apalazzo

From confidential sources I have heard of at least two academic institutions, one in the Boston area and one on the West Coast, that have canceled their new faculty searches due to the current financial crisis. How widespread is the problem? We'll have to wait and see.

Just like a giant, well controlled, negative result right wing ideology has been repudiated. If I were a card-carrying member of the GOP, I would take a long look at the last 8 years, and a hard look at the demographics of this election. I won't reiterate my displeasure of libertarian…

C'mon you've all seen them. Here's one I just spotted in the most recent issue of Molecular Cell: Methed-Up FOXOs Can't In-Akt-ivate

OK this will hopefully be my last entry on the election - From Seed's endorsement of Obama to the comments of various bloggers on ScienceBlogs and elsewhere it is obvious where most scientists stand on the political spectrum, but why? Yes, it is true that most scientists I know are lefties when…

This is what happens when a politician gets advice from political operatives instead of professionals who have dedicated their lives to understanding the topic in question.

I have a second to blog - forgive me if it's full of typos (chances are, if you read this blog on a regular basis you're use to them) but it has been a while and I need to get back into the swing of things. Last week, Jonathan Weissman came over to Harvard Medical School. I had the opportunity not…

The New York Times Editorial Board on Proposition 1: Courting Chaos in Massachusetts From NPR, Brian Lehrer interviews Naomi Klein. Also check out her latest book, The Shock Doctrine. And if you missed it here's Klein on the Colbert Report: Note trhat even Colbert is shocked by Klein's last line…

If you live in Massachusetts, one of the most important votes you'll be casting is for or against proposition 1. What is proposition 1? It's the right-wing libertarian delusion that the best government is no government. Written by that societal piranha, Grover Norquist, proposition 1 would cut the…

Last week was a big one for the Rapoport lab. Throughout my years here, I've come to realy apreciate how structure biology can realy lead to insight. In the latest issue of Nature, two papers describe how proteins are pumped out of cells by the SecA secretory protein. Background: You can divide…

A message from Marty Chalfie, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of GFP:

You may not have noticed, but yesterday, the US's largest trading partner had an election. Watching the returns with my wife, I was struck yet again how different Canada is from US. Just like Americans, Canadians get upset at the government, but unlike Americans, Canadians want the government to…

Last week one of the fathers of Cell Biology died. I found out Friday during happy hour - but I just haven't had the time to write anything until now. George Palade and Keith Porter, were the first scientists to peer into the depths of the cell using electron microscopy (EM). This all started in…

Over the past two days, many have pointed out that the one person left out of the Nobel Prize was Douglas Prasher, researcher who cloned GFP from jellyfish, Aequorea victoria. Sadly, Prasher lost his funding and his lab just after he performed the ground work that led to Chalfie and (some of) Tsien…

From the Nobel site: 8 October 2008 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2008 jointly to Osamu Shimomura, Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), Woods Hole, MA, USA and Boston University Medical School, MA, USA, Martin Chalfie, Columbia University…

Here are some photos from last week's Ig Nobels: First up a group photo of my companions for the evening, including (from right to left) Stephanie Miller, Karl Erlandson, Anna Kushnir and baymate (who is apparently signing an ode to the Ig Nobels). You can read Anna's take on the Ig's here. One of…

Well I was slightly off in my prediction (but not too far): If you wanted a discovery that dramatically changed life, how about anti-HIV drugs? (I'm not clear on the history here, you'll have to tell me who are responsible or if this is feasible). Of course this prize will raise the issue of the…

(Fresh water rotifer feeding among debris (200x). First prize 2001, Harold Taylor - Kensworth, UK) Now in it's 35th year, Nikon's Small World Photomicrography Competition is one of the biggest events in the microscopy world. The finalists of this year's competition are up at http://www.…

Some words come to mind, wacky, crazy and fun. And I'm not talking about the VP debates. Give up? It's the 18th First Annual Ig Nobels! I'll be there and so will blogger Anna Kushnir. Ticket are still available, I know 'cause I just bought a few, so get yours ASAP. I'll guarentee you that they will…

This is the third year that I update this list of potential winners. A warning, the list is highly biased towards basic biomedical research. In addition, some of the prizes may be more appropriate for the Chemistry prize. We'll start with my favorite, Membrane Traffic. This finding is one of the…

One great aspect of the Internet is the amount of information that is to be found out there. Here are some links about the current financial crisis. First up, a discussion between Bill Moyers and Kevin Phillips from the site: Bill Moyers sits down with former Nixon White House strategist and…

If you live in the Boston area: Symposium: Science and the Presidential Election September 30, 2008 1:00 PM - 6:00 PM Joseph B. Martin Conference Center at Harvard Medical School Confirmed Speakers: Dr. George Daley, Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School Dr. Kelly Gallagher, Adjunct Lecturer…

Umm ... Seriously, the latest issue of Nature has a special section on the US presidential election, including another Q&A with the candidates: Barack Obama accepted Nature's invitation to answer 18 science-related questions in writing; John McCain's campaign declined. Obama's answers to many…

Umm ... Seriously, the latest issue of Nature has a special section on the US presidential election, including another Q&A with the candidates: Barack Obama accepted Nature's invitation to answer 18 science-related questions in writing; John McCain's campaign declined. Obama's answers to many…

Elias A. Zerhouni, is stepping down as head of the National Institutes of Health. I heard about the announcement last night at the NERD meeting. Many were happy. Many blog commentators have added their two cents. Here are mine: 1) He's stepping down real soon (the end of October). Why so quickly?…

Here we are going to look at the best available figures for offshore drilling, specifically the areas that are currently off-limits. That's what the current political fight is about. First, how much oil we consume and how much we "produce": The bottom line is that we consume a heck-of-a-lot more…

I'm back from Toronto. And now I'm just trying to keep up with all the crap I haven't dealt with in the last few days. Tomorrow we have an RNA Data club meeting (info here) and then I got this interesting email about some terrible legislation that might actually come to a vote tomorrow: On…

Governmental funding of science is fundamentally important to our economic future. First let's look at funding for the National Institutes of Health, the main source of money for biomedical research in the US: Joseph j7uy5 @ Corpus Callosum points out: I can't help but notice that the funding…

My posting frequency may go down as I will be off to Toronto for a little while. There I'll be meeting up with Larry Moran and checking out what it means to be a Torontonian. (Larry, it looks like I'll win the bet, but we won't know for sure untill after Nov. 2nd.)

Once upon a time, one of America's greatest strengths was its ability to lead. Citizen from other nations looked up to the US as a model. In WWII soldiers would give up to the US on purpose, because they knew that they would be treated fairly. How do I know this? My grandfather who fought for the…

Back when I lived in Canada, health insurance was never a worry. Sure you might have to wait a bit before you got it, but you could always count on being seen by a doctor when ever something is wrong. If you wanted you could have purchased additional health insurance that pays for upgrades, but…