k wrote:
] ] A "significant number" of people in the UK may
] ] be harbouring vCJD with no clinical symptoms, reveals the
] ] study of a new case. The work suggests the epidemic of
] ] the human form of mad cow disease may be far from over.
]
] [ Oh man fuck that. So, you can have vCJD without symptom,
] apparently pass it on via blood transfusion, and even having a
] good copy of the gene doesn't protect you forever. This prion
] is some serious bullshit. -k]

I recommend the book "Deadly Feasts" by Richard Rhodes. I think that nobody can truely predict what is going to happen with vCJD, because scientists don't have enough information about prions. What they do know is quite unique. Prions are tough proteins - surgical instruments used on patients with vCJD have to be autoclaved for alot longer in order to get rid of the protein. There have been a few cases where people with vCJD had surgery, the instruments were sterilized, and the next person operated on contracted the disease from the instruments. Its frightning what we know, and what we don't know, about these proteins. However, the origin of this problem makes for a really interesting read, and that is what "Deadly Feasts" is about. I liked it all the way up to the end, where it got a bit too alarmist for my taste - but it is well written and interesting for those who want to get a better grasp on prions, mad cow disease, and vCJD.

RE: Article: Fears of vCJD timebomb revived�| New Scientist

] Scientists around the world have paid tribute to British
] scientist Francis Crick, co-discover of the structure of
] DNA and the simple way in which genetic material is
] copied, who passed away on Wednesday night. He died at a
] hospital in San Diego, California, where he had been
] battling colon cancer. He was 88

Francis Crick died last week...a sad day for science.

Article: Francis Crick, DNA pioneer, dies | New Scientist

From Acidus:

I was just the co-host of Binary Revolution Radio, a weekly hacking show done out of FL, hosted by StankDawg (www.binrev.com).

Its a cool show where we talked about lots of topics, including Stripe Snoop.

The show notes should be posted here (http://www.binrev.com/radio/archive.html) soon.

Acidus on Binrev radio [MP3]

This is a pretty neat site. You can see what the air traffic controllers are seeing and you can hear them talking to the jets. Check it out:)

Air Traffic control: Atlanta

] By raiding nature's tool cabinet, researchers have
] developed a potentially faster and more practical version
] of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), itself a
] foundation of modern genetics.
]
] The breakthrough, called helicase-dependent amplification
] (HDA), could result in small, hand-held devices which
] enable doctors to test blood samples directly in the
] surgery and forensic teams to detect a suspect's DNA at a
] crime scene.

I am going to go ahead and file this one under "Damnit, why didn't I think of that". This is a discovery that someone could have made ~25 years ago. Helicases were discovered in 1976, and Mullis presented PCR to the world in the early 80s. If Kary had of thought about adding helicases to his tube of nucleotides and polymerase, it would have saved alot of work for grad students in the 80s (of course, just the fact that he came up with PCR already saved grad students from alot of work, but whose counting). PCR sans helicases require temperature changes in a cyclic fashion in order to make the copies of the DNA. Before the invention of the thermal cycler (god bless this machine), grad students would have to move tubes from water bath to water bath by hand (keep in mind that to make enough copies to work with, the PCR reaction has to be cycled through all required temps ~25-30 times, which resulted in hours of moving tubes every couple of minutes to a different water bath (once again, god bless the thermal cycler).
Adding helicases to the mix was a genious idea - could be nobel worthy. With helicases, the reaction can take place at 37 degrees, which means that PCR just got portable, and cheaper too (helpful for labs without alot of money to buy a thermal cycler). My hats off to these scientists....its always those discoveries that were sitting right in front of our faces for years that are sometimes the most amazing.

New Scientist

heh....USB aquarium....this is pretty rad

ThinkGeek :: USB Mini Desktop Aquarium

] After a seven-year, 2.2 billion-mile journey, the Cassini
] spacecraft will fire its engine Wednesday night to slow
] down, allowing itself to be captured by Saturn's gravity.
] The maneuver will inaugurate a four-year, 76-orbit tour
] of the giant planet and some of its 31 known moons,
] including huge Titan

CNN.com - Saturn mission to reveal mysterious planet - Jun 28, 2004

Decius wrote:
] Check out this coin design...

Thats awesome

I passed my quals!!!!! w00t!!!!!!!!!

] Cattle brains and other remains that may carry the deadly
] mad cow disease would be turned into biofuels under a
] plan announced on Monday by the U.S. Department of
] Agriculture.

Now this is killing two birds with one stone - make a biofuel out of hazardous cow parts

Wired News: Don't Flush Brains Down the Drain