I worked in oncology long enough that I’m a bit jaded to its coverage in the general media. This series from Scientific American is good.
There are two conclusions about cancer I still can’t shake:
Cancer mechanisms are so complex that it’s almost unbelievable that anyone develops it. Cancer mechanisms are so common that it’s almost impossible that everyone doesn’t have it. Here’s the link to the full series
Seth at DrBunsen.org:
My longest running experiment centers on coffee grinders. A common belief among coffee pundits is that good coffee depends on good grinding. Specifically, coffee ground with a burr grinder purportedly tastes better because it grinds the beans more uniformly and doesn’t over-heat the grounds like traditional blade grinders. The experiment I setup tested this claim by brewing coffee using a burr grinder or a blade grinder and scored which of the two cups subjects preferred.
From New Scientist
Some 2 million years ago, around the time our ancestors were learning to walk upright, a light appeared in the night sky, rivalling the moon for brightness and size. But it was more fuzzball than orb. The glow came from the supermassive black hole at our galaxy’s heart suddenly exploding into life.
From Discover Magazine:
The researchers combed through thousands of minuscule amber nuggets from nearly 80 million years ago. Among them they found 11 M&M-sized globules with traces of ancient feathers and fuzz. A number resembled modern feathers—some fit for flying and others designed to dive. And unlike fossils, the amber preserved colors too: white, gray, red and brown.
How can you not love stuff like this. Dinosaur feathers!!! Seriously.
Such a nice little animation about evolution. Good stuff.
From the Globe and Mail:
It hadn’t. Indeed, the average rate of errors had barely budged in almost a century, from 2.11 errors per 100 words in 1917 to 2.26 words today. What’s more, there were “almost no instances” of the smileys or LOL-style short forms that have supposedly metastasized everywhere. (When students do deploy “textisms,” it’s not unintentional, University of Toronto linguist Sali Tagliamonte has found: They use short forms as flourishes of wit; and they do it more rarely than you would suspect.
Derek Lowe on the limits of cancer research:
To the extent, though, that people are told that “More Money” is the answer in this field, I think it’s good to make the point that it isn’t necessarily the limiting factor. Problem is, there’s no way to hold a charity insight-raiser, or to set up a box to Donate Good Ideas For the Cure. Medical research, whether industrial or academic, is a pretty esoteric field to most people.
Neil Armstrong passed away on August 25th, 2012. NASA had a nice tribute. Whether you care about space travel or not (I do), I think it’s fair to say that Neil Armstrong inspired millions and millions of extraordinary people to go out into a variety of fields and do something significant. I know for a fact he inspired many children to become scientists that made the human condition significantly less terrible.
Derek Lowe is a better man than I am:
That’s the problem with conspiratorial thinking: the rabbit hole has no bottom to it. I refuse to dive in.
I wouldn’t even dignify it with a response. Seriously, if you are really concerned, do some actual work. Reading alone will very rarely reveal any scientific truth. Just ask the NSA.
One of the most common debates in my house is over the efficacy of vitamins. I think they are an unregulated scam perpetrated with the help of a US senator and bolstered by unscientific data.
This Atlantic article fits with my own conclusions. I’ve read a lot about Pauling and his crazy vitamin C “research”. This is a good summary of that insanity with an intro to some real research into supplements.
