In the never ending search for unhealthy foods that can be called healthy, we have dark chocolate. Dark chocolate contains a high proportion of cocoa, but also a nice proportion of fat. High in sugar, and thus calories, this more bitter version of the… Read full post »

I know I've been neglecting you all...I get the notices about new messages and do finally come to read, maybe comment, but posting has been at a bit of a standstill. And truly, I'm not ignoring you! or the evolution narrative, which I do plan on picking up again.

I've just… Read full post »

After tonight I am never going to forget how to spell "hemorrhage" again...well, I probably will...but I shouldn't! Because I have typed that word at least a hundred times in the last 4 hours.

Why? you may ask.

Well it just so happens that a famous person had one (Bret… Read full post »

Maybe it's because Indiana University is my alma mater. Maybe it's because I think science needs only those of the utmost integrity. Maybe it's because getting a PhD, publishing papers, and getting grants is difficult enough without competing against someone who fudges figures to make their observati… Read full post »

Illustration credit: Svilen Milev

I just saw another commercial about signing up for a National Health Care Plan. They use clips of Obama talking about insuring more Americans and warn "only 2000 new enrollments allowed daily!" That it is setup to cover all uninsured! Noone turned down!

The… Read full post »

This is actually from last Spring (well, June I think). We don't get flowers around here until May or so because it's cold until then. It's supposed to be anyway. We had some 80 degree weather last week, so the grass thinks it's Spring, but this morning we… Read full post »

I've been uber busy lately, but I was just reading this article on the use of statistics in science and wanted to share it.

It's from Science News on March 27: Odds Are, It's Wrong

It's a discussion of how reliant scientists have become on statistics even while not fully… Read full post »

Today is Ada Lovelace day. In honor of her achievements as a woman in technology, a global blogging event is celebrating women in science and technology (2nd annual). (This was originally posted to my crafts-related blog as part of The Mad Scientists of Etsy).

Whenever the occasion to write a biograph… Read full post »

I've been waiting and watching for other people's responses to the health care reform that passed the House Sunday evening. There's still some tweaking the Senate needs to do, and I hope they can pull it off so the bill is the best it can be now that it's through… Read full post »

The FDA has announced that it will hold an interactive webinar on the food inspection process in the U.S. It will be broadcast online and you can call in with questions.

It's expected to be about 30 minutes of presentation on who within the FDA actually carries out inspections, what the… Read full post »

There have been several new reports evaluating the most recent numbers on 2009 H1N1 pandemic flu that I wanted to share with you.

First,  good news: experts are not predicting  third wave of infections and the spread of the virus is still decreasing. However, millions of new infections are… Read full post »

Last year, the FDA approved another cervical cancer vaccine, a product from GlaxoSmithKline. It's no wonder then that I'm now seeing ads on TV, but they're not for the product, they're fearmongering about cervical cancer and distort the facts.

The commercial I've seen multiple t… Read full post »

First, I want to thank everyone for their support. I'm always wary at sharing my problems, but my health issues the last few weeks hit a climax that I just couldn't take anymore and it was nice to be able to get it out.

I got my lupus test results back… Read full post »

I've always been fascinated with disease. The ever-present fight between human survivability and infectious agents, the damage the human body can take and how little is sometimes necessary for it to not take it, and the obscure and rare disorders that stretch medical knowledge. I've had family member… Read full post »

Remember that bill making miscarriages illegal? Yeah, the Governor of Utah signed it.

 The politician who introduced the legislation wouldn't sit down to talk with Planned Parenthood representatives to discuss the implications or the background of the legislation (the case… Read full post »

Well, well, well. It appears that one of the loudest voices opposing healthcare reform in the U.S. used to use the Canadian healthcare system, despite recent opines about how awful said system is.

Yes, that's right, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin crossed the border to Canada to receive healthcare… Read full post »

I'm a bit distracted lately, meaning to pick up with the regular installments of the Evolution Narrative but it just isn't happening at the moment. My writing funk is a mixture of mental and physical, hopefully to clear soon.

In the meantime, I wanted to post links to a few… Read full post »

It was just about a year ago when the media went gaga over an "obesity virus".  It all started innocently enough with research showing the effects of adenovirus infection, specifically AD-36, on fat cells, a 3-month alteration of replication. The virus was also more common in individual… Read full post »

I am speechless. On the surface, there are legitimate reasons for deterring women from obtaining pregnancy-ending services from non-physicians, though criminalization is harsh. But Utah is waiting for the Governor's signature on a bill that would make any miscarriage a potential murder case.

It's a r… Read full post »

In the Evolution Narrative we've been exploring, our population is asexual - they don't require another of the species to reproduce. This occurs in animals as well (parthenogenesis). And mutation is not the only contributor to variation in these species.

 An asexual lizard species has been found… Read full post »

The FDA should be making the call any day now. After years of controversy and relabeling surrounding the type 2 diabetes mellitus drug Avandia (generic: rosiglitazone), internal documents and recommendations obtained and released by the New York Times shows that the agency is on… Read full post »

We already looked in detail at vent 1 and vent 2. We're finding more and more complexity at these separate vents.  So we're limiting the complexity for our discussion by splitting these populations. Now we move onto vent 3, which has the populations anae3 and anae4. Anae4 is the result of… Read full post »

That's what two Kelley School of Business (Indiana University Bloomington) professors who are considered experts in health care marketing are saying:

"In contrast to physician-targeted marketing, DTC [direct-to-consumer] appears to be an admirably direct and straightforward way… Read full post »

We already looked at vent 1, now onto vent 2.

Vent 2 has two populations: anae2 and anae6.  Now, remember, anae2 was the offspring of an individual of anae1 that had a mutation in an enzyme responsible for energy production. Anae6 is anae2#101 (random individual in the population) with a mutatio… Read full post »

Continuing our narrative following anaerobic populations, we last left our friends at the following point:

• Vent 1 with anae1 (including anae1#101 genetic offspring) and anae 5 (anae1#564 but it has a mutation in a gene that determines the color of the outer membrane layer of the organism. It is now
… Read full post »