There’s nothing particularly new about the New Year from a biological perspective. We have mechanisms inside cells that keep time on a day-to-day basis, but certainly nothing to keep track of the rhythm of the year. Our livers may have felt the consequences of celebrating the passage of 2009, but our DNA hardly records the [...]
Category Archives: General science
Tools of the Trade
I like to think of myself as a manly sort of man. Beyond belching and scratching myself in public, this also means that I can put up drywall, fix plumbing and lay tile (for example). To me, using tools and fixing stuff is part of being a man. So is carrying a Leatherman. The Leatherman [...]
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If rats had thumbs
So I’m sitting here doing maternal observations thinking it’s been a long time since I updated my blog. It’s been a tumultuous couple of months for me between experiments, moving apartments, and numerous other things. However, I should be back in full force for the time being. Last time I talked about some of the [...]
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Genetic Lego
My mother, like I imagine most mothers do, has pictures of me and my brother on her desk at work. When interested parties (inevitably other mothers) ask what we do for our livings, she tells them she has one son that’s a “computer geek,” and another that’s “Dr. Frankenstein.” Clearly I’m the one who has [...]
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Two cents of variation…
My favorite t-shirt right now is black and says “98% chimp.” Someone asked me once if I really believed that was true. I said it wasn’t a question of belief, it’s a fact. And it is, if you look at it the right way. If you sequenced my DNA and compared it to a chimp’s, [...]
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Douglas Zombies Need Brains!
I have a joke with one of the guys I work with about us being zombies being pulled irresistibly to the Douglas each morning, never understanding why. It’s not a good joke, or particularly funny, but we take what we can get and it serves as an excellent lead into what I wanted to write [...]
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