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 [...]
Tag Archives: mental health
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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Talking to myself over here?
I talk to myself, and not just a little. Drives my girlfriend crazy sometimes, not to mention my co-workers. I also talk to my environment – the television (especially during Habs games), my computer, lab equipment, particularly annoying nails, the refrigerator, whatever. Like I said, I talk to myself a lot. I’m told that I [...]