Tag Archives: Science

All science-related posts

Wednesday Links

Wednesday Links

Welcome to another edition of Wednesday links. As you can see, I have been reading instead of writing. I hope to have some actual original content for you all in the near future. In the meantime, have some links:

The Discovery Institute feels sorry for my students is an excellent smackdown of Intelligent Design and the “cdesign proponentsists” who support it.

Several states are looking into legitimizing Naturopathy through legislation (as opposed to making sure its practitioners know anything about medicine.) Pretty Scary Stuff.

Fayhan al-Gamdi may actually be punished a little more for the brutal murder and rape of his five year old daughter, Lama. The Saudi royal family is shocked! Shocked, I say! Even though activist groups are pointing out that this kind of thing happens all the time.

Ben Hardwidge could give these folks a lesson or two. In Confessions Of A Former Misogynist he explains his mindset as a proud misogynist and the course of his enlightenment. He likens it to escaping from a religious cult, and I think that’s pretty apt.

And The Curious Case of Reeva Steenkamp’s Boyfriend has some food for thought about why we’re so concerned about the perpetrator but not the victim.

In case you’re not tired of women being hurt when they can’t fight back, read this piece by Amanda Marcotte about a woman who died in surgery, so we should abolish surgery.

LISTEN TO THIS FROG!!!

Epigenetics Links

Epigenetics Links

Starting with the easiest one. . .Hank from scishow (subscribe!!) explains epigenetics:

And Scitable, the student section of Nature Online, explains some of the history of the discovery of epigenetics. (Again, subscribe. This is a great place to get free, reputable science information that’s easy to understand.)

Three videos of talks from Harvard graduate students about epigenetic studies in mice. Part 1, part 2, and part 3. They’re a good introduction, but make note that the longevity of the epigenetic effect described turned out to be not quite as promising as they thought it would be back when these were made.

FAQ about the epigenome from the National Human Genome Research Institute.

A good overview, maybe not for an absolute novice, but it comes with pictures: Epigenetics

P. Z. Myers gives an overview from the perspective of a university biology professor.

Jerry Coyne, author of “Why Evolution is True”, has several good posts about it on his blog, here, here, here, here, and here.

ERV gets into some of the more complex aspects of what it is here.

Kevin Mitchell goes into some of the problems surrounding epigenetics and its misunderstanding. Part 1 and part 2.

And, of course, the incomparable Orac both explains what epigenetics is and how it’s not what quacks are telling you it is here. Not only will you understand it better, but you’ll be able to spot the lying liars.

A study on the possible epigenetic changes in twins.

Questions begin to arise about the heritability of environmental epigenetic changes, and whether animal models translate to humans in this study from Nature.

Wednesday Links

Wednesday Links

A collection of photos that show beauty in decay.

Did the ancient Egyptians play Dungeons and Dragons?

Now I’m going to have to learn more about mitochondrial DNA – P.Z. Myers explains why your mother’s mDNA might influence your lifespan.

It looks like the FDA is finally putting the moves on fake cancer doctor Stanislaw Burzynski

But the FDA is powerless right now when it comes to protecting us from other, potentially more dangerous medical threats. Now that Massachusetts has finally gotten its act together and actually inspected its compounding pharmacies, only 4 out of 37 passed.

Greg Laden goes to visit a creationist science fair. At least these kids are homeschooled. Some politicians want us to pay for this kind of education with our tax dollars.

And, finally, OTTERZ!! BAYBEEE OTTERZ!