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Find out why most species of birds do not have a penis in this video abstract of new research published yesterday in Current Biology: Source Herrera AM, Shuster SG, Perriton CL, Cohn MJ. Developmental basis of phallus reduction during bird evolution. Current Biology Published online June 6, 2013. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2013.04.062
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In the Pulitzer-prize winning book The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Richard Rhodes re-tells an early
meeting between scientists investigating nuclear fission chain
reactions and officials from the U.S. military. The year was 1939, and although WWII raged in
Europe, the U.S. had not yet fully entered the War nor started the Manhattan Project. Present at the meeting was a “civilian”
and physicist who worked with the navy in developing submarines- Robert
Gunn. Gunn was
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This week I was lucky enough to take pictures inside North Carolina Museum of Natural Science's Living Conservatory - a room full of butterflies, and one the the most peaceful and beautiful rooms I've even been in! Using my Canon Rebel T3i, 100mm Macro lens and external flash with Honl light modifier, I captured up-close shots of many of the butterflies in the conservatory. The shot above shows the 'eye' on the wing of an Owl Butterfly, of the species Caligo
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# 7374 Although the United States has yet to see a confirmed case of H7N9 virus – and China has only reported one new case in the past several weeks - public health officials continue to watch this virus, and prudently prepare in case this virus reawakens this fall. Today the CDC has released some updated guidance documents, which will primarily be of interest to public health officials, clinicians, and lab workers. The links are below. Following
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Brain autoregulation 150- Blood pressure regulation IX: cerebral autoregulation under blood pressure challenges – Tzeng and Ainslie Mental work and the brain 151- Cortical oxygen consumption in mental arithmetic as a function of task difficulty: a near-infrared spectroscopy approach – Verner et al. Brain monitoring 152- Pro: cerebral oximetry should be a routine monitor during […]
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The contraception debate gets legally weirder. Judges and the FDA don't agree on how the morning-after pill should be sold. The two-pill version is really one-step too. The health care system is a dumping ground for all our sexual anxieties. Michael Douglas, the poster child for HPV vaccination. An etymological aside on Latinate dirty words. A NASA video assures young gays that things will get better.
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# 7373 The latest update from the World Health Organization provides limited details on the Saudi’s 40th reported MERS-CoV case; an 83 year old man from the Al Asha region. Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) - update 7 June 2013 - The Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia has notified WHO of an additional laboratory-confirmed case with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV).
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[NOTE ADDENDUM.] It’s been a (mostly) all Stanislaw Burzynski week. I had been thinking of finishing up with a post about something completely unrelated; that is, until people started sending me a link. Also, because I was out last night with my wife in celebration of our wedding anniversary, I didn’t have time for anything…
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In a little over two years, the Francis Crick Institute will open its doors to researchers from across the globe, giving them a state-of-the-art environment in which to answer the fundamental questions of human biology. The Institute, based in London, … Continue reading →
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Severe weather reports from 2012 Derecho # 7372 In late June of 2012 an unusually strong storm front, known as a Derecho, swept across parts of the Eastern United States – killing 15 people – and leaving millions without electrical power for more than a week (see Picking Up The Pieces) Adding to the misery – and danger – the region remained under an EHE (Extreme Heat Event) advisory for two weeks. Not surprisingly, given these
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One thing you learn going through medical school and studying all sorts of diseases and pathology is a powerful medical corollary to Murphy’s Law – anything that can go biological wrong with the body, does. Every single function in the human body is associated with a disease or disorder in which that function is impaired [...]
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I remember clearly one of the first times I was aware of the concept that can be characterized as a “sense of place.” Several months into a year-long backpacking trip, I was mesmerized by my experiences in East Africa. Then, once it became what would have been summer back home, I experienced a sudden and [...]
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Distribution of MERS-CoV Cases – Credit VDU MERS-CoV # 7371 The last of Italy’s confirmed MERS cases – a 46 year old man with recent travel to Jordan – was released from the hospital last night after his tests no longer showed positive for the virus. The unnamed patient was hospitalized on May 28th - and in stark contrast to many of the other cases we’ve seen - his condition has always been described as `good’. Two
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In our third instalment from the ASCO cancer conference, Debbie Coates writes about a major theme of modern cancer research – the concept of personalised medicine. It’s an exciting time in the world of cancer treatment. We know more than … Continue reading →
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by Sasha
You know what to do…Image from the Kheel Center, Cornell University
I’m writing this the morning after an unprecedented win for our community in an online voting competition. On 1 June, one of our charities, MEandYou, pulled in an astonishing 8,000 votes in only four days in the Stormberg contest. The highest previous level I can remember was less than half that and took several weeks to achieve.
MEandYou won that contest by 1,000 votes at midnight but earlier that afternoon,
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by Igor I. Bussel & Andrey A. Pavlov Jr. Jann Bellamy has recently authored an excellent piece on the limitations of the FDA and how the DSHEA actually protects the profits of supplement manufacturers rather than the health and well-being of consumers. Bellamy used the very poignant and currently “controversial” example of DMAA (methylhexanamine or [...]
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If you grew up in the seventies, you may remember the same food fads as I do. There was the oat bran buzz that was replaced by the wheat germ movement, the family fondue set and the homemade yogurt maker. And for a while I remember my father making what I called “aquarium water” – […]
