Our recovering diabetic is not having a good weekend. She’s licking and chewing on her back legs until they’re raw. But if we gave her steroids to deal with those problems, we could send her pancreas into a tailspin. So we’re stuck with the bad fashion statement and letting her back leg heal over the…
You have it, I have it. Many viruses are based on it. It’s RNA, which stands for ribonucleic acid. It’s DNA’s chemical cousin with just a few slight differences. While DNA serves as life’s genetic blueprint. RNA is more of a multitasker. DNA stores information in a kind of vault, and the cell makes RNA-based…
Is talking to enthusiastic scientists with a story to tell. When I was at the AMNH Extreme Mammals preview on Tuesday, I talked with Natalia Rybczynski of the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, one of the scientists who discovered this fossil, Puijila darwini. It’s an exciting find: a pre-pinniped (pinnipeds are a group of…
It’s Havidol— the cure for all that ails modern society! Though it looks like a real ad, it’s actually Justine Cooper‘s art, a whole campaign that’s a fascinating commentary on direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising. Yes, we all want to feel our best, and we’d love it if a pill could do that for us. Justine spoke…
I’ve been making the rounds of interesting New York City science events this week. Yesterday morning– along with a bunch of other journalists– I got a preview of the American Museum of Natural History‘s Extreme Mammals exhibition, which opens on Saturday, May 16. Walking through the exhibit, it’s interesting to think about what we consider…
Last night I realized how long it’s been since I last folded a paper crane. The documentary, Between the Folds, allows origami to explode into this beautiful world of artistic creations and amazing patterns and complexity driven by algorithms– sequences of mathematical instructions– ranging from simple to astronomically complex. The funny thing is that on…
Did you know that rats laugh when you tickle them? (I learn all sorts of interesting things from living with an animal behavior guy). Not only that, they vary the intensity of their laugh response depending on their level of enjoyment. Humans can’t pick up these high pitched giggles and guffaws without a bat-range listening…
Okay, so I’m officially geeking out with a new idea for a regular blog feature. But here it is, Molecule of the Week! What you see before you is a ball and stick model of oseltamivir, the drug Tamiflu, your friendly neighborhood antiviral drug for influenza, including H1N1. How does this bad boy work? Flu…
As swine flu concern seems to be simmering down a little, I want to highlight some of the interesting stories about science that should make a difference in infectious disease science, whether H1N1 turns out to be the next dangerous pandemic or not. 1. Why is the flu seasonal? Honestly, I was thinking about this…