Long-term effects of CIA ‘vaccination’ ruse to find Osama bin Laden
Posted by ERV on December 18, 2012 Thanks to this, we now have this: Five female health workers vaccinating children against polio have been shot dead in Pakistan in a series of attacks blamed on Islamist militants. One victim was a 17-year-old schoolgirl volunteer. … … Pakistan, where there has been a severe backlash against immunisation for polio and other diseases since…
BWAHAHAHAHA GMO virus to replace pacemakers
Posted by ERV on December 17, 2012 Im seriously, you guys. ANY MEDICAL CONDITION YOU CAN THINK OF: There is a scientist, somewhere, trying to use viruses to treat/cure that condition. The latest: Direct conversion of quiescent cardiomyocytes to pacemaker cells by expression of Tbx18 Lots of people, either through age or genetic defect, need pacemakers. Pacemakers, while functional, come with a…
OKC Atheists on CBS Sunday Morning News
Posted by ERV on December 16, 2012 We were all so excited for this opportunity, but it wasnt supposed to be like this. It wasnt supposed to be a piece on atheists, sandwiched between images of people mourning over slaughtered children and school officials. But thats what it is. And its fine– CBS didnt do a hack piece on us or anything……
Have a dog? Want to help science?
Posted by ERV on December 13, 2012 Record yourself playing with your puppies for 30-60 seconds and upload the vid to the Horowitz Dog Cognition Lab website! Dog-dog play has been, relatively, well studied. The signs/signals/noises pups play, the repercussions for not playing by the rules, the benefits of play to an adult pup, its a very interesting fusion of evolution and…
CERVs! Crocodile ERVs (not chimpanzee!)
Posted by ERV on December 12, 2012 Uh oh. VIRAL NOMENCLATURE WAR!!! CERV vs CERV!!! Chimpanzee vs Crocodile!!! Its gonna be a THROWDOWN!!! … Or we can just read a neat open-access article about ERVs in crocodiles Strong purifying selection in endogenous retroviruses in the saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) in the Northern Territory of Australia Specifically, Crocodylus porosu, saltwater crocodiles, one of…
GMO virus cures kid of cancer, mainstream media finally interested
Posted by ERV on December 11, 2012 A lot of folks have been forwarding me this story from the New York Times– In Girl’s Last Hope, Altered Immune Cells Beat Leukemia It is a FANTASTIC story about a little girl who had been sick from leukemia for two years, wasnt responding to conventional therapies, and her parents chose to try alternative medicine. …
Saturday Shillery: Oklahoma!
Posted by ERV on December 8, 2012 I love Oklahoma– Great school, great cost of living, genuinely nice folks, and believe it or not, a fantastic atheist/skeptic scene. You all know about FreeOK (one and my talk isnt up yet from two… SEEEETH!), organized by Atheist Community of Tulsa and the OKC Atheists. Those groups are amazing, outside of the conference. Ive…
Wrangling bad pop-science journalism
Posted by ERV on December 5, 2012 We all are familiar with the headlines: “SCIENTISTS SAY BROCCOLI CURES CANCER????” We all also know that pop-science articles are, functionally, useless. Sometimes its editors manipulating article titles to make them more ‘catchy’, sometimes journalists trying to stir up controversy, sometimes its scientists and PR departments trying to oversell interesting (sometimes not so interesting) research.…
The Antarctica Files: Life… uhh… finds a way
Posted by ERV on December 3, 2012 *sigh* Two years ago, this time, I was packing my bags for Antarctica. *sigh* As much as I would like to go back, I could never afford it… so I need to figure out how to get on one of these research teams working in Antarctica. See, abiogenesis, life on other planets– that is not…
Attn Professionals: There is NO REASON to go on the Dr. Oz show
Posted by ERV on November 30, 2012 Lets say you are a professional/expert on Topic X. One day, you get a call from an Emmy winning, top day-time talk show. They want you to come on their show to talk about Topic X! “OMG!!! YAAAAAY!!!” you would surely be thinking. “A platform to educate the public about Topic X! Millions of people…