are sleeping on the job.
I can hear them now "Ribosomes ... boring."
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Ribosomes are arguably the most important biological molecule that we know of. I don't have much time to write long essays…
apalazzo | October 12, 2009Unraveling the ribosome is one of science's Holy Grails. Were God a molecule, he or she would be a ribosome, a veritable galaxy of atoms whose job is to translate genetic code into the stuff of life--protein.
- Brian Maffly, reporter for the Slt Lake Tribune in a recent article, Ramakrishnan: Nobel-winning work started in Utah
(and yes the article features a good friend of mine who worked in Venki's lab)
apalazzo | October 12, 2009So we got back yesterday from our trip and we are in the post-traveling cleanup mode - Cleaning up the apartment, the fridge, and the email box. In fact I just received an email from one Coimbra student filled with photos from the past week.
Below the fold are some pictures of our trip + comments about our time there.
I have to say that I really enjoy teaching. This past week I've talked about the history of our eukarytotic cells and how this informs their structure. I was going to record my lecture and post it, but it didn't happen. Maybe next time.
Speaking of ancient, the University of…
apalazzo | October 9, 2009Well it has been a great week. Edgar Gomes, Phong Tran, Helder Maiato and I just finished teaching a week long Graduate Student Course at the University of Coimbra. Here's a photo of us with most of the class just after we finished dinner at a local joint.
Despite my wonderful week, I did miss out on the Nobel gossip. There was a lack of reliable wireless internet at the hotel and I wasn't able to read or blog much (I am now in Porto at Edgar's parents house using their wireless connection). Scrolling through Scienceblogs yesterday afternoon, I noticed the lack of commentary about the…
apalazzo | October 5, 2009"for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase"
(from the Nobel website)
Congrats. This Nobel was one that many people expected. I don't have much time to blog about why telomerase and telomeres are so important, but I would hope that other science bloggers will step in.
Here is a link to the YouTube Nobel Prize Live Web Cast.
Some links from Jonathan A. Eisen's Blog.
apalazzo | September 27, 2009I'm going to harp on a subject that really annoys me. The use of the word "fact" - this is a totally useless concept and is the source of a lot of confusion out in the general public and amongst science journalists.
Science does not build facts. It builds models, ideas concepts and theories - tools for our mind. Not facts. The idea of a "fact" leads to confusion and misunderstanding. This notion subconsciously promotes the comparison of the products of scientific endeavor to religious dogma. Facts = immutable truths.
Is gravity a "fact"? Does evolution "exist"? Is calculus "real"? To me…
apalazzo | April 15, 2009This is an attempt to get back into blog-writing mode. My time has become split in a thousand different ways. There are a multitude of items that need to be accomplished before I leave for Toronto.
Here's a few of them: I would like to wrap up three ongoing projects, or at least get most of the lab work done. I need to find a place to live in my hometown-to-be. I need to set up the lab-to-be. I need to set up my new lab website, to attract students and postdocs. I need to plan ahead for the next few years, or get into that mind set.
(Excuse me, I'm at home today with the kid and he just peed…
apalazzo | February 26, 2009Today's quote is from the first two lines of a research manuscript about the neuroscience of Schadenfreude that appeared in a recent issue of Science.
Envy is one of the seven biblical sins, the Shakespearian "green-eyed monster," and what Bertrand Russell called an unfortunate facet of human nature. It is an irrational, unpleasant feeling and a "painful emotion" characterized by feelings of inferiority and resentment produced by an awareness of another's superior quality, achievement, or possessions.
It's not very often that you read flowery language in a scientific paper. Note that five of…
apalazzo | February 24, 2009An article appeared in today's Science Section under the title, Beaker-Ready Projects? Colleges Have Quite a Few
Here's a passage that highlights what I've been harping about:
The acting director of the National Institutes of Health begged university administrators on Wednesday to avoid even applying for stimulus money unless the universities planned to hire people almost immediately.
"It would be the height of embarrassment," the official, Dr. Raynard S. Kington, said, "if we give these grants and find out that institutions are not spending them to hire people and make purchases and advance…
apalazzo | February 23, 2009If you have happened to browse DrugMonkey, you'll have noticed a discussion about how the NIH should spend its share of the stimulus package (~$10 billion). (For more info click here.) Unfortunately the plan, according to the NIH statement is the same usual BS - all quick fixes and no forethought about how to use this opportunity to repair some endemic problems with how we train our academic scientists. But within the cloudy depths of the comment section of DrugMonkey's PhysioProf's post, fellow Scibling Abel Pharmboy raises a key point:
In general, I'm very concerned that the pressure to…
apalazzo | February 12, 2009... I have two simple requests:
Stop asking people if they "believe in evolution". Every time I hear some dumb ass politician or right wing theological nut say "I don't believe in evolution", it makes me cringe. Evolution is not some magical mystical process that you take on faith. Do you ever hear the question "do you believe in algebra?" Instead pose the question "do you understand how evolution works?"
Go and read The Origin of Species by Natural Selection and The Voyage of the Beagle. These are simply must reads, especially for anyone in the life sciences. Now I can hear many of you…
apalazzo | February 9, 2009As you know, I'll be leaving the US in the middle of the year to head up north to my native land where I'll be setting up my new lab.
Having lived in both the US and Canada, I am in a good position to evaluate both societies. My basic conclusion? America you have a lot to learn from your northern brothers and sisters. It is really frustrating being down here and listening to Americans (especially those on the right) dismiss the concept of public institutions. What do you end up with? A country that is rotting from within. Fortunately things may change for the better. Money from the upcoming…