Although the genome scanning services offered by companies such as 23andMe, deCODEme, and SeqWright have been front in center in the press the last few weeks, I’m sure that the following information will not be included in any of the reports.ComparisonsTwo...

The suns movement through the Milky Way regularly sends comets hurtling into the inner solar system coinciding with mass life extinctions on earth.imageFrom the press release:Scientists built a computer model of our solar systems movement and found that it...

As a sign of what an enormous geek I am, here's what I did to pass the time while Kate was getting ready for the wedding we went to yesterday:Yes, I amuse myself by making graphs. If I knew Python, I'd be an xkcd character.Anyway, that's the monthly traffic...

Continuing my series of notes on the work of Sewall Wright, this one deals with the subject of genetic drift. I had originally planned to call this note 'Inbreeding and the decline of genetic variance', but anyone interested in the matters covered here, and...

A new mucosal vaccine against anthrax with a new formulation and mode of delivery (via a nose spray) has been developed. "Our study found that a mucosal delivery system promises to add a second layer of immune protection against anthrax by priming the disease-fighting...

Setting cane toads loose in areas of Australia that don't already have them may sound like a crazy idea, but research by the University of Sydney's Professor Rick Shine suggests this could lessen the toad's impact.read more...

Almost a year ago, I wrote NextBio was just like using Pubmed but in a more dynamic way. Now the public version was launched so it’s free for everyone.With NextBio, in just one click users can search through thousands of studies with billions of data...

Not all experimental astrophysical studies require elaborate, incredibly expensive equipment deployed at the L2 Sun-Earth Lagrangian point, like WMAP. A lot can be done with a microwave antenna just 10 meters across... if it's located at the South Pole.Cosmologists...

Academic entanglement with tortureOver two decades starting in 1953 a CIA project named MK-ULTRA controlled a U.S. academic chemical interrogation research program.The seeds for many of the current problems of medicine lie in the story of MK-ULTRA. The research...

This Wednesday evening, May 7, Mercury is close to the crescent Moon, and a handspan above the eastern horizon half an hour after sunset.This lineup could be quite attractive, but will be difficult to see without a clear, level horizon....

For those of you that still remember the good old days of core dumps, here’s a post that follows that philosophy. It’s been quite sometime since i last had a chance to put some content here on the blog, nor have i had time to expand on the interesting...

The Wall Street Journal has an article about the latest ID movement tactic of "academic freedom" bills and they correctly identify the goal:The academic-freedom bills now in circulation vary in detail. Some require teachers to critique evolution. Others let...

From the UK Guardian May 7: NASA engineers have identified asteroid 2000SG344 as a potential landing site for astronauts. A study to be released next month suggests a 3-6 month mission with 2 weeks spent on the surface. When this 40 meter object was discovered...

One of the biggest problems facing the mental health system today is slipshod diagnoses — diagnoses made too quickly, without obtaining enough information, and checking for reasonable alternative diagnoses. Professionals sometimes complain that they are...

The asteroid presumed to have wiped out the dinosaurs struck the Earth with such force that carbon deep in the Earth’s crust liquefied, rocketed skyward, and formed tiny airborne beads that blanketed the planet, say scientists from the U.S., U.K., Italy,...

From an email I received earlier today. Would normally not pay this much attention, but this is the Berkman Center and Open Access is always a good thing Good afternoon,The Berkman Center for Internet & Society is pleased to announce that the faculty of...

An article in this morning's New York Times discusses the trade offs between the capacity to learn versus automatic responses, particularly focusing on insects and their ability to learn. From the article: "It takes just 15 generations under these conditions...

Welcome to the 32nd edition of the Circus of the Spineless. It our distinguished pleasure to be host here at Deep Sea News. To make it easier for you to navigate through 95%+ of the diversity of animal life, I've developed a dichotomous key to help you work...

Human chromosome 5One of the genes I’m interested in is an aminopeptidase called “ERAP1″1 that’s involved in antigen presentation.2 ERAP1 is a member of a family of closely-related genes, roughly 50% identity, that in humans and many...

Look, folks. It's this simple. Carl Zimmer is one of our very best science writers. If not the absolute best bar none. So if you like reading about science, go buy his newest, Microcosm: E. Coli and the New Science of Life. And don't wait--the book is just...

A lot of you may have already seen this, but a 1200 meter volcano called Chaiten in Chile erupted the other day, blowing smoke and ash kilometers into the sky. It also sparked massive lightning, and the images are incredible:There are quite a few amazing pictures...

The Quantified Self has a follow-up to last week’s post about the reproducibility of SNP testing by 23andMe and deCODEme using Illumina SNP chips (see the Quantified Self’s post and my post). In that post, it was revealed that two comparisons of...

You may remember my article on Cosmic Chocolate, and how I was puzzled that the planets in the chocolate set were not in orbital order. Well, Cynthia Ma, who passed the story on to me in the first place has been doing some sleuthing.Apparently the boss of the...

Tim Blair declares:Global cooling is now a flight-safety hazard.The post he links speculates that a cause of the crash of BA flight 38:But it would appear that the major contributory factor could have been the extreme cold. In other words, global cooling can...

Apparently from a real protest against the Beijing olympics, someone holding up a sign that says "Would we have allowed Nazi Germany to host the olympics?" Well, yes, we did. Thank you for playing. Read the comments on this post......

Academic entanglement with tortureOver two decades starting in 1953 a CIA project named MK-ULTRA controlled a U.S. academic chemical interrogation research program.The seeds for many of the current problems of medicine lie in the story of MK-ULTRA. The research...

Brave Sir Robin at Sir Robin Rides Away posted the 64th edition of the Carnival of the Liberals."Why are you a liberal? What does it mean to be a liberal? As for me, I believe that all people no matter the circumstances of their birth should have the same access...

By dawn, yesterday's storms were pretty much done, having delivered here 2.00 inches of rain (only 1.01 inches claimed in Athens, which is odd, since I would have thought the rain coverage and intensity much more homogeneous than that). The rest of the morning...

I just can’t make this any clearer. Vaccines do not cause autism. Study after study has shown this, in multiple ways. The removal of the MMR (mumps-measles-rubella) vaccine in Japan did not lead to a decline in the number of cases of autisms diagnosed;...

This is the last in a series of posts marking the death of Albert Hofmann, inventor of LSD.Over two decades starting in 1953 a CIA project named MK-ULTRA controlled a U.S. academic chemical interrogation research program. The seeds for many of the current problems...

On April 29, the National Academy of Science announced their newly elected members, and 16 of the 72 inductees were women. The Chronicle of Higher Education points out that this is a significant increase over last year, when only nine women were elected, but...

Kevin Hassett, McCain advisor:The first is the possible wide geographic reach of the global warming argument. The snail darter almost killed a single dam. The polar bear could, in theory at least, stop everything. [...]It is hard to say how such challenges...

Whoa, is this channeling the ’70s or what?Well, it is a “groovy” way of announcing that this week’s Grand Rounds is being hosted by David over at Health Business Blog!And finally, after many weeks of screwing up deadlines and forgetting...