There is, apparently, truth to the idea that people under stress may gain weight – and it's not just that people simply choose to escape their problems by eating. And this is only one of the reasons stress isn't good for your general health.Scientists...
Readings, 29 July 2007
Comments, if any, apply to the article that precedes them.Sea Anemone Genome Provides New View Of Our Multi-celled AncestorsThe first analysis of the genome of the sea anemone shows it to be nearly as complex as the human genome, providing major insights...
Bash Script efficiently
The part techy kinds lives of each computer is letter of indices. Face leaves it, which is we all unprofessional programmers at the heart. Its part of our desire to steer to the electronic brain which takes up as much from our time. To the anger and...
Stellar fireworks in galaxy NGC 4449
Stellar fireworks in galaxy NGC 4449 (7/3/07)Hundreds of thousands of vibrant blue and red stars are visible in this new image of galaxy NGC 4449 taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). Hot bluish white clusters...
Metathoughts about brains
It occurs to me that there is an interesting connection between the two posts tonight. (This and this.) The first touches on the evolutionary origins of brains as sensory organs. The second (or rather, some references it contains) shows how sensory functions...
Origins of brains as sensory organs
Recently (well, not too long ago) I posted (here) a bit about how elements of the modern nervous system of vertebrates can be traced back to some of the most primitive animals – sea sponges.Now it transpires that the origins of specific brain subsystems...
Readings, 23 July 2007
Articles I've come across that may be worth a look.Thinking Big about Space TelescopesNASA's next moon rocket is still on the drawing board, but already scientists are dreaming up big new things to do with it.Astrophysicists draw up wish listAstroparticle...
Health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids
Omega-3 fatty acids are now getting credit for health benefits in a surprising range of disease conditions.Just to review a little, fats and fatty acids are said to be saturated if they have the maximum possible number of hydrogen atoms attached. In...
Change Web Site Mode
Switch access to sites between test and production. This class can be used to switch the access to sites between test and production versions.Each Web site must have copy of all files in the production server and in a test server. This class allows the...
Philosophia Naturalis #12 has been published
And as previously announced, it's at a geocentric view. (And it even appeared on time this month, unlike this notice.) Definitely worth your time to read a bit.Thanks to mollishka for doing and hosting this month's editi...
Axions
There's been a bit of news recently about axions. But first, what is an axion, and why should anyone care? Don't we have enough oddball particles already? Perhaps we do, but regardless of that, the properties axions are hypothesized to possess would...
Gene activation by CREB
Here's more illustration, if any were needed, of the point that gene expression is a much more complex process than has sometimes been supposed. We recall that transcription factors are proteins that are necessary for a gene to be expressed, and they...
Why stem cells are stem cells
This seems like a pretty fundamental finding regarding what makes a stem cell a stem cell:Five Genetic Themes Key To Keeping Stem Cells In A Primitive, Flexible State Have Been IdentifiedFor more than 25 years, stem cells have been defined based on what...
Philosophia Naturalis #12 call for submissions
Mollishka at a geocentric view will be hosting the next edition of the carnival on Thursday, July 19. The announcement is here.Submissions should be made by Tuesday night, July 17. An email address for submissions is in the announcement, or you can use...
Disease genes
This is old news (over a month), and it was widely reported in the general media, so I'm sure most readers are aware of it. But it seems important enough to note here, just for the record. It might be considered one of the most important science stories...
Histone deacetylase enzymes
You don't often hear histone deacetylase (HDAC) enzymes being discussed in ordinary conversation at cocktail parties or around the water cooler – unless perchance you stumble into a conversation among biomedical researchers. But that might change a bit...
News dump: inflammation
I've already done one news dump on the subject of inflammation (here), and there's been a lot of interesting stuff since then. This is just the first installment of new stuff, in reverse chronological order.Schizophrenia may be linked to inflammation:...
Metering gene expression
As often noted, such as here, gene expression is really quite a complicated process.Although the net result of DNA transcription is the production of messenger RNA under control of a complex enzyme called RNA polymerase, there's a lot more to it than...
Finding protection from tumor growth in unexpected places
As just about anyone who takes even the simplest medications knows, almost everything has side-effects. Generally, there's no free lunch. The aspirin that reduces your fever and (maybe) makes your hangover a little less painful can also cause ulcers...
How cells can cheat death
To begin with, we have to point out that for a cell to cheat death is usually not a good thing. The reason is that cell death is usually the result of a process called apoptosis, and this process has been carefully developed (by evolution) to dispose...
RNA tails and gene expression
Only a few years ago – definitely less than ten years – gene expression was thought to be a fairly simple process. One gene coded for one protein. The gene was "transcribed" from DNA to messenger RNA (mRNA), and in turn the mRNA was used to direct the...
Origins Of Nervous System Found In Genes Of Sea Sponge
One of the things that's always fascinating (or inspiring, astonishing, awe-inspiring – take your pick) about what we learn from the evolutionary history of living critters is how much very different sorts of living things have in common. This even reaches...
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