terrasig | November 26, 2006Via Will's Clicked, a Spanish TV show on science and technology demonstrates the "shear-thickening" property of a non-Newtonian fluid (i.e., where rapid application of forces causes the fluid to behave like a solid).
Pretty cool - watch what happens around 1:49 when one of the hosts stands still atop the muck.
terrasig | November 22, 2006This was going to be a funny post until I saw this video, provided by the Cary, NC, Fire Department via our local newspaper.
With the storms up and down the US East Coast today and tomorrow (and frickin' snow in Georgia and South Carolina), our local public radio station just ran warnings to those who plan to deep-fry their turkeys for Thanksgiving.
Local authorities are concerned that with the inclement weather, folks might move their deep-fryers into garages and under carports. Two house fires resulted locally last year from such activity. Proper deep-frying is conducted safely on a flat…
terrasig | November 22, 2006I read yesterday with joy the post by fellow ScienceBlogger, Alex Palazzo (The Daily Transcript), on his disbelief that autism advocates are selling oral supplements of yeast RNA. The pseudoscientific rationale is that RNA might chelate divalent cations (i.e., mercury) in a less toxic fashion (i.e., with lower and more selective affinity) than EDTA. (exposed originally, I believe, by Bartholomew Cubbins' blog.). A little knowledge is indeed dangerous - the idea is put forth by a microbiology PhD who worked for an oligonucleotide synthesis company before getting a doctor of naturopathy…
terrasig | November 20, 2006Long ago in a place far away, I was a full-time pharmacy professor. I love pharmacy students, almost as much as I love medical and nursing students. But, to me, pharmacy students were special because they would one day be the frontline health professional seen first by the majority of the public.
I took very seriously my responsibility to share with my students every known mechanism of drug action, why some drugs were better than others, and how some drugs interacted with others. I credit my pharmacy students with encouraging to develop my interest in herbal medicines, sifting the wheat…
terrasig | November 17, 2006"It's shameless," says David Colquhoun, professor of pharmacology at University College London. "Medicines work or don't work, and they should be labelled accordingly," he says.
Professor Colquhoun is quoted in today's New Scientist in response to the first registration of an herbal product (arnica gel) in the UK's Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
Mind you, this effort aims only to provide a registry of a product's name and purity, not efficacy:
For a herbal medicine to be allowed on the register, its maker must show that it is safe and manufactured to a…
terrasig | November 16, 2006Over the last several days, Dr. RW, Orac, and Joseph (Corpus Callosum) have been discussing the virtues, or lack thereof, of a national medical student association espousing the coverage of integrative, complementary and alternative medicine (ICAM) modalities in the medical curriculum.
Our SciBling, Joseph, raised the interesting point that CAM education might improve the one aspect of medicine that administrators and health insurance companies are trying to drive from medicine: the doctor-patient relationship. I would say that none of the MD bloggers disagree that time constraints in the…
terrasig | November 13, 2006Both Dr. RW and Orac have great posts this week on the dichotomy of critical thinking skills espoused by the American Medical Students Association (AMSA), a US national medical student association. Most interesting is their support this week of a PharmFree Day on 16 November whose nobel goal is to minimize the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on medical students, residents, and fellows.
However, Dr. RW points out the hypocrisy of one segment of the organization that states; "we [The AMSA Humanistic Medicine Action Committee] advocate for Complementary and Alternative Medicine…
terrasig | November 11, 2006Some Saturday morning humor that literally had me laughing out loud, as only The Onion can do (foul language, but I think even PharmMom will appreciate this):
Frito-Lay Angrily Introduces Line Of Healthy Snacks
"Weren't Sun Chips healthy enough for you, you goddamn hippie bastards?" Carey added.
terrasig | November 10, 2006Readers of this near-weekly feature have been the beneficiaries over the last few weeks of the wisdom from my scientific and wine colleague, Erleichda.
Now with the feature back in my hands, I am now realizing that one difficulty in keeping up is finding wines of value that are widely accessible to readers, geographically and financially.
For example, I would love to share with you a glass of what I am enjoying currently this Friday evening: an indulgent glass of 2003 Thorpe Reserve Shiraz from the McLaren Vale of South Australia. Crafted by expert winemaker, Linda Domas, the best way I…
terrasig | November 10, 2006While sitting at Chez Pharmboi tonight preparing the belated Friday Fermentable, I picked up our Nov 2006 issue of National Geographic. Therein, is a superbly-written, photographically-dense article by SciBling colleague, Carl Zimmer, entitled, "A Fin is a Limb is a Wing: How Evolution Fashioned Its Masterworks."
The web link provides the text and photo gallery, taken by Rosamond Purcell, but the print edition is worth the price of admission. The story on the complexity of eye development and the conservation of Antennapedia from Drosophila to Hox c6 in vertebrates comes to life in the…
terrasig | November 8, 2006Natural products is an interesting field of science since various parts of it appeal greatly to different segments of the general public.
Hence, we are very excited and honored to be recognized by the culinary functional foods and nutraceuticals blog, Eating Fabulous, written by Ruth Schaffer at b5media.
Interestingly, we were recognized for our general content on dietary supplements. I must certainly make Ms. Schaffer aware of the intermittent weekly installments of The Friday Fermentable, especially with the more culinary contributions of my more learned oenology and cancer research…
terrasig | November 8, 2006All I was doing yesterday was answering our webhost-wide "Ask A ScienceBlogger" query about the most notable local election races in our respective communities. I was taken aback by getting more traffic on my displeasure with Durham DA, Mike Nifong, than on any other topic since I last asked whether the San Antonio Hooters restaurant could tactfully support the activities of basic and clinical researchers at the internationally-renowned San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
What I neglected to note yesterday was that competing with Nifong in addition to a candidate who refused to serve if…
terrasig | November 7, 2006This press release just in from NIH is entitled, "Stephen E. Straus, M.D. becomes senior advisor to NIH director," but what it really means is that a change in leadership is occurring at NIH's alternative medicine arm, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM).
Straus has been ill and is stepping down for health reasons being replaced by acting director, Ruth L. Kirschstein, M.D. (you postdocs should recognize the name since the NIH postdoctoral grants are named after Dr Kirschstein in recognition of her decades of NIH service, in part as director of NIGMS).
The…
terrasig | November 7, 2006We've been out-of-town for a few days but the election day "Ask A ScienceBlogger" requested that we note a local election of special import.
One cannot live in the North Carolina Research Triangle area without being aware of the polarizing re-election campaign for Durham district attorney, Mike Nifong. Nifong, whose claim to fame has been the indictment of Duke men's lacrosse players in the alleged rape of a hired stripper, has been viewed widely as using this case as the basis for his re-election.
Simply Google "Duke lacrosse case" and you'll know of which I speak. Let it suffice to say…
terrasig | November 3, 2006Another Wine Escapade: Valle du Lot
by Erleichda
Sweetpea and I enjoy hiking as a platform for vacationing (when we're not partaking of some beach spot). We've managed to attract a few likeminded fellow hikers, and are now able to customize our adventurers to suit our collective preferences. One of my only preferences has been that we visit a place that is known for their wines. In early May, we and three other couples set forth for the Lot Valley of SW France.
Not as well known as nearby Bordeaux, or Provence, at least not by Americans, the Valle du Lot has been a thriving…
terrasig | November 2, 2006Many thanks to my oncology colleague and ScienceBlogs.com SciBling, Orac, for his repeated referrals to my posts as of late. He's been one of my blogging mentors from the genesis of my blogosphere presence and generally ranks #1 or #2 as the source of my referral traffic.
So, in return, let me direct Terra Sig readers to two of Orac's best posts this past week, one of which I consider among his best of the year.
First, is Orac's discussion of Institutional Review Boards, or IRBs, the entities convened to ensure human subjects protection in clinical research trials. Orac points our that, as…
terrasig | November 2, 2006Earlier this week during Chris Mooney's NC visit, I noted two articles in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times on reports of caloric restriction (CR) and the possibility that some drugs might replicate the health benefits of CR. The coincidence seemed quite odd, so I suspected that some major scientific publication was in the hopper.
Indeed, as revealed by Shelley Batts at Retrospectacle, the red wine antioxidant resveratrol has now been shown to increase lifespan in mice in a paper reported in this week's issue of Nature (btw, vote for Shelley here to receive a $5000 student blogger…
terrasig | November 1, 2006Chris Mooney has left the stadium.
NC Triangle bloggers and medical professionals had a great three days visiting with Seed correspondent, ScienceBlogger, and author of The Republican War on Science. Chris' book continues to pay dividends to the point that even James Carville recently invoked his message on Larry King Live.
But back to our visit:
Left to right is Dave Munger, Coturnix/Bora Zivkovic, and the guest of honor, at a Triangle blogger meet-up this past Sunday before Chris' talk at The Regulator bookstore in Durham. In keeping with my pseudonymity, the only trace of the Pharmboy…
terrasig | October 30, 2006I've been delinquent in reading other blogs as of late, so I missed last week's arrival of Rick and Patty's new baby, Catherine, at Science, Shrimp and Grits.
Rick is a great chemistry teacher in South Carolina who always has spot-on insights on the state of science education, together with personal insights on student performance and, always, great experiments. As a Clemson alum, he's also quite fond of documenting his Southern culinary adventures and I often find myself salivating over my keyboard with some of his posts.
This time, it's all about the proud daddy, his new baby girl, and the…
terrasig | October 27, 2006As Bora has posted, the NC Triangle area is about to be paid a visit by Chris Mooney, author of The Republican War on Science, Seed Magazine Washington correspondent, and ScienceBlogger at The Intersection.
The book signing and lecture events are below but I wanted to invite local folks to a meet-up to talk with Chris on Sunday afternoon at 1 pm at Tyler's Taproom in Durham's American Tobacco Historic District. We'll be milling around the bar area until we have a good enough group to be seated (I couldn't afford the $100/hour to reserve their side room). I suspect that we'll be there until…