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moleculeoftheday | February 20, 2008Yesterday, I discussed a laxative drug that works by drawing water into the intestines (and introduced you to a helpful chart to aid description of particularly ineffable bowel movements).
Here is a drug that works on the same principle, but indirectly - it induces your intestines to secrete ions, which, in turn, cause water to transfer to your intestines and induce bowel movements.
The drug is a prostaglandin - you may know these from drugs that inhibit the formation of certain prostaglandins, such as ibuprofen. As you can see, the class of hormones has a broad range of physiological…
grrlscientist | February 19, 2008Hey everyone, I am once again asking you to send me submissions for my issue of the I and the Bird blog carnival. The carnival will be published here on 21 February at noon EST (unless the blog platform's scheduling feature is still screwy, which it might be, grrrr). I am seeking submissions about wild birds, your trip reports, photographs, essays, stories, song files .. whatever! According to this blog carnival's rules, I can accept only one submission per blog, and that submission can only be about wild birds, so those of you who own and write about domestic birds and parrots (like me!)…
grrlscientist | February 19, 2008
Today's view out the windows of my new neighborhood coffee shop.
It's cold outside today, and snow is predicted overnight, with snow and
sleet tomorrow morning.
GrrlScientist 2008 [larger view].
I am not sure if you've noticed or not, but I've been having a rough time leaving my apartment these past few weeks, which has affected my writing. Even though I've tried to keep my mind focused on books and DVDs and my own book ideas, and I've tried to write about them, I've been so unable to concentrate and I am so uncomfortable with being away from my apartment that I've just been rather ..…
cmcclain | February 19, 2008I am now waiting on word form the Buying Department
Hello Craig,
Thank you for your product feedback and requests. We will forward your
concerns and comments to our Buying Department for review and
consideration.
Thank you for your inquiry and thank you for shopping at Trader Joe's.
K-----
Trader Joe's Customer Relations
cmcclain | February 19, 2008...on Trader Joe's
Aloha and thank you for your feedback about Trader Joe's. This automated response confirms that we have indeed received your email. Rest assured, a real person is reading your email now. We value your comments and will do our best to get back to you.
As 99% of our people are working on bringing you the best experience out in our stores, the best way to get the answer you are looking for is to contact your local Trader Joe's directly.
Mahalo (thanks)
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This e-mail and any files transmitted with it…
cmcclain | February 19, 2008 "Pet" Giant Pycnogonid attacking computer.
This morning my email was flooded with friends, family, and colleagues notifying me of this story. What's not to love about a story that combines gigantism, the deep, and Antarctica all in one? An Australian led expedition to the deep Southern Ocean aboard the Aurora Australis, in conjunction with France's L'Astrolabe and Japan's Umitaka Maru, is making news today. The highlights include giant deep-sea creatures, wonderful video footage, and evidence of of scarring of the seafloor by icebergs. On a side note, I've been aboard the Umitaka Maru, or…
sb admin | February 19, 2008Baxter International announced recently that it has temporarily halted production of heparin, a generic anti-clotting drug, because of four fatalities and hundreds of bad reactions potentially tied to the drug. Baxter and the FDA say they donât know the exact cause of the bad reactions, but attention has focused on the active ingredient supplied by a Chinese facility.
This morning, Marc Kaufman reports in the Washington Post that this Chinese plant wasn't inspected by FDA because the agency confused its name with another one:
Joseph Famulare, deputy director for compliance at the FDA's center…
gregladen | February 19, 2008Greg Is Doing a Cafe Scientifique...
"Evolution, Cuisine and Romance"
This Tuesday at the Bryant-Lake Bowl
February 19, 7 p.m.
The Bell Museum Blurb says:
Were the opposable thumb, an upright stance and a large brain were the most important evolutionary events in human history? According to Anthropologist Greg Laden, these and other traits are only the byproducts of the truly important evolutionary transitions for our species: the rise of romance and the evolution of cuisine. Join Laden for a discussion about the co-evolution of diet, sexual strategies, and society during the last five…
cortex | February 19, 2008Exciting news! I'm the new curator of the Scientific American expert blog seminar Mind Matters. (Thanks, David!) For those of you who are unfamiliar with the site, it features commentary by real scientists on recent scientific papers. This week's blog is by Mauricio Delgado, a neuroscientist at Rutgers, discussing a paper that found a neural correlate for social class.
In recent years, neuroscientific investigations of social class have really expanded, for several reasons. First of all, scientists are increasingly able to detect the fine-grained anatomical differences caused by differences…
cmcclain | February 19, 2008When I sent the original email to Rick enquiring about obtaining one of these, I thought I would have to send him multiple emails. Apparently, Rick is bit of push over because I received one in less than week of the email. As an exrucker myself (second and scrumhalf), I was obsessed with these jerseys from Rick's initial post. What better than a rugby jersey with sea turtle on it that represents the commitment of locals, rugby players, WWF, and the Coral Reef Alliance to conserve/protect a marine corridor in Fiji. I have been wearing mine with pride and maybe someday I will take it off to…
kevin z | February 18, 2008
"Around the world, the oceans are in trouble, with declining fish stocks, disappearing coral reefs, and changing water chemistry."
Last Friday's Science Friday podcast was going live from the AAAS meeting in Boston featuring an amazing panel composed of Larry Crowder, Ben Halpern, Jane Lubchenco and Carl Safina (blog). You can view more information about the episode, listen to the 46 minute long podcast and watch video of the pre-anoxia Oregon Coast by clicking here.
The discussion centers around the recent publication of a map highlighting the degree of human impact on the oceans from 17…
grrlscientist | February 18, 2008tags: blog carnivals, All Women Blogging
The 30th edition of the All Women Blogging Carnival is now available for you to read and enjoy. This blog carnival focuses exclusively on blog entries that were written by women. And they included one that I wrote, too!
cmcclain | February 18, 2008
Back from Chicago and all I have to say is that one of these guys really knows how to show me a good time. Thanks go to David Jablonski and Sue Kidwell for hosting me, the cuter of the Bleimann brothers for drinks and entertainment, Janet Voight for conversation and entry into the Field Museum, and George Parsons for a tour around the Shedd. Pictures are below the fold.
Beluga at the SheddBoxfish at the SheddCentral atrium and coral reef tank at SheddOverlooking the Oceanarium toward the Adler PlanetariumU505 submarine at the Museum of Science and IndustryStoneware Cloud-Shaped Pillow with…
cmcclain | February 18, 2008Some days are really good and today is one of them. Rick at MBSL&S informs us today that PLANKTOS is no longer.
Ah Planktos, we hardly knew ye. Last week, the board of directors for San Francisco-based Planktos, a company selling carbon credits through the dumping of iron filings into the ocean, indefinitely postponed activities. Which is press release-speak for it folded.
Their website is down, and one can only assume the Planktos team is selling their Aeron Chairs on eBay. But man, if the arrogant bastards at Planktos didn't get off one last salvo at the scientific community that didn'…
cortex | February 18, 2008First, read this:
Prince Rupert's Drops are a glass curiosity created by dripping hot molten glass into cold water. The glass cools into a tadpole-shaped droplet with a long, thin, tail. The water rapidly cools the molten glass on the outside of the drop, while the inner portion of the drop remains significantly hotter. When the glass on the inside eventually cools, it contracts inside the already-solid outer part. This contraction sets up very large compressive stresses on the surface, while the interior of the glass is placed under tension. It can be said to be a kind of tempered glass.
The…
cmcclain | February 18, 2008
It was announced at the recent American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Boston that another nine sharks will be added to the IUCN red list. Add this to the 126 elasmobranchs already listed as critical, endangered, or vulnerable.
The new additions include the scalloped hammerhead (vulnerable), short-fin mako shark (vulnerable), smooth hammerhead (vulnerable), big-eye thresher (vulnerable), common thresher (vulnerable), silky (near-threatened), tiger (vulnerable or endangered status), bull (vulnerable or endangered status), and dusky shark (vulnerable or endangered…
purepedantry | February 18, 2008Happy President's Day! I've heard about these "holidays." Apparently they are days when people with real jobs don't have to go to work. Fascinating stuff. Someday I hope to have a job like that.
A Canadian friend of mine also noted that it is Family Day in Canada: a day intended to be spent with family. Or if you don't have a family, it is probably Hangover Day: a day for nursing a hangover because you went out on a Sunday.
cortex | February 18, 2008There's a nice overview of recent work on animal cognition in the latest National Geographic.
Certain skills are considered key signs of higher mental abilities: good memory, a grasp of grammar and symbols, self-awareness, understanding others' motives, imitating others, and being creative. Bit by bit, in ingenious experiments, researchers have documented these talents in other species, gradually chipping away at what we thought made human beings distinctive while offering a glimpse of where our own abilities came from. Scrub jays know that other jays are thieves and that stashed food can…
petnoyer | February 18, 2008Texas A&M University researcher Brendan Roark announced last week at American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) that age and growth studies of deep-sea gold corals (Geradia sp.) and black corals (Leiopathes glaberrima, pictured left) indicate these animals live between two and four millennia, repectively. Science Magazine covers the story here, the press release is here, and Discover Magazine reports here.
The new findings break all records previously claimed for marine invertebrates like the cold seep tubeworms (estimated 200 years old), quahog clams (estimated 400 years…