MigrationsMigrationsCells, birds, and musings from a biologist Articles
Moving the Science Blogging to BiteSizeBio
2007-10-17 16:18:00 Administrative change: starting soon, you can look for my writing on cell and molecular biology at a new online magazine for molecular biology (and cell biology for perspective), called Bite SizeBio.com. Check the site out. Migrations will remain active, with posts on nature and other miscellany, although it will probably drop off a bit. And ... More About: Science , Blogging , Moving , Administrative
Our Bodies are Nothing More than? Cells
2007-10-17 13:10:00 Normal and malignant cells know how to build. Each carries its own agenda that tells it when it should grow and divide and how it should aggregate with other cells to create organs and tissues. Our bodies are nothing more than highly complex societies of rather autonomous cells, each retaining many of the attributes of ... More About: Quotations , Bodies , Dies , Bodie
Intellectual Bloggers
2007-10-16 19:06:00 John the Evilutionary Biologist kindly tagged me with an Intellectual Blogger Award. He writes that my blog “is an interesting blend of the macro and the micro.” And I do try to put a lot of thought into most of my posts, so I appreciate the recognition. Other blogs put the same ... More About: Bloggers
Weinberg on Metastasis: ?The Last Frontier in Cancer Research?
2007-10-16 12:05:00 Via ScienceFriday on NPR this past Friday (10/12), a Cancer Update with Robert Weinberg : In this segment, Ira talks with cancer researcher Robert Weinberg about what he calls the last frontier of cancer research. Weinberg has been instrumental in studies of oncogenes, genes that can spark the rapid cell multiplication associated with cancerous tumors. Now, in ... More About: Research , Cancer Research , Metastasis
Interview with Seymour Garte, Author of Where We Stand
2007-10-15 17:36:00 Recently I was given the chance to review a copy Where We Stand , including an email interview (10 Q’s) with the book’s author. Great book, offering a great perspective. If you’re at all interested in science, the environment, and perceptions of the state of both in society at large, this is a great ... More About: Science , Books , Interview , Author
Blog Action Day - Environment
2007-10-15 12:34:00 It’s Blog Action Day today! (Oct. 15) To support this occasion, here’s a repost relating to migration and the environment: I’m concerned about this. Are you? Why or why not? Depending on the findings of the coming study (described below), what prospects for species recovery strategies do we have? Mystery shrouds loss ... More About: Environment , Envi
Printing Living Cells
2007-10-14 19:37:00 Via ScienceFriday on NPR this past Friday (10/12), scientist Paul Calvert describes efforts to convert the common home office technology of inkjet printing to manipulate living cells: In this segment, we’ll look at new research into using inkjet technology to build artificial tissues. Writing in the journal Science, Paul Calvert describes efforts to convert the common ... More About: Cell Biology , Living , Printing
Cells Weekly #46
2007-10-14 17:50:00 In the interests of promoting science posts relating (however broadly) to my interests of cell and molecular biology, here?s my biweekly installment of ?Cells Weekly ,? a showcase of topical blog posts by others from the past week. Robert Hooke’s Long Lost Notes Published Online - Mo announces the online publishing of these notebooks, which include the ...
Facts and Conclusions
2007-10-12 19:53:00 Too funny, because it’s true. (A little something while I’m busy trying to keep up with deadlines and such things) More About: Humor , Facts , Creationism
Cumulative Selection
2007-10-12 03:42:00 The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest. - Albert Einstein What about “cumulative selection,” however? Maybe it’s just because I’m a biologist, but it seems that the effects of cumulative selection are far, far more common, and more powerful. * Addressing Cumulative Selection More About: Evolution
Genes and Cellular Divisions of Labor
2007-10-10 20:49:00 For all those evolution-denialists out there, Sean B. Carroll has a new study out, demonstrating again a ~37-year-old concept - gene duplication as a mechanism by which natural selection generates novelty. In A gene divided reveals the details of natural selection: “One source of newness is gene duplication,” says Carroll. “When you have two ... More About: Evolution , Labor , Cellular , Genes
The Odyssey Years and Fluidity of Life
2007-10-10 16:00:00 I’m not sure how to categorize this post, but I couldn’t pass it up. This blog is about migrations, and hence journeys, progressions, and passages of life, at least in part. I’m also married now to a Greek Cypriot, so the NY Times column on The O dyssey Years caught my attention. And the column ... More About: Life
Where Brain Cancer Hides
2007-10-10 03:56:00 Six months ago, I chatted about maintaining germinal niches in the adult brain, focusing on the protected spots near oxygen-rich blood vessels where neural progenitors reside, from which fresh neurons are born to replenish the neurocircuitry in adults. Well it just so happens that one of the prominent types of brain cancer, called glioblastomas, ... More About: Cancer , Stem Cells , Brain , Brain Cancer , Neuroscience
On Human Dignity
2007-10-09 16:31:00 Via Paul Burke, speaking for Amnesty International (emphasis mine): Is it any wonder that Human dignity has all but evaporated. From the willingness to blow up people in a market getting their daily bread to the visceral, violent and ugly words and images from our entertainment industry, the idea of human dignity has all but disappeared. ... More About: Humanism , Dignity
Know Your Cell Structures
2007-10-08 21:50:00 The cell’s skeleton, or cytoskeleton, is involved in just about every major activity that cells perform, and the actin cytoskeleton in particular. This month’s Nature Cell Biology has a review on the actin ‘microfilaments’ and their roles in over 15 cell activities, that nicely underscores the diversity of functions one component can be co-opted ... More About: Structures
Ghastly Spectres of Secular Humanism
2007-10-06 16:09:00 According to the James Dobson’s of the world, secular humanism inevitably leads to moral turpitude and societal decay. Strangely however, the opposite seems to be true. Take Norway as a case-study… Norway flourishes as secular nation: Rev. Rick Mason notes that atheism is on the rise. He blames Christian fundamentalism. Certainly the ineptness, dishonesty and ... More About: Religion , Humanism , Secular
Local Politics: Dems Organize
2007-10-05 21:05:00 In my opinion, politics works best at the local level. There are no special interests groups, no think tanks, and fewer talking points from either party. Just sincere, honest, and hard-working individuals who are working for next to nothing for their communities. This goes for Democratic candidates as much as for Republicans, ... More About: Politics , Organize , Local , Politic , Loca
Think Tank Science
2007-10-05 18:56:00 Via Pharyngula, it does pay, unfortunately. More About: Science , Politics , Humor , Tank , Think Tank
Creationist Cry-Babies
2007-10-05 15:56:00 I know - the title isn’t fair to actual babies. They just want their milk or to be changed. The Discovery Institute though, they want more of their dishonest propaganda. So here’s a Cry-Baby Salute to the DI’s media complaints site, Evolution News and Views, who never cease to beg for equal ... More About: Babies , Creationist , Creationism , Babi
Explaining Metastasis
2007-10-04 19:28:00 Cancer kills. I know, big surprise. But the average layperson probably have no clue that 90% of cancer deaths are associated with metastasis, or tumor dissemination, and even less people are aware of how metastasis occurs. At the cellular level metastasis is a very inefficient process; large tumours can shed millions of cells ... More About: Cancer , Metastasis , Stasi
High-Throughput Microscopy and Functional Proteomics for Cell Migration
2007-10-03 13:51:00 This is a repost from June 13, 2006, that brings back some experimental issues I was having then… The journal for the International Society for Analytical Cytology has an interesting methods paper out titled Functional proteomics for cell migration. It’s opening premise is: Determining the activity-function relationships of signaling proteins to cellular phenotypic changes in living ... More About: Cell , High , Throughput , Microscopy
Raising Money for Classroom Science Projects
2007-10-02 17:48:00 As Janet writes: Those of us who blog here at Science Blogs think science is cool, important, and worth understanding. If you’re reading the blogs here, chances are you feel the same way. A lot of us fell in love with science because of early experiences in school — teachers who made science intriguing, exciting, maybe a little ... More About: Education , Projects , Money
Science Literacy, Discourse, and Evidence-Based Approaches to the World
2007-10-02 14:45:00 10 days ago, SEED magazine posted the winning essay from the second annual SEED writing contest, which answered the question “What does it mean to be scientifically literate in the 21st Century?” This question goes far beyond simply the practice of science, and impacts every aspect of our society. Science literacy is, at ... More About: Education , World , Evidence , Humanism
Navigating by Sight During Bird Migration
2007-10-01 21:13:00 Neuronal tracing reveals that Cluster N receives input through the thalamofugal visual pathway. Schematic side view of the bird’s brain indicating the locations of tracer application. Retrograde tracer (BDA, shown in green) was iontophoretically applied into Cluster N (shown in magenta). Anterograde tracer (CtB, shown in red) was injected into the vitreous of the contralateral ... More About: Biophilia , Bird , Sight , Neuroscience
DISC1, Schizophrenia, and Neurogenesis
2007-10-01 15:13:00 I’d be remiss for not mentioning the recent paper on disrupted-in-schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) and adult neurogenesis in Cell. DISC1 was originally identified as a schizophrenia-susceptibility gene, with early work on its role in development. Not much is really known about it yet, but Duan et al. found that DISC1 downregulation led to accelerated ... More About: Neuroscience , Schizo , Schizophrenia , Genes
Animal Meme
2007-10-01 05:19:00 Darn - I’ve been hit by a meme. Normally, I don’t care much for them, but who can turn down PZ? He’s hit me with an “animeme,” in which I have to answer five questions. An interesting animal I had An interesting animal I ate An interesting animal in the Museum An interesting thing I did ... More About: Meme , Animal , Links
Cells Weekly #45
2007-09-26 23:31:00 This time, Cells (every-other-week) Weekly is here a bit early, but as always is in the interests of promoting science posts relating (however broadly) to my interests of cell and molecular biology. The Nuclear Pore Complex: What Else Is In It? - A new NCB paper brings to light very unexpected proteins contributing to ...
Saving Rare Petrels from Rising Seas
2007-09-25 02:41:00 From Audubon Magazine comes a striking article about Seeking Higher Ground: Ornithologists were shocked by the rediscovery of the [Bermuda petrels, called cahow by the locals because of their eerie cries] in the early 1950s?three centuries after it was presumed extinct?when a handful of the birds were found holding out in the wave-sculpted substrate of several ... More About: Climate Change , Biophilia , Rare , Saving , Seas
Small Molecules at the Beginning
2007-09-21 20:37:00 Small molecule ligands and the protein domains which interact with them represent an insightful point of view on both drug discovery and on the basic universal biochemistry, at least for extant life. A recent study in the journal Genome Biology shed a bit more light on this available data. Hong-Fang Ji and colleagues ... More About: Evolution , Small , Mole
Ritual Ceremonies
More articles from this author:2007-09-21 17:29:00 As with last week, my upcoming wedding has been a big item keeping my attention lately, so I thought another post would be a good idea. Specifically, I was considering recently about how rituals and ceremonies influence the ways in which we think and feel. Pascal Boyer, a cultural anthropologist has these thoughts ... More About: Humanism , Ritual 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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