terrasig | April 7, 2010I'm delighted to see those $32/article access fees going to good use: Nature is accepting nominations to recognize two outstanding research mentors in Canada with cash prizes.
Since they were launched in 2005, Nature's awards for mentoring in science have rewarded outstanding research mentors in Britain, Germany, Japan, Australia and South Africa. The competition is held within one country each year, in the belief that mentoring reflects not just notions of good scientific practice and creativity that are universal, but also scientific traditions and cultures that are, at least to a degree,…
terrasig | March 31, 2010Who knew?
As I am stuttering through recovery from LungMutiny2010, I am paying more attention to my diet. So, as I try to go out for my 10 min walk everyday, I still drink some sports drink - usually Gatorade made from the massive vat of powder you can buy here at Costco.
We tend to get plenty of sodium in our diet - far too much in the US, actually - but I always worry about potassium when I am sweating (Disclaimer: I am not an exercise physiologist or a cardiovascular or nephrology physician.).
I always thought that the widely-sold sports drinks were the best sources of potassium outside of…
terrasig | March 30, 2010From the "unsubstantiated evidence" files, I wanted to share with you a quick light that popped on in my head while reading a much-discussed article from last weekend's New York Times magazine.
In it, former House & Garden magazine editor Dominique Browning vividly shares her experiences following the folding of the magazine in 2007. This long-form essay is adapted from her upcoming book, Slow Love: How I Lost My Job, Put On My Pajamas, and Found Happiness.
Much can be discussed about her experiences but I was particularly struck by the account of her response to her newfound "freedom."…
terrasig | March 28, 2010Something about Sunday mornings leads me to really enjoy listening to folk and other acoustic music. These guys ended up being electric, though.
The Byrds were a Los Angeles-based group that grew out of the folk music scene in 1964. The original line-up was Jim McGuinn, David Crosby, Chris Hillman, Gene Clark and Michael Clarke. The distinctive sound of the band came from the electric 12-string Rickenbacker guitar of McGuinn - in fact, all three guitarists played 12-strings.
On the recommendation of jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader, Miles Davis, Columbia Records offered The Byrds a…
terrasig | March 25, 2010Have you ever taken one of the now-over-the-counter heartburn relief remedies like Tagamet, Zantac, or Pepcid?
How about the beta-blocker atenolol (Tenormin) or metoprolol (Lopressor) for antihypertensive therapy, or the original less-selective beta-blocker propranolol (Inderal) for migraines, presentation anxiety or stage fright?
If you answered yes to either question, you owe a debt of gratitude to Sir James Black, the Scottish physician who left us earlier this week at age 85. The best obituary I have seen memorializing Sir James comes from the UK Telegraph.
Black was called the father…
terrasig | March 23, 2010Just a quick note to readers to let you know that I have not forgotten you. I am finally back to work after LungMutiny2010 and must tend to many issues that have accumulated in my absence. I should have some new and interesting topics for you later this week.
In the meantime, feel free to note in the comment thread any interesting posts you may have read over the last few days regardless of their topic, science or not.
See you soon!
terrasig | March 16, 2010
This post is the third in a series on the origin and history of HeLa S3 cells. The first post details how I came about to ask this question when launching my independent research laboratory. The second post details the life and careers of the legendary physician-scientist pioneer, Dr. Florence Rena Sabin.
Today, we take up a discussion where we will finally learn the origin of HeLa S3 cells, complete with original literature citations.
A recap
We left our previous discussion with the final and still-productive years of Dr. Florence Rena Sabin. After graduating from Johns Hopkins Medical…
terrasig | March 11, 2010This is a repost of my reflections on my father who passed away 13 years today. It took me 12 years to write the following eulogy and remembrance. While quite personal, I posted it here last year because I felt that my experiences were quite universal, shared by the families of the ten or twenty million alcoholics in the US and the hundreds of millions worldwide. Moreover, I wanted to provide a face for my colleagues who work in the area of substance abuse and a reminder for my clinical colleagues of the people behind those they may dismiss as drunks and junkies.
In becoming one my most most…
terrasig | March 10, 2010Writer Amy Wallace just tweeted and posted to her blog the fabulous news that a pending libel case against her and physician Paul Offit has been dismissed.
Amy Wallace was the author of the centerpiece article in a Wired magazine feature on how antivaccination activists create fear and confusion by distorting and misrepresenting facts about vaccines. This article "An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All," was discussed in detail here back in October.
Two days before Christmas one of those individuals, Barbara Loe Fisher (also Arthur), filed a $1 million claim…
terrasig | March 8, 2010Last week, the New York Times college admissions and aid blog, The Choice, solicited readers for questions on US historically-black colleges and universities (HBCUs). These 105 HBCUs, primarily in the southern US, were defined by the Higher Education Act of 1965 as institutions of higher learning established prior to 1964 whose principal mission was and is the education of black Americans.
Answering questions received last week are African-American education expert, Dr. Marybeth Gasman, of the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Walter Kimbrough, president of Philander Smith College, a private…
terrasig | March 7, 2010This post is the second in a series on the origin and history of HeLa S3 cells. The first post can be found here. In this post, we discuss the life and careers (yes, careers) of the remarkable physician-scientist, Florence Rena Sabin.
"Too bad you're not a boy, you would have made a good doctor."
Florence Rena Sabin was born in the mining town of Central City, Colorado, on November 9, 1871, two years after her sister and lifelong companion, Mary. Florence's father. George Sabin, had moved from Vermont to Colorado in the midst of the Colorado gold rush and a notable 1859 gold strike between…
terrasig | March 6, 2010I want to get this quick shout-out for local hero, blogger, musician, and all around too-cool Princess Ojiaku before her band, Pink Flag, plays tonight at 10 pm in Durham, NC, at The Broad Street Cafe. From their website, "They're a regular three girl rhumba dancing on the common ground of a love of early post-punk, riot grrl and top 40 of the 1990s." Their name pays homage to the 1977 album by Wire (that also includes the song "Three Girl Rhumba"). I like these kids, paying proper respect to their elders.
Some of you may know Princess from having met her at ScienceOnline2010 in January or…
terrasig | March 6, 2010When I first started my independent academic laboratory in 1992, it was in a brand new facility across the parking lot from a then 40-year-old building named in honor of the woman to the right. I took on a big teaching load from day one and while I had some cash left from the $50,000 start-up package, I didn't hire a technician immediately. So it fell upon me to do all the ordering of the basic supplies to get the operation rolling. No problem, right? I ordered much of my own stuff as a postdoc so it should be no problem to get everything I need to start the lab from scratch.
One of the…
terrasig | March 5, 2010While I'm hammering out The-Post-That-Will-Never-Finish related to National Women's History Month (U.S.), let me draw your attention to the homepage of NobelPrize.org.
The entire frontpage is devoted to interviews and stories from women Nobelists spanning from 1903 to present.
The idea of an International Women's Day first arose at the turn of the 20th century and the event is now celebrated annually on 8 March. This week Nobelprize.org pays tribute to the 35 female Nobel Laureates, who, by their work in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Peace, have contributed great…
terrasig | March 4, 2010Looking all shiny and spiffy today are our colleagues over at the blogging network hosted by Nature. After some downtime to install a new blogging platform, Movable Type 4, Nature Network blogs are back with a much more pleasing aesthetic and a more user-friendly interface.
For those readers who don't have their own blog, the publishing software behind the scenes makes a big difference in how easily (or not) you can post text, photos and multimedia, and add all sorts of widgets and personalization features. I started, for example, on Blogspot with the Blogger interface (owned by Google) but…
terrasig | March 2, 2010The NCAA basketball season traditionally brings to the Piedmont region of North Carolina the Tobacco Road battles between the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University, the private school in Durham about 12 miles to the northwest (actually 10.79 miles from the Dean Dome to Cameron Indoor Stadium).
But what I'm wondering is why a coal war hasn't erupted between the two institutions.
In the last couple of weeks, much hand-wringing has occurred on the UNC campus regarding the fact that the campus burns coal to generate heat for the university buildings. Rather than burning…
terrasig | March 2, 2010Great news came across my RSS reader the other day that author and journalist, Chris Mooney, was among twelve journalists selected by the John Templeton Foundation for an intensive two-month fellowship on the relationship between science and religion. The Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellowships in Science & Religion provide financial support for scholars to study at their home institution and engage with US and European scholars at the University of Cambridge UK to "promote a deeper understanding and more informed public discussion of this complex and rapidly evolving area of inquiry…
terrasig | February 28, 2010A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about being stricken with pneumonia and my reflections on what it must be like for people who live continually with chronic illnesses. I was surprised by the response from many readers, quite a few of whom I've never seen comment here, who voiced understanding and even relief that a "normal" would take the time to reflect on what their life might be like.
Well, my illness is continuing even longer than my pulmonologist had expected and this has evoked for me a whole new layer of emotions. I write the following not for sympathy or concern, but rather for the…
terrasig | February 26, 2010While some readers are likely to be growing weary of the Amy Bishop case, this topic has generated two (1, 2) of the longest and still-active comment threads this blog has seen since my most highly-read personal post.
So, I was going to limit any further posts here to topics that haven't been beaten to death elsewhere.
But here's an interesting take brought to my attention overnight by commenter mitch: Slate's writer for their Double X feature on women's issues, Emily Bazelon, has put up her e-mail exchange with UAHuntsville history professor, Sam Thomas, following her comments on last week's…
terrasig | February 25, 2010A year ago we wrote about a death of a San Jose teenager from poisoning by hydrogen sulfide gas, or H2S. At the time, I had hypothesized that the death might have been from an attempt at synthesizing methamphetamine gone awry.
But while one can mistakenly generate hydrogen sulfide gas from improper meth synthesis, I soon learned that intentional suicides with H2S is an increasing US trend imported from Japan. One can easily mix commonly-available consumer products to generate the gas and high enough concentrations can cause death. The gas acts in a manner similar to cyanide by binding to the…