| Friday, July 16th, 2010 |
| 3:01 pm |
Whale Necropsy
My friend Steve is hoping this will "go viral" to bring attention to a cetacean crisis in New Zealand. It's interesting to see, but not for the faint of heart/stomach if you're grossed out by internal organs and such. Whale strandings are a strange phenomenon... are they caused by confusion, suicide, or something else entirely? http://www.youtube.com/user/skullandbonesnz#p/u/0/8mwgHK5jbVw |
| Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 |
| 11:53 am |
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| Monday, June 14th, 2010 |
| 8:24 pm |
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| Friday, June 4th, 2010 |
| 7:01 pm |
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| Wednesday, April 7th, 2010 |
| 3:07 pm |
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| Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 |
| 4:08 pm |
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| Monday, March 15th, 2010 |
| 9:41 pm |
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| Thursday, January 7th, 2010 |
| 10:00 am |
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| Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 |
| 12:59 pm |
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| Saturday, November 28th, 2009 |
| 10:14 am |
blind mice
When I was on jury duty, one of my fellow jurors was a lab tech at USC working on a very impressive project. They use a mouse model to study a genetic condition that causes the photoreceptors (rods and cones) in the retina to degenerate. Where it gets fascinating is that they are able to inject a virus into the cells just below the photoreceptors... this virus inserts a gene for a bacteria opsin photopigment, making these other cells now respond to light... so it's really an "eyesight to the blind" gene therapy in vivo. Apparently, this technique of adding opsins via a virus has been used before in neuroscience to make light-activated neurons in other parts of the body, like the hippocampus, as well. We live in interesting times. |
| Monday, November 16th, 2009 |
| 5:53 pm |
I am Number Six
That is, I am juror number six, unless I get dismissed tomorrow (we're still in the selection process, but I made the first cut). The LA superior court blocks livejournal and facebook, though, so I won't be liveblogging it. I like doing my civic duty, but this is a crappy time for it. Sigh. |
| Sunday, November 8th, 2009 |
| 10:45 am |
Overproduction of PhDs and the Cultural Hostility to Academics
As Bioephemera notes (short), This article (long) makes some interesting points about graduate education, academic self-propagation, and related topics. It's a bit dry, but an interesting read... in addition to the point about academic inbreeding leading to this disconnect with the rest of the world, there's also a lot about the fact that we're training lots of specialist PhDs that won't end up working in their fields. |
| Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 |
| 10:43 am |
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| Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 |
| 9:47 pm |
xkcd explained
If you need this you probably shouldn't be reading xkcd in the first place. |
| Monday, November 2nd, 2009 |
| 12:04 pm |
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| Sunday, November 1st, 2009 |
| 1:18 pm |
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| Saturday, October 31st, 2009 |
| 2:49 pm |
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| Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 |
| 7:55 pm |
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| Thursday, October 8th, 2009 |
| 3:19 pm |
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| 12:15 pm |
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montyy0's journal
