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Domain: bio.net
Stories and comments across the archive that link to bio.net.
Comments · 9
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Doug Adams has great insight -- see also...
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~dg/crunch_art.html
http://philip.greenspun.com/careers/women-in-science
http://disciplinedminds.com/
http://www.villagevoice.com/content/printVersion/182889/
http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/04/05/1522215/getting-a-literature-phd-will-make-you-into-a-horrible-person
http://www.bio.net/bionet/mm/bioforum/1997-December/025426.html
http://100rsns.blogspot.com/ -
Re:Here is the catch:
I'm told working with RNA's a bitch and a half; while bleach will clean up (sterilize) any stray bacterial cells, a lab handling RNA has to be washed down with an eye-wateringly expensive RNAse cleaner to prevent any stray molecules from contaminating your sample and being amplified into the billions of copies by your next round of PCR. While you probably won't get a 1:1 copy of the foreign RNA, you'll ruin any hope of making a specifically selective test, or getting clean data from your next step. Good shotgun sequencers should be able to isolate the foreign sequence and output two strong signals instead of one, but my university didn't have one at the time; "sequencer" was a grad student's job description, not a piece of equipment. (That's changed recently)
In biological systems, DNA is usually more robust. Chemical or enzymatic attack? DNA is tougher. Funnily enough, RNA is more resistant to UV, so you can't use that to sterilize a lab bench without enough of a dose that it starts damaging plastic, too. RNA may be easier to melt, or "unzip" too, but it's still a pain in the ass to get every last bit of it.
If you mean storing a high-quality sample and guaranteeing it'll be intact, that may be rather dicey - but the curious can check out a forum post I found on it. Also, I recall something about if RNA has -OH groups and is unstable in alkaline environments, it could be autocatalytic; this wasn't a problem when I was studying to be a gene jock - we stuck to working with DNA. -
Re:Germophobic? Psychosomatic? Don't read this.
1946 Isaac Newton Square facility scheduled for demolition
Daycare center at 1946 Isaac Newton Square .It's an amusing coincidence, nothing more. On the other hand, it could provide fodder for a horror film.
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Re:Shouldn't even be a question.
I know it's popular to suggest that marijuana isn't that bad, and perhaps it is. But that's really not a judgment to make until the facts are in. It's been less than 20 years since the more potent varieties have shown up, and it would be surprising if there were any reasonable conclusion for at least a decade or two.
oh really * King LA, Carpentier C, Griffiths P. âoeCannabis potency in Europe.â Addiction. 2005 Jul; 100(7):884-6 * Henneberger, Melinda. "Pot Surges Back, But Itâ(TM)s, Like, a Whole New World." New York Times 6 February 1994: E18. * Brown, Lee. âoeInterview with Lee Brown,â Dallas Morning News 21 May 1995. * Drug Enforcement Administration. U.S. Drug Threat Assessment, 1993. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 1993. * Kleiman, Mark A.R. Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1989. 29. * Bennett, William. Director of National Drug Control Policy, remarks at Conference of Mayors. 23 April 1990. Higher potency say nothing, absolutely nothing about safety. A larger amount of a safe chemical in a plant leaves less room for other shit. http://www.uccs.edu/~rmelamed/Evolutionism/medical_uses_of_cannabinoid_2/aging_2/thc_toxicity.html http://www.bio.net/bionet/mm/toxicol/2003-February/003377.html http://www.altlaw.org/v1/cases/417545
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some more links
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Re:Surrounding confusionIf you have some evidence you'd like to present, some reference to some study that's properly done, provide it. Calling me childish because I don't buy into your pet paranoia will accomplish nothing. Neither will pointing out the obvious but irrelevant fact that governments and corporations often lie. The mere fact that they *might* have an incentive to lie about this *if* there were a problem doesn't mean that there is a problem. They'd have plenty of incentive to lie about caches of alien technology in the Nevada desert, but I don't believe that either. Do you?
I hope you will forgive me for speaking in a way which you found hurtful. It was uncalled for, and I certainly apologize. I am sorry.
As for the effects shown in studies. . .
The blood-brain barrier becomes permeable when exposed to EM cell phone frequencies. This has been shown by injecting dye into the blood of rats and exposing them to cell phone EM. The short version: control groups don't end up with dyed brains while the exposed groups do. This effect has been seen numerous times.
here
here
and here
and here's an original post from another prominant researcher, Allen Frey, regarding his own experiments in the area.
And here is perhaps one of the most interesting. . . An excerpt I scanned from a book on the subject; the notes are regarding something called, cyclotronic resonance, an electromagnetic mechanic which shows one likely candidate for how certain chemicals manage to cross the Blood Brain Barrier when the subject is exposed to an EM field. . .
Also. . . here's an interesting article on how the original experimenter, Henry Lai, has been repeatedly made the subject of Motorola's efforts to discredit his work in sneaky ways.
I have only provided links and thoughts regarding one of the simpler points, (blood-brain barrier permeability), as it is relatively easy to reference. There are a lot of other fascinating elements worth taking into consideration.
I hope this is helpful.
-FL -
Networking. . .I'm rightfully skeptical of cutting edge neuroscience published in IEEE, Antenna's & Propagation.
So, be skeptical. But don't be lazy. --Read the article and then do some more searching based on what you find there. If you are smart and diligent, you will be able to find supporting material or counter-claims which will solidify your knowledge in the subject. But please, (and I see this all the time), you cannot expect people to do your work for you. Learning is a personal journey. The old stand-by, "You must provide proof of claim," is only partly valid. Far too many use it as an excuse for personal laziness. Yes, proof is useful, but it is not actually owed to anybody. If a claim is interesting, it is up to each of us to research it. This is one of the reasons I like Slashdot so much; it provides a networking forum.
In that spirit, here are some more links you might look at with regard to the blood brain barrier. . .
here
here
and here
and here's an actual post from another prominant researcher, Allen Frey, regarding his own experiments in the area.
And here is perhaps the most interesting. . . An excerpt I scanned from a book on the subject; the notes are regarding something called, cyclotronic resonance, an electromagnetic mechanic which shows one likely candidate for how certain chemicals manage to cross the Blood Brain Barrier when the subject is exposed to an EM field. . .
"In 1985, Dr. Carl Blackman of the EPA and Dr. Abraham Liboff of Oakland University, working independently, integrated the reports of Jafary-Asl and the attempts to duplicate Bawin and Adey's experiments. They concluded that the strength of the local steady-state magnetic field of the Earth at the site of each of the laboratories was the hidden variable that determined the different frequencies reported."
Also. . .
here's an interesting article on how the original experimenter, Henry Lai, has been repeatedly undermined by Motorola in an effort to discredit his work.
-FL -
Citings. . .Yep. You're right. I was incorrect in stating that the exact experiment with rats performed by Henry Lai was duplicated. That was bad writing, and I was regretting it the instant I hit 'Submit'. --I should have been more specific in saying that the effect has been repeated numerous times. The actual experiment with rats has only been performed by Henry Lai.
However, blood-brain barrier permeability due to EM radiation has been demonstrated numerous times.
here
here
and here
and here's an actual post from another prominant researcher, Allen Frey, regarding his own experiments in the area.
And here is perhaps the most interesting. . . An excerpt I scanned from a book on the subject; the notes are regarding something called, cyclotronic resonance, an electromagnetic mechanic which shows one likely candidate for how certain chemicals manage to cross the Blood Brain Barrier when the subject is exposed to an EM field. . .
"In 1985, Dr. Carl Blackman of the EPA and Dr. Abraham Liboff of Oakland University, working independently, integrated the reports of Jafary-Asl and the attempts to duplicate Bawin and Adey's experiments. They concluded that the strength of the local steady-state magnetic field of the Earth at the site of each of the laboratories was the hidden variable that determined the different frequencies reported."
Also. . .
here's an interesting article on how the original experimenter, Henry Lai, has been repeatedly undermined by Motorola in an effort to discredit his work.
-FL -
more about fungi and antsI also immediately thought of the ant fungus when I read the article summary. Here's some more information about the order Entomophthorales, which exclusively infect insects. I found a pdf that gives a little more background information on them.
I should point out that the fungus in question might actually be a species of Cordyceps rather than Entomophthorales. There's a cool photo of a beetle that was killed by a parasitic fungus at bugguide.net.