Martin Schwartz:

Science makes me feel stupid too. It's just that I've gotten used to it.

Louis Menand:

Getting a Ph.D. today means spending your 20’s in graduate school, plunging into debt, writing a dissertation no one will read – and becoming more narrow and more bitter each step of the way.

The importance of stupidity in scientific research

Oh why do great birthdays have to end:)

New research at Genentech Inc. is challenging conventional thinking about Alzheimer's disease, providing a provocative theory about its cause and suggesting potential new targets for therapies to treat it.

The researchers propose that a normal process in which excess nerve cells and nerve fibers are pruned from the brain during prenatal development is somehow reactivated in the adult brain and "hijacked" to cause the death of such cells in Alzheimer's patients.

A Prenatal Link to Alzheimer's? - WSJ.com

In a discovery that could radically change how the world fights influenza, researchers have engineered antibodies that protect against many strains of the virus, including even the 1918 Spanish flu and the H5N1 bird flu.

In your face flu virus!

Antibodies Offer a New Path for Fighting Flu - NYTimes.com

Just say no to the CPSIA - or at least, just say no to the CPSIA without some exemptions! I have several friends who craft for a living (or at least part of a living) and this is going to affect them drastically.

Craftzine.com blog: More Harm than Good? More on the CPSIA

riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight

riiflex: Dumbbell weights for the Wii and Wii Fit

There has to be a better way to combat bacterial infection than antibiotics - there hasn't been a revolution in that space in awhile. We are going to see more and more of this in the future if something doesn't change...

Brazil model who lost hands, feet dies | ajc.com

I have to agree - it has always bothered me on my college campus, which has a hospital, that the Doctors will come into the cafeteria with their lab coats on. Ew, a lot.

You see them everywhere -- nurses, doctors and medical technicians in scrubs or lab coats. They shop in them, take buses and trains in them, go to restaurants in them, and wear them home. What you can't see on these garments are the bacteria that could kill you.

In a hospital, C. diff contaminates virtually every surface.

Imagine sliding into a restaurant booth after a nurse has left the germ on the table or seat. You could easily pick it up on your hands and then swallow it with your sandwich.

From 2004:

Who wants to eat at a chain where the food has almost no character?

From 2007:

"I might have had the hefeweizen," he said. "But I’m not going to kill them for it."

From 2008:

Those that died of kuru were highly regarded as sources of food, because they had layers of fat which resembled pork. It was primarily the Fore women who took part in this ritual. Often they would feed morsels of brain to young children and elderly relatives. Among the tribe, it was, therefore, women, children and the elderly who most often became infected.

Recall:

Worry about the wrong things puts us at greater risk of the diseases that should be concerning us in the first place.

You see:

That's not grime you're seeing, it's historical charm.

Finally:

Hi. Um, I'm just wondering, have you got any kind of like, sort of punky, electronica, kind of grime, kind of like, new wave grime, kind of maybe like more broken beats, like kinda dubby broken beats, but a little bit kind of soulful ...? but kinda drum and bassy, but kinda more broken drum and bass, like sort of broken beats, like break-beat broken kind of drum and bass ... do you know what I mean? No?

Hospital Scrubs Are a Germy, Deadly Mess

Autism, she said, is one of many diseases, like dyslexia, Elephant Man’s disease, tuberous sclerosis and schizophrenia, that are caused by genetic flaws but show no symptoms for years.

She blamed journalists for “creating a conspiracy where there was none.” By acting as if there were two legitimate sides to the autism debate, she said, “the media has fed on this — it’s great for ratings.”

Many doctors now argue that reporters should treat the antivaccine lobby with the same indifference they do Holocaust deniers, AIDS deniers and those claiming to have proof that NASA faked the Moon landings.

Paul Offit's Book "Autism's False Prophets" Is Rallying Resistance to the Antivaccine Crusade - NYTimes.com

Not that it is even close to valentines....but then again, who needs a holiday to celebrate a rad anatomical heart card:)

cheeky magpie � anatomical heart cards