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January 07, 2013

3:00 PM | Do Natural Disasters Breed Health Epidemics?

Cholera The cholera bacterial strain that killed thousands of Haitians after the 2010 earthquake was likely introduced by UN peacekeepers. HarvardA deadly outbreak of cholera followed the 7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti three years ago this week. Jonathan Katz, the only American reporter stationed in Haiti at the time, explains what caused the outbreak--and why it was anything but inevitable. Few post-disaster myths have a stronger hold on our imaginations than the specter of a follow-on […]

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“Race, Intelligence, and Genetics For Curious Dummies”

Last week, a cicada-like re-emergence of “Bell Curve” claims of a genetic determinacy between intelligence and race surfaced in a Heritage Foundation special report on immigration. The report drew on Jason Richwine’s Harvard dissertation, “IQ and Immigration Policy.” Amid the furor, the Atlantic’s Ta Nehisi Coates was ready with the history. He wrote in [...]

Zakharia, F., Basu, A., Absher, D., Assimes, T., Go, A., Hlatky, M., Iribarren, C., Knowles, J., Li, J., Narasimhan, B. & Sidney, S. (2009). Characterizing the admixed African ancestry of African Americans, Genome Biology, 10 (12) DOI: 10.1186/gb-2009-10-12-r141

Mountain, J. & Risch, N. (2004). Assessing genetic contributions to phenotypic differences among 'racial' and 'ethnic' groups, Nature Genetics, 36 (11s) DOI: 10.1038/ng1456

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Beta Decay and Neutrinos over Cocktails

This was going to be so much longer and more detailed, but as you may or may not be aware, seven month olds occasionally decide of their own volition to pull all nighters, (much like grad students). So, I leave you with a few somewhat less than scattered thoughts, and an incredible video on the topic of neutrinos. After yesterday's post on the possibility of the variation of radioactive decay rates with neutrino activity from the sun, I spent my free time today reading about beta decay […]

Cowan C.L., Reines F., Harrison F.B., Kruse H.W. & McGuire A.D. (1956). Detection of the Free Neutrino: a Confirmation, Science, 124 (3212) 103-104. DOI: 10.1126/science.124.3212.103

(1971). First neutrino event in a hydrogen bubble chamber, Physics Today, 24 (1) 21. DOI: 10.1063/1.4725747

Reines F. (1979). The Early Days of Experimental Neutrino Physics, Science, 203 (4375) 11-16. DOI: 10.1126/science.203.4375.11

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All lobsters are mortal

This appeared earlier today on the Facebook feed I Fucking Love Science: Argh! I remember seeing a shark documentary as a kid, hosted by Burgess Meredith, if I remember correctly. It made the same basic claim about great white sharks: too big to have predators, nobody had ever seen them die except by accident or by human hands, blah blah blah, therefore “some have suggested” they are immortal. That I can remember the end of the show all these years later shows you what a terrific close […]

Bodnar A.G. (2009). Marine invertebrates as models for aging research, Experimental Gerontology, 44 (8) 477-484. DOI: 10.1016/j.exger.2009.05.001

Klapper W., Kühne K., Singh K.K., Heidorn K., Parwaresch R. & Krupp G. (1998). Longevity of lobsters is linked to ubiquitous telomerase expression, FEBS Letters, 439 (1-2) 143-146. DOI: 10.1016/S0014-5793(98)01357-X

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Microbial Misadventures: Exploits in Botulism & Pruno In Our Prison Population

I am partial to the odd tipple and, as a resident of the licentious, enabling city that is New Orleans, I’m fortunate to be adequately supported in my booze-seeking ways by the high number of bars and restaurants within stumbling distance of my front porch. But what to do for those of us prohibited from indulging [...]

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2013). Notes from the field: botulism from drinking prison-made illicit alcohol - Arizona, 2012., MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report, 62 (5) 88. PMID: 23388552

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New Method for Clean and Safe Hydrogen Production Proposed

Duke University engineers have developed a new safer method for catalytic hydrogen production. According to the authors of the study, it does not require high temperatures and produces smaller amounts of toxic chemicals than other industrial hydrogen production technologies. Read more »

Shodiya, T., Schmidt, O., Peng, W. & Hotz, N. (2013). Novel nano-scale Au/α-Fe2O3 catalyst for the preferential oxidation of CO in biofuel reformate gas, Journal of Catalysis, 300 63-69. DOI: 10.1016/j.jcat.2012.12.027

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January 07, 2013

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