tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32352632023-03-14T08:27:23.282-07:00Turned up to eleven: Fair and BalancedRandom thoughts, sometimes deep, mostly not, about politics, war, science, religion, life in general by Paul OrwinPaulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15154164899766463079noreply@blogger.comBlogger341125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235263.post-1146715845578021692006-05-03T20:58:00.000-07:002006-05-04T00:18:17.633-07:00Microbiology and Pop CultureI was all set to let this Animalcules go by (again) without writing anything, when I caught the last 10 minutes of House. For those who haven't seen the show, It is about a jerk of a doctor who just happens to be a world class diagnostician (he seems to have an emphasis on infectious disease, but maybe that's just my bias!). Anyway, the episode was a two-parter, endingAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235263.post-1144279618602866702006-04-05T16:23:00.000-07:002006-04-05T21:38:29.283-07:00Known UnknownsOur beloved Secretary of Defense, the wise and all knowing Don Rumsfeld, once famously discussed "known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns" with respect to the know well known phantom WMD in Iraq. His comments were widely mocked at the time, but this is in fact an interesting area of thought, at least for us scientist types. Not so much with respect to phantom WMD or Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235263.post-1143091133281800602006-03-22T21:08:00.000-08:002006-03-22T21:31:34.406-08:00Challenges in MicrobiologyHere's a little thought experiment for you. You've set yourself up a nice little system for examining the genome of an environmental isolate for genes involved in some important phenotype. Now, there are lots of ways to do such a thing, but lets keep it simple. You use a mutagenic technique (and there are many) to introduce random changes in the genome. You then use yourAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235263.post-1141794820913945332006-03-07T21:08:00.000-08:002006-03-08T20:57:30.843-08:00Connecting environmental microbiology to the "important stuff"I was perusing the wonderful blogs hosted by Seed Magazine (all of 'em are great, but Frinktank is clearly a rising star!) when I saw a new microbiology paper(subscription req'd) noted by Afarensis. The paper is about MRSA (Methicillin Resistant S. aureus) being shown to persist inside amoeba. I argued, hopefully justifiably, that you Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235263.post-1140656785270863352006-02-22T17:03:00.000-08:002006-02-22T19:48:44.990-08:00Biofilms, Quorum Quenching, and Antibiotic ResistanceIt's been a rough couple of weeks (in a good way), but here's another installment of our saga. As we learned last week bacteria often form Biofilms, aggregates on surfaces that can cause lots of trouble. I didn't get too much into the details of how these aggregations form, but I a couple of points; 1) Biofilms play major roles in lots of Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235263.post-1139372939925957252006-02-07T20:21:00.000-08:002006-02-07T23:52:07.173-08:00Quorum Sensing, Biofilms, Bacteria as multi-cellular aggregatesWhen you were taught microbiology (as every last one of you should have been), you were probably shown a microbial cell structure like this one from a standard textbook. The parts are all there; DNA, membrane, cell wall, flagella, ribosomes, etc. If your micro class was pretty good, you learned about what all the parts do, then you Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235263.post-1139371969701603342006-02-07T20:07:00.000-08:002006-02-07T20:19:00.026-08:00New Blog Post? Is he back?New and improved blogger. Will it get me to post? Well, not exactly, but since Tara Smith (of the U. of Iowa and Aetiology) has started a new blog carnival, (tentatively called Animalcules, but maybe to be renamed) I've decided to participate. I don't promise anything more than to try to do it more than once every other week (er....), but here we go!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235263.post-1082919068754388242004-04-25T11:51:00.000-07:002004-04-25T12:27:13.653-07:00Archaea and disease Archaea (or archaebacteria) are a large and difficult to study group of microorganisms that are similar in appearance to bacteria, but biochemically very different. Based on the pioneering work of Carl Woese of the Univ. of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, a method for studying the phylogenetic distribution of bacterial, eukaryotic, and archaeal species was determined. The methodAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235263.post-1082918871956920872004-04-25T11:47:00.000-07:002004-04-25T11:50:53.966-07:00Thanks for the nod, P.Z.! Thanks to Paul Myers from U. of Minnesota, Morris, for the nod to my renewed sporadic blogging. As a former denizen of the great state of Minnesota (grad school, UM-TC), it is nice to hear a strong voice for science and reason from that region. If you aren't reading Pharyngula and Panda's thumb on a regular basis, you are truly missing out.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235263.post-1082604417178157022004-04-21T20:26:00.000-07:002004-04-21T20:29:55.640-07:00sporadic posting I may post once in a great while, but I am frankly not really available to do this much right now. First off, there are so many good science blogs out there, I spend too much time reading them (along with the lefty political stuff, of course), and then I get behind in my work. It is a cruel choice to have to make, between reading all this fine material and writing some (Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235263.post-1082604196399226672004-04-21T20:23:00.000-07:002004-04-21T20:26:14.903-07:00A vaccine-disease theory put to rest I have been interested in the "vaccine as cause of disease" notion for some time, the most immediately relevant ones being thimerosal/autism and MMR/autism. Without getting to deep into those ones, I will say that there is valid cause for concern about the level of thimerosal that was in childhood vaccines (it was removed in 1997, IIRC), but the jury is stillAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235263.post-1064988290350566222003-09-30T23:04:00.000-07:002003-09-30T23:14:05.370-07:00Out of Dormancy, to torture the hapless Luskin In response to Krugman's column (the latest? I don't know) Luskin tries to pick a nit- THE MOST UN-FACT-CHECKED COLUMN IN HISTORY Referring to the Marshall Plan that helped rebuild post-war Europe, Paul Krugman says in his New York Times column today that "...Truman led this country in what Churchill called the 'most unsordid act in history'Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235263.post-1061569283850583122003-08-22T09:21:00.000-07:002003-08-22T09:21:23.986-07:00Flood the Zone It's fun and easy. I did it. Follow the link... Not Geniuses: "Flood the Zone" Friday is HereAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235263.post-1060966162011052672003-08-15T09:49:00.000-07:002003-08-15T09:53:41.973-07:00One more fair and balanced energy issue It seems that the running meme in the business community (and the Bush admin.) is that no one has a financial incentive to maintain the power grid, so we need gov't cheese to help out these poor, financially incapable energy companies. Some may be quick to point to this as a "tragedy of the commons" scenario. I find that insane. It is not very smart Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235263.post-1060963976735956682003-08-15T09:12:00.000-07:002003-08-15T09:17:17.080-07:00Some Fair and Balanced Questions Fair and Balanced Question #1-Why does Texas have its own, independent energy grid? Fair and Balanced Question #2-Why don't we know what caused yesterday's outage? Don't people work at these plants? Fair and Balanced Question #3-Doesn't it seem like there is a better solution to grid overload than shutting down every plant in the network? I report, you decide. (Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235263.post-1060926343797293732003-08-14T22:45:00.000-07:002003-08-14T22:50:09.800-07:00What can I say? I saw a band wagon, I jumped on it-Go Al! Stick it to the Man! (Yada, Yada, Yada)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235263.post-1060883982926093812003-08-14T10:59:00.000-07:002003-08-14T11:25:38.893-07:00An opening for Creationism? Yesterday, I noticed this story from Kevin Drum about some changes in the wording of the chapter review topics in a (High School?) Biology textbook which, by some lights, open the door to discussion of religious Origins of Life ideas. Here is the relevant "review topic" 20. Finding and Communicating Information. Use the media center or Internet resources to study Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235263.post-1060724493159310052003-08-12T14:41:00.000-07:002003-08-12T14:41:33.073-07:00Update to the Climate Change post- In the comments, "Charles Dodgson" points out my inability to understand common notation. Here is a link to the original source of the Climate Change stories (Charlie's Diary)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235263.post-1060713033496197022003-08-12T11:30:00.000-07:002003-08-12T12:04:59.380-07:00 Global Climate Change Redux Interesting pointers from Charles Dodgson to some stories about the very odd weather conditions in several parts of the world right now, including ridiculous heat in Europe, and very cold water off the Eastern Seaboard. He also includes a link to an article at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute about the role of ocean currents in abrupt climate change. Now, I am Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235263.post-1060712699412454812003-08-12T11:24:00.000-07:002003-08-12T11:24:59.386-07:00Learn your history! Reading these letters to the editor wrt Condi Rice's comparison of Iraq to post-WWII German occupation, I couldn't help notice the distinct lack of historical knowledge in the second (the first is a fine, first person account of the occupation of Germany)[Iraq Is Not Post-WWII Germany]. Now, the second letter, in full (it is too short to excerpt). No! Postwar Iraq is not Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235263.post-1060274595818256272003-08-07T09:43:00.000-07:002003-08-07T09:43:15.816-07:00Happy Birthday to Me They say its your birthday, well its my birthday too, yeah! The big 3-0, I made it...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235263.post-1060217970431248142003-08-06T17:59:00.000-07:002003-08-06T17:59:30.423-07:00Recall follies to include Kindergarten Cop According to several reliable sources relayed by the anonymousMan Without Qualities, Ahhnold is running for Governor of CA, which means Dick Riordan isn't. Should be very interesting...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15154164899766463079noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235263.post-1060217127711739642003-08-06T17:45:00.000-07:002003-08-06T17:45:27.716-07:00Here is a very nice (long) post by Dwight Meredith about campaign promises, and about the stark way in which Dubya has broken his promise to be "a uniter, not a divider". As written at Seeing The Forest many times, watch what they do, not what they say...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15154164899766463079noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235263.post-1060215175869279322003-08-06T17:12:00.000-07:002003-08-06T17:35:52.440-07:00The Grad School Blues A post by Derek Lowe and a follow-up by Chad Orzel about "Stockholm Syndrome", or "Why I won't do the experiment that will get me my Ph.D." struck a cord with me, not surprisingly. As both of them noted, Grad School can become a very comfortable place to be. Sure, the money is bad, but hey, if they aren't paying much, you don't have to work hard, right? Additionally, as Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235263.post-1059775650102660992003-08-01T15:07:00.000-07:002003-08-01T15:07:30.166-07:00An Evolution Argument Back to the science type content, at least temporarily. I have repeatedly outlined arguments for Evolution v. Creationism here, but there is one strong argument that I have overlooked, or rather, not espoused. It is not an argument against Creationism per se, but it is a core argument of microbiology, and also of ecology, that is best explained by the Theory of Natural Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15154164899766463079noreply@blogger.com