A microbial organism for all occaisons? Maybe someday.

Check out the article Synthetic Biology of the Future: How bacteria could transform your life. You can find bacteria microbials that might one day do all sorts of things that will make your life easier or at least bring some enjoyment and laughter.  

Want a bacteria to play sodoku?  

How about a bacteria that also works as a reading light?  

An empathetic bacteria?  

Or yeast that can grow on mars.  

Pretty funny and interesting stuff, check it out.

Are you serious?? Study finds legalizing Child Pornagraphy to Lessen Child Abuse?! This is Evil and Wrong!!

This is evil and disgusting in so many ways. 

www.eurekalert.org, recently reported about a czech study that found Legalizing child pornography is linked to lower rates of child sex abuse. The theory is that pedophiles are less likely to sexually abuse a child if they have readily available child pornagraphy to peruse.  Other countries such as Japan and Denmark have seen similar effects, since they have lessened the laws surrounding possessing child pornagraphy.

Pardon my use of offensive language, but this I feel truly requires nothing better:

This is FUCKING stupid!  Evil! Wrong!

Child abuse has gone down? Are they fucking serious?

Well, riddle me this, how the hell can you have sick child pornagraphy without having child abuse? You can't!!

I understand these people are sick in the head, but you don't enable a sickness, even if in someone's warped mind, this is the lesser of two evils.  

There is no lesser evil here.  It's just evil!  


It's like choosing to decrease the violence of serial killers, by letting them watch or partake in snuff films.  


If we can find a a complete cure for these sick people, then great, but until then there should be a zero tolerance on such acts, no compromise.


Innocent children should not be victimized in such as horrific manner, and to say that at certain incidences that it is all right, is just as bad as the henious act in itself.


We, as a global community, need to start using our collective brains to stop such vile idiocy.

Want to be a geneticist? Like Online Games? Check out Phylo

Playing games online may not be a waste of time anymore.  Now you can play a game that will actually contribute to genetic research.  According to the press release, Forget Farmville, here's a game that drives genetic research, researchers created a game that is fun and will utilize our human brains to drive important genetic and medical research.  Contributing too overall well-being of society has never been so much fun.

Play Phylo

It may take a little time figuring out exactly how to play but it is fun. 

Quit Telling Women (or anyone for that matter) That They Can't Do It !! You Jerks!!

Simple self-reassuring writing exercises and essays, will greatly improve the success of women in physics. 

Go figure.

Physics is notoriously gender-biased toward men.  It has been a widely held belief that men are simply better at physics then women, however, if simple self-encouragement can so greatly increase the success of women in this field; then maybe we just need to start teaching and encouraging women at a younger age.  They can do it too!

But women besides, encouragement; complete and unconditional should be a neccessity for all children.

You can read the study "Gender gap in physics exams reduced by simple writing exercises, says CU-Boulder study" at www.eurekalert.org.

Thanksgiving Science

Here's a few things to checkout:

The science behind turkey magic

The Science of Thanksgiving: In-Depth Reports

How Science Is Changing Your Thanksgiving Feast | Popular Science

 

Like Wireless? Then you must hate trees :)

We all have heard about the possible cancer causing cell phone radiation.  What about wifi?  All that "floating energy" can't be too good can it?  In the 1995 Keanu Reeves movie Johnny Mnemonic, a society was crumbling due to an awful parkinson like disease that was caused by all the EMF/ wireless crap that is floating through the air. 

Well, while not dealing with human health directly, a Dutch study suggests Wi-Fi possibly harmful to trees.  This study as reported by physorg.com, came out of Wageningen University.  The scientists found that trees closest to a wireless router showed unhealthier leaves, which soon died off and fell from the tree.

To early to say anything defenitive now, but my suggestion is if this proves to be something serious, we don't ignore it.  Oxygen is going to be more important than an internet connection.  Additionally, we shouldn't freak out either.  Freaking out never solved anything.

Yes diet an cancer are intricately linked

Check out my Livestrong.com article Can Diet Cause or Prevent Cancer? 

Hope you enjoy.

Like silly shirts with social musing? Check these out at my crazyswag

Check these designs out at CrazySwag.

Give a pharmacist a hug day? Why not, I already did mine

I posted this one for my lovely wife; a brilliant beautiful clinical pediatric pharmacist, who took a week of nights, so that she could get some extra vacation time.  This is her last day before, we're off to Kauai.  Love you!

And with that, from University of Alberta, Adding pharmacists to docs' offices helps patient outcomes, study shows.  This is nothing new at least not on the west coast of California.  Pharmacists are more than retail pill pushers at the local convenient store, a sad but common misconception of many in the general public.  Rather they are an essential component of the medical team; making sure that drugs, antibiotics and other medicines are not only administered at proper doses, but also in the safest possible way to lessen any unwanted and often severe side effects.  (This is of course is a gross understatement, they do so much for their patients).

So how about you give a pharmacist a hug today?  

A new faster way to predict seasonal flu strain? Awesome

A big issue when creating the next flu vaccine is determining what strain of the virus would actually become the dominant form for the year since influenza can mutate so rapidly.  For years scientists and health professionals have been picking what virus/viruses were the likely candidates, in way, that at times, to the rest of us, didn't seem much better than guessing, which isn't completely fair, (you can read about how they make the flu virus here), but they are wrong a lot, in part because of the time frame they need to work. 

They do the best they can.   

But now according to the Eurekalert.org press release New way of predicting dominant seasonal flu strain, a mathematical method which requires no animal testing, and gives more accurate viral targets than older methods.  This is pretty cool.  Shows that mathematical modeling is becoming the viable option for scientific experiments.  While I'm not sure if it will ever completely take over, anything that can lessen animal studies in my eyes is a good thing.


I hope this method proves useful and new effective flu vaccines are developed.

Geeks like the holidays too. Fun shirts for geeks :) Great gifts for Black Friday

Humor and science mix quite well, no matter what people think.  One of my endeavors over the years has been creating silly science-related shirts (and other gifts too) at my cafepress shop CrazySwag.  

While, I do this mainly out of fun, I have over the years sold shirts and gifts in every major continent.  So it's been pretty cool.

We scientists aren't all stuffy.  

Our humor may just be a tad different sometimes.

Sometimes ;)

Here are few popular images that you can get on shirts and other gifts.  More are always on the way.  Hope you guys enjoy, or enjoy other shirts at CrazySwag.

Happy Holidays

Fun in the sun, chasing cars, bitches and balls? Will bomb-sniffing dogs soon retire?

Proffessor Fernando Patolsky of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Chemistry, in Tel Aviv University, has developed a novel and powerful  electronic detector of explosives.  The most effective explosive that the detector can sense at the moment is TNT, although researchers indicate that the sensors can detect many other forms of explosives as well, including the Yemen device, an al Qaeda bomb that was recently found in a cargo plane of a US bound flight from England. One day, it is thought such sensors could be used one day to detect other biological warfare, toxins and perhaps even drugs.

While more research is necessary, the inventors feel that this device is much more effective than a canine's ability of smell.  Although the price of such a sensor is still quite expensive and its utilization is a bit labor intensive, it does show an interesting device that may one day make terrorism a lot more difficult. 

Perhaps it will give some cute dogs some long needed rest and relaxation too. 

You can read the story here.

Few girls are getting the HPV vaccine? Any ideas why?

Apparently only 30% of eligible girls actually get the vaccine for the human papillomavirus (HPV), according to the Eurekalert.org press release "Few eligible young women choose to take HPV vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, study shows".  HPV is one of the most common sexually transmitted disease and is a leading cause of the development of cervical cancer.  The HPV vaccine shows strong effectiveness against the virus, however, majority of women utilize this potential safety measure as an form of preventative care.

The researchers in this particular study, did not offer any suggestions why these women were opting not to take the vaccine but suggest that new methods to illustrate and educate the public on the necessity of preventative care is an important endeavor that healthcare should partake. Education is important; for many the HPV vaccine may be quite a scary concept.  For years there was no such vaccine, then, suddenly (at least it may have seemed like suddenly for the general public), girls of a certain age are told they should this new-fangled vaccine?  I would be a little timid too.


But this is not an argument about whether the HPV virus is good or not. Rather it is an argument about the need of health professionals to understand why the fear of this or any vaccine is present and not simply disregard it.  Fear is an incredibly strong emotion and should be taken seriously.  Just because a patient may not have a background in the science, doesn't mean their views are any less valid.  By confronting these fears in a respectful manner, the bridge between vaccinated versus non-vaccinated can be shortened, and perhaps better health prevention can be developed throughout society. 

Just a few thoughts from a lowly pHd ;)

Want to keep your kids safe from dog bites? Don't let them get bit by a dog

Out of University of Colorado, a study shows young, unsupervised children most at risk for dog bites.

Hmmm?  There's that whole parenting thing again. 

I bet unsupervised children may also be at more risk from shoving pennies up their nose, getting shoved by imaginary tigers down the stairs, eating their own hair, painting all over the wall with their own feces (sadly this does occur alot) or getting abducted by aliens :).

Children do not have the conginitve capability of consequences beyond what we as adults tell them, so of course, there is likely to be more damage when compared to supervised child; however, this article actually deals less with the idea of a unsupervised child, than an unsupervised dog.  Cute family pets are often treated like a member of the family,as they should be, but they are animals and should never be used as a baby sitter.  They can easily turn on a child and the damage can be horrific.

This doesn't mean get rid of the dog, or if you prefer animals, get rid of your kid.  Just use common sense.  The same common sense that should tell you not let your newborn baby play with a 15 foot boa constrictor, while you go watch football. 

Watch your kid, watch your dog, and have one big happy family.

How stupid is CNN? Neanderthals were humans!

I was reading CNN tonight and came across a very dumb headline, Neanderthals less 'creative' than humans.  Last time I checked neanderthals are(were) humans.  They are another human species, now long extinct.  The Latin name for neanderthals is Homo Neanderthalensis; the latin name for modern humans (us) is Homo sapiens.  There were many species of humans that are now extinct, but they were still humans.

This might seem to be a little nit-picky, but in my opinion, even little bits of misinformation can completely derail scientific knowledge and lead to ignorance.  Let's fight ignorance.

Also, I feel that any species that is related to Ozzy, even at a genetic level, couldn't have been completely without creativity.  Ozzy rocks!

Good Going Oil Drilling BP Assholes, What Did that Coral Ever Do To You?

Well apparently the truth is finally coming to light.  The oil didn't just disappear from the BP disaster, as the administration and everyone wants us to believe.  Damage is likely not as minimal as previously thought.

No kidding, what kind of idiotic uneducated lout would think that such a massive oil spill wouldn't cause massive damage.  Well, according to the www.physorg.com, article "Scientists find damage to coral near BP well," the massive amount of damage that has occurred is likely a lot more than feared on the coral and other marine life.

I understand the harsh times in the world, people need to make a living, and take care of their families, but here's the problem, how can we really take care of our descendants, if we kill the world? Let's just use some common sense people. 

The earth is a stable ecosystem, at least it should be.  If you tip the balances too much, even the most insignificant changes can have serious consequences.  We're on the cusp. 

Save the world, or let greedy evil assholes drag us down to the pits of hell?  You decide.

Humans are Older than Previously Thought. 3 Million Years Older.

The theory of macro-evolution commonly suggests that humans began to diverge from their closest animal relatives, the chimpanzee some 5 million years ago, but according to the Eurekalert.org press release, New statistical model moves human evolution back 3 million years, this divergence may have occurred actually at 8 million years. 


Pretty cool, although it does deal with statistics, and statistics can be used to prove almost anything; however, it still is a pretty interesting finding in regards to evolution.  You can read the actual article here.

Change Chef's Approach to Cooking, Save the US from Obesity and Diabetes?

Our health is our responsibility, pure and simple, but that doesn't mean education and help are not equally important.  The press release, Chefs can create reduced-calorie restaurant foods, suggest that if chefs and restaurants change the way the they approach cooking, think-outside-the box, and start making foods that are still incredible, simply not overly fattening or high-in calories, it might begin to shift the approach all of us in the United States have toward junk food.


If we can change the food industry, then maybe that will be one step in changing the heart and souls of people to start losing weight, eating right, and live a long healthy life.

Oral sex leads to sexual intercourse in teens?! Umm, you think?

Normally I am an advocate of all science, no matter how silly or ridiculous it might seem,at least initially.  When I read the title of the UCSF press release "Having oral sex increases likelihood of intercourse among teens," I couldn't help but think, that we as scientists should use a little common sense sometimes, before starting out on an experiment.  

How would oral sex not lead to a greater likelihood of intercourse?  Has the world changed that much?  

No, of course not.  But then again, I can see the reasoning behind this study.  You hear it all over the news, wild sex parties, rampant STD transmission and rampant teenage pregnancy (which some would argue was an STD in itself); it's important to understand teenage sexuality. However, rather than actually confronting the problem, using common sense to deal with an uncomfortable situation, or god-forbid, parents actually trying to parent, society has decided to spend large amounts of grant money on a set of experiments that reach a conclusion on something any random person on the street would be able to tell us.  


To be honest, this reminds me of a joke I heard once.  


A biologist is studying a frog and yells at the frog to jump.  The frog jumps a three feet. 
The biologist cuts off a leg of the frog, and yells at it to jump.  The frog jumps two feet.  
The biologist cuts off another, leg and yells ant the frog to jump.  The frog jumps one foot.  
The biologist cuts off another foot, yells at the frog to jump and the frog jumps six inches.  
Finally, the scientist, cutting off the final leg, yells at the frog to jump, but the frog doesn't budge.  
The scientist keeps trying to entice the frog with his yells and screams to jump, but to no avail.  
Happy, the scientist, thinking he found a novel discovery, quickly jotted into his notebook -"cut off all legs of a frog and the frog becomes deaf." 


So maybe the next time your thirteen year-old girl or boy let's-slip while they had oral sex, they haven't gone all the way yet.  Give it time.


Duh.

Republican Anti-Healthcare Reform Might Have a Field Day With This, but Only Because They're Extremely Shortsighted!

Well its true, we American's are an unhealthy lot, suffering from high levels of obesity, diabetes and heart disease, but according to a recent study, Americans less healthy than English, but live as long or longer, study finds, it was found that even though the people of Britain are much healthier, there were no significant differences in mortality rate between US citizens and British citizens between the age of 55-64.  Interestingly, as the age of the patients increase past 64, American sickness is higher but mortality levels are actually lower than that of the English.

These data indicate that while, we are unhealthy in this country, the healthcare system might actually be better than the healthcare in England.  One thing that the healthcare system does try to imbibe into the people of this country is the importance of obtaining regular health checkups. The authors suggest that in the United States, although unhealthy, early diagnosis let's us know that we are unhealthy, so it doesn't take us by surprise.

Now, in the United States, healthcare reform is a big controversial subject right now.  Many proponents and many opponents.  With this study, opponents of healthcare reform will likely start saying "see our healthcare isn't so bad."

This is an argument (a stupid one) that is often used to show that things don't need to change.  Just because something is okay doesn't mean that it doesn't need to improve.  Anyway, our health in this country should be more important than our healthcare any day.  I always think quality is better than quantity.

Good health and good healthcare, now that would be Utopia!

Scientists Keep Prostate Alive in Lab for a Week?

"Scientists develop method to keep surgically-removed prostate tissue alive and 'working' for week"

 

 Ummm...Ok.

Get back to me when you get a month out of it.

What is dengue fever? Did Andy Irons die of this disease? Or was it methadone

As it is wide knowledge right now, the great surfer Andy Irons died from Dengue Fever.  Our condolences.

Although, now according to Allvoices.com, Andy Iron's death may actually be investigated as a drug overdose and not Dengue Fever, at least not completely.  I can't say how accurate this might be, but you read the article "Surfer’s Death Investigated as Overdose: Methadone found in Hotel," and make your own conclusions. 

Anyway, what exactly is Dengue Fever?  Well according to the Center for Disease Control, dengue fever is transferred, similar to malaria and yellow fever, by mosquito bites.  (Is it just me or do you think mosquitoes suck?)

Dengue Fever is contracted by the bite of an infected Aedes aegypti species of mosquito.  This species  originated in the subtropics of  Africa.   


 Aedes albopictus, a mosquito species that originated in Asia, also is a known carrier of the virus.  These mosquitoes can be found in many subtropic locations across the world.

Dengue Fever is caused by one of four separate viruses (DENV 1,2,3,4).  Symptoms can range from mild to severe.  They include high fever, rash, pain behind the eyes, and some bleeding of the gums.  Treatment of dengue fever, initially is treated similar to that of any fever; plenty of fluids and rest.  Take tylenol (acetominophen), but do not under any circumstances take any aspirin-related products.  The dengue virus tends to cause weakening of capillaries and blood vessels, which under certain conditions can lead to massive hemorrhaging (also known as dengue hemorrhagic fever or DHF).

DHF is a severe form of dengue fever and is associated with a fever that lasts 2 days or longer.  After fever subsides, strong abdominal pain, vomiting, and difficulty breathing can occur.  Cardiac distress, shock and death can follow.

Albeit, generally rare, this disease is not something that should be taken lightly and as I am not a medical doctor, do not take anything I say to heart.  I implore that if you live or are traveling in any subtropic/tropic climates, you should consult your physician and get all the information that you can about this or any other disease that might come into contact.  Also if you are feeling ill, just like at home, do not push it off as nothing, because your action might just save your life or your family's life.

There are no vaccines for dengue fever, and there are no specific medication that can treat this disease.  The best treatment is prevention.

Is November a Day of Death and Decay? Let's find out

Well the title, I must admit, is a tad melodramatic, but also accurate.  As I drive through any major or minor cities in America (and I'm sure in other countries that celebrate Halloween, this could also be true), I see a massive graveyard, reminders of the debauchery that is Halloween.

Man, I love Halloween.

But, before you start freaking out, running for the hills, and bunking down militia style, because my last paragraph has you thinking that some freaking evil hellish cult is driving through major towns killing everyone in November, you should first ask yourself, what looks so alive on Halloween, but quickly or slowly die off as the weeks of November pass by?

I, of course am talking about Jack-O-Lanterns, as shown in the picture (obtained from wikipedia.org).  Pumpkins that have been carved into all sorts of face and designs for celebration of Halloween night, but which, in many cases are let to rot on front porches for days, if not weeks to come.

Its actually a pretty sad sight, a once jovial smiling Jack-O-Lantern, now frowning, his face a mash of anguish as the body slowly begins to cave in on itself, and as flies begin to lay their larva into their body. 

I surely wouldn't want this to happen to me :), it is pretty gross.

So please give your poor Jack-O-Lanterns a proper burial, or at the very least toss them in the garbage.

But then again, if you have kids, you can use these dying gourds as a science teaching lesson into some of the biology that occurs in response to decay.  Could be interesting.

While gross and somewhat sad, especially in regards to,  lets say,  the passing of family pet or a relative, death and decay is also important process that can help us understand the process how organic material is recycled back into Mother Earth.

How, in a sense, we are all immortal, we simply transform.

Read more about decay and decomposition.

Here's something I can get behind: Blackberries may actually prevent colon cancer

Black Raspberries:Rubus occidentalis

While daffodils were anything but tasty (see my previous blog entry for the reference), blackberries are one of my favorites.  And now these delicious fruit might prevent colon cancer, according to the public release "Black raspberries may prevent colon cancer, study finds."

Black raspberries have anti-oxidant, anti-cancer, and anti-inflammatory properties.  Researchers, in this recent study gave experimental mice a high calorie, high fat diet (equivalent to a Western diet) and measured the amount tumor/inflammatory development.  In mice that were also supplemented with 10% freeze-dried black raspberries, tumor number and cancer incidence was greatly decreased.

Does this mean we should eat a whole lot of black raspberries?  Too early really too say.  These mice model systems are very artificial and might not always equate completely to the real world.  Clinical studies will need to be performed to determine the validity and safety in regards to the anti-cancer effect of black raspberries in humans.

But, in my opinion, if you enjoy raspberries, eat them, and they might have a positive effect, but don't think that these raspberries are the key for cancer prevention.  Prevention really is likely due to a overall good eating habits and not a miracle food.

The more exciting aspects of these raspberries, or any other food product with a similar anti-cancer effect, is the possibility of finding a novel compound which could be developed into a new effective chemotherapy.

November is National Pancreatic Cancer Month

Pancreatic cancer is a quick and deadly killer.  It is generally associated with very poor prognosis, even if detected at a very early stage.  This just shows how truly important the pancreas is to the human body  This is the disease that unfortunately killed Patrick Swayze.  It is essential that new research is performed to find better treatments of this disease. 

Check out these charities:

Pancreatic Cancer Foundation

Pancreatic Cancer Action Network

Let's do what we can.

Daffodils may taste gross, but can they fight brain cancer?

From personal experience, I know daffodils are quite gross.  When I was seven, I was eating trail mix while I was pruning dead daffodils, a chore my grandmother asked of me, needless to say, while I wasn't looking I popped a piece of the flower in my mouth rather than the trail mix.

But gross or not, scientists have discovered that narciclasine, a compound from daffodil bulbs, may actually be used as treatment for numerous brain cancers and brain metastases.  You can read about it in the Eurekalert.org press release, "Scientists turn a new leaf to discover a compound in daffodils that targets brain cancer."

I think this is cool, I am always excited about scientists looking at new plants and less than orthodox areas for new therapies. 

Let's keep it up. 

A new therapy could be anywhere!