Woman make better lab managers - IMHO.
on
Sexism In Science
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· Score: 4, Interesting
During my time in academia; Ph.D. student -> post doc -> professor, I always felt that women made better lab managers than men - so I think the people sampled in this study are completely wrong. At the risk of sounding like I'm stereotyping, the female managers tended to balance multiple concurrent projects better and kept the environment more harmonious and inclusive. The only times I saw issues with this type of situation was when it was a women-only environment. The most productive labs I witnessed, irregardless of the gender of the PI, had a female lab manager and a balance of female and male employees/students. I had lab mangers of both genders and paid them based on their level of experience as dictated by the university HR.
It is not just corn prices that have increased as a result of ethanol production, soybeans and wheat are WAY up too. I should know, I live in South Dakota where they represent most of our crop production and much of our state's GDP. I've even heard rumors that soybean prices are being artificially kept high to discourage a massive decline in acreage in the region.
There is little doubt that farming will change substantially over the next 10 years in the eastern U.S. as a result of biofuel production. Unfortunately, not all of the changes will be beneficial to farming communities or the environment.
You have an excellent point and I've looked into this myself.
What I learned upon speaking with a sorghum breeder is that most sorghum previously grown in the U.S. had sweet stems. However, they bred this characteristic out to increase grain yields. Folks are looking at going back to high sugar sorghum for ethanol production, but this germplasm is not well adapted to the regions of the U.S. where sorghum is most widely grown (i.e. the Southern and Central Great Plains). It doesn't compete well with the currently grown genetics.
Since corn doesn't grow well in these regions without supplemental water (and that is becoming harder to get), this might be the only way that places like Western Kansas can participate in the ethanol craze.
I'm a mycologist and study fungi that infect plants (not animals). I, however, am extremely familiar with Aspergillus. People don't realize that fungi such as this Aspergillus, and the less harmful and closely related Penecillium, are extremely common in our environment. You breath in spores of these things by the thousands each day! They are also the scurge of introductory plant pathology and microbiology courses everywhere because they contaminate everything.
Fungal infections in people are nasty. They can progress quickly and have awful symptoms. The problem with these infections, in comparison to bacteria, is that our two Kingdoms are relatively closely related. The chemicals that affect fungal growth, for example, often negatively us as well and have multiple side effects.
Yeah, great link (sarcasm). It actually states that:
Fungi are closely related to bacteria.
That is completely WRONG. In reality, we've learned that (true) fungi, things like bread mold (Rhizopus), black mold (Stachybotrus and Aspergillus), etc. are more closely related to animals (and yes, we are officially "animals") than bacteria.
This is why bacterial diseases of animals are (relatively) easy to control with antibiotics. We can take seriously "powerful" inhibitors of bacterial biological processes (e.g. protein synthesis) because they do not affect us. In comparison, talk to someone who's had to take medication for a systemic fungal infection, it is basically chemotherapy.
Say it with me people: Animals, plants and fungi are Eukaryotes. Bacteria are Prokaryotes. Viruses are not "alive". These are much different organisms.
Many of the highly populated areas (read: Europe, US) that are most responsible for the increase in greenhouse gases will become essentially unihabitable. People will migrate to other places, e.g. Africa, Middle America, etc., stressing the ability of these places to produce sufficient food. This, combined with the expected disruption of agriculture due to climate changes, will decrease food supplies further.
In the end: fewer people left to make greenhouse gases, trees come back and start extracting excess CO2 because no one is left to cut them done, climate gets back to "normal", and finally some biologist trying to get tenure at Waterbuffalo University will do a study on the genetic bottleneck of Homo sapiens that occured during the mini ice-age.
A man with a 4G cell phone receiving data at 100mbs leaves Dallas on a train traveling to Amarilo at 20kps. A second man leaves Amarillo riding on a train headed to Dallas at 10kph. His 3G cell phone is receiving data at 500kbs. Which one will download more porn first?
Neither, there's no f'ing cell receiption between Amarillo and Dallas. Thought that was a math problem huh?!
As a resident of South Dakota I initially agreed with your point. However, if we ended up having a monster snow storm (which we are probably due), it'd be nice to have Federal assistance available if necessary.
I do feel that now such an event has occurred there, the money should be used to move the population, not rebuild and wait for the next cat 5 hurricane.
The development of antibiotic resistance can be much different from that of herbicide resistance because of the nature of the resistance. That is, for some antibiotics, bacteria "simply" obtain a plasmid containing a gene for resistance. Other times it's identical; mutation and selection. Bacteria have a benefit in that they reproduce like crazy, dividing ever 20 minutes under optimal conditions. That much mitosis will result in relatively frequent mutations, and more chances for resistance. Plants on the other hand, have life cycles that last weeks or more, making development of resistance a much slower process. Also, many of the herbicides are active on multi-sites (enzymes, whatever) in the plant while antibiotics typically only target one enzyme of function (e.g. ribosomal activity).
To my knowledge, most herbicides are effective for years, and glyphosate (Round-up) has been no different. In fact, I've only heard of one other putative instance of naturally developing resistance to Round-up. With all that's sprayed in the US to control our annual herbaceous weeds, I find it unlikely that resistance developed naturally in a comparatively slow reproducing plant such as coca.
However, I wouldn't be surprised if someone created GMO coca. There is enough money in the crop to support such efforts.
I'm a plant pathologist, however, and my experience is with fungicide resistance, so take this as you will.
"Kid from Smallville"? Ha! I went to high school with Tom Welling, he's probably 25-26 years old now. Very, 90210-ish, having a 20-something person playing a teen.
I'd like to clarify this a bit. Many plants DO/CAN reproduce "sexually" without crossing with another individual, wheat is an example. They actually self-pollenate (self-mate), a fine distinction from parthenocarpy, which is fruit/seed production without any pollenation (fertilization). While the progreny of a selfed plant essentially have the sample genes, crossing-over and other genetic events usually result in the chromosomes not being identical.
I actually assisted my grandparents in purchasing one of those cheap Walmart/Lin...s computers a couple of years ago. The computer was cheap, much faster than their previous Pentium 100, worked with their printer, and actually VERY easy to use. It connected to their ISP (dial), browsed the internet, and did email wonderfully.
Until grandpa wanted to look at a wmp video that he always used to be able to look. Long story short, I never found a solution and the computer is now Windows (legal of course)!
And for us yankees that's ~62MPH (100KPH) and 47MPH (76KPH).
It's very flat, treeless, and windy where I live in Texas and I have personally clocked pigeons flying parrallel to the interstate (with the wind) at 70MPH (~105KPH).
Silly birds have no where to roost but the overpasses and there's always a pile of freshly killed feathers on the road.
This may not be such a good thing! IIRC, some researchers believe that caffeine may make hypoglycemia worse because it "artificially" induces the release of glucose into the blood stream and may end up "training" the body to not produce as much adrenaline and/or glucagon (can't remember which).
But then again, we actually understand very little about human molecular human physiology.
First, Folding@Home is specifically working on protein folding - the science of proteomics, not genetics. That's Genome@Home, which is an associated, but distinct project. Second, Folding@Home is run by a researcher at Stanford University. Which is, of course, a public institution and not a "monolithic corporation". See the link!
Slashdot Mirror
During my time in academia; Ph.D. student -> post doc -> professor, I always felt that women made better lab managers than men - so I think the people sampled in this study are completely wrong. At the risk of sounding like I'm stereotyping, the female managers tended to balance multiple concurrent projects better and kept the environment more harmonious and inclusive. The only times I saw issues with this type of situation was when it was a women-only environment. The most productive labs I witnessed, irregardless of the gender of the PI, had a female lab manager and a balance of female and male employees/students. I had lab mangers of both genders and paid them based on their level of experience as dictated by the university HR.
It is not just corn prices that have increased as a result of ethanol production, soybeans and wheat are WAY up too. I should know, I live in South Dakota where they represent most of our crop production and much of our state's GDP. I've even heard rumors that soybean prices are being artificially kept high to discourage a massive decline in acreage in the region.
There is little doubt that farming will change substantially over the next 10 years in the eastern U.S. as a result of biofuel production. Unfortunately, not all of the changes will be beneficial to farming communities or the environment.
You have an excellent point and I've looked into this myself.
What I learned upon speaking with a sorghum breeder is that most sorghum previously grown in the U.S. had sweet stems. However, they bred this characteristic out to increase grain yields. Folks are looking at going back to high sugar sorghum for ethanol production, but this germplasm is not well adapted to the regions of the U.S. where sorghum is most widely grown (i.e. the Southern and Central Great Plains). It doesn't compete well with the currently grown genetics.
Since corn doesn't grow well in these regions without supplemental water (and that is becoming harder to get), this might be the only way that places like Western Kansas can participate in the ethanol craze.
Which reminds me of my favority joke: Why do women make poor engineers?
Because they all think that this measures six inches (holding finger and thumb 4" apart).
P.S. If for those that don't get it, this is a winky length joke.
I'm a mycologist and study fungi that infect plants (not animals). I, however, am extremely familiar with Aspergillus. People don't realize that fungi such as this Aspergillus, and the less harmful and closely related Penecillium, are extremely common in our environment. You breath in spores of these things by the thousands each day! They are also the scurge of introductory plant pathology and microbiology courses everywhere because they contaminate everything.
Fungal infections in people are nasty. They can progress quickly and have awful symptoms. The problem with these infections, in comparison to bacteria, is that our two Kingdoms are relatively closely related. The chemicals that affect fungal growth, for example, often negatively us as well and have multiple side effects.
Fungi are closely related to bacteria.
That is completely WRONG. In reality, we've learned that (true) fungi, things like bread mold (Rhizopus), black mold (Stachybotrus and Aspergillus), etc. are more closely related to animals (and yes, we are officially "animals") than bacteria.
This is why bacterial diseases of animals are (relatively) easy to control with antibiotics. We can take seriously "powerful" inhibitors of bacterial biological processes (e.g. protein synthesis) because they do not affect us. In comparison, talk to someone who's had to take medication for a systemic fungal infection, it is basically chemotherapy.
Say it with me people: Animals, plants and fungi are Eukaryotes. Bacteria are Prokaryotes. Viruses are not "alive". These are much different organisms.
Many of the highly populated areas (read: Europe, US) that are most responsible for the increase in greenhouse gases will become essentially unihabitable. People will migrate to other places, e.g. Africa, Middle America, etc., stressing the ability of these places to produce sufficient food. This, combined with the expected disruption of agriculture due to climate changes, will decrease food supplies further.
In the end: fewer people left to make greenhouse gases, trees come back and start extracting excess CO2 because no one is left to cut them done, climate gets back to "normal", and finally some biologist trying to get tenure at Waterbuffalo University will do a study on the genetic bottleneck of Homo sapiens that occured during the mini ice-age.
1. See /. story about fish
2. Make comment about "friggin lasers on their heads"
3. Get modded +X Funny
4. Profit??
Neither, there's no f'ing cell receiption between Amarillo and Dallas. Thought that was a math problem huh?!
As a resident of South Dakota I initially agreed with your point. However, if we ended up having a monster snow storm (which we are probably due), it'd be nice to have Federal assistance available if necessary.
I do feel that now such an event has occurred there, the money should be used to move the population, not rebuild and wait for the next cat 5 hurricane.
No it will actually be: "Creative, Apple Battle for MP3 Player Market" as someone re-posts this article without checking for a previous submission.
To my knowledge, most herbicides are effective for years, and glyphosate (Round-up) has been no different. In fact, I've only heard of one other putative instance of naturally developing resistance to Round-up. With all that's sprayed in the US to control our annual herbaceous weeds, I find it unlikely that resistance developed naturally in a comparatively slow reproducing plant such as coca.
However, I wouldn't be surprised if someone created GMO coca. There is enough money in the crop to support such efforts.
I'm a plant pathologist, however, and my experience is with fungicide resistance, so take this as you will.
"Kid from Smallville"? Ha! I went to high school with Tom Welling, he's probably 25-26 years old now. Very, 90210-ish, having a 20-something person playing a teen.
This is a good idea blah safety blah.
But, knowing the State Of Texas, every domain entry will be forwarded to here.
I don't know about Mozilla, but the last time I upgraded Firefix (0.8), the installer pick up all of the bookmarks, stored form information, etc.
I'd like to clarify this a bit. Many plants DO/CAN reproduce "sexually" without crossing with another individual, wheat is an example. They actually self-pollenate (self-mate), a fine distinction from parthenocarpy, which is fruit/seed production without any pollenation (fertilization). While the progreny of a selfed plant essentially have the sample genes, crossing-over and other genetic events usually result in the chromosomes not being identical.
I actually assisted my grandparents in purchasing one of those cheap Walmart/Lin...s computers a couple of years ago. The computer was cheap, much faster than their previous Pentium 100, worked with their printer, and actually VERY easy to use. It connected to their ISP (dial), browsed the internet, and did email wonderfully.
Until grandpa wanted to look at a wmp video that he always used to be able to look. Long story short, I never found a solution and the computer is now Windows (legal of course)!
Yet another problem with a non-M$ world.
Dave Rosonowski.
And for us yankees that's ~62MPH (100KPH) and 47MPH (76KPH).
It's very flat, treeless, and windy where I live in Texas and I have personally clocked pigeons flying parrallel to the interstate (with the wind) at 70MPH (~105KPH).
Silly birds have no where to roost but the overpasses and there's always a pile of freshly killed feathers on the road.
"Potatoes... who the fuck cares about a potato is."
I bet the Irsh do you insensitive clod.
Actually, potatoes are the most important dicot (non-grass) food crop in the world, and forth most important overall after corn, wheat, and rice.
Don't knock spuds. Oh, and a potato fruit looks very similar to a "cherry" tomato.
"FS: Mini iPod. $30
This was 'purchased from a friend' and I don't have anyway to test it. I'm selling this cheap and make no guarantees about function."
And he'll only charge $15 for S&H!
This may not be such a good thing! IIRC, some researchers believe that caffeine may make hypoglycemia worse because it "artificially" induces the release of glucose into the blood stream and may end up "training" the body to not produce as much adrenaline and/or glucagon (can't remember which).
But then again, we actually understand very little about human molecular human physiology.
Sorry, couldn't resist - it was just on last night.
Or am I just missing the sarcasm?
Yuk. Yuk. Yuk.