They Say Sin Began With the Bite of an Apple.

And thus I have traversed to the dark side. I bought my first Mac. A 2.53 GHz Macbook Pro with a 13" screen, 4 GB memory, and 250 hard drive. (Yes, I was originally planning to go for the 320GB hard drive, but I figured I could just buy an external hard drive later to store old pictures and documents)
It also came with an 8GB iPod Touch, which, after 20 tense minutes, Ryan was able to coax to life.

So far I love it. It is small, light, fast, and efficient. I am still adjusting to the keyboard and controls though.



It is by no means a top-of-the-line Mac, but I expect it to last me for the next four years. I bought it a month sooner then I expected due to my current PC slowly becoming a worthless pile of circuit boards. I'm keeping it as a back up computer for those times when I really need a PC, but other then that, it is retired. Tomorrow I will start transferring files and pictures to the new computer, specifically all my lab notes and class lectures/presentations. This awesome computer will be overflowing with science!

Lest We Forget...

Darth Vader Toaster

If you're stopping by San Diego's comic con this year, be sure to pick up one of these to spice up your carbs:

Bing Fail

*sigh*
This is an example of why Bing.com is a bad idea.



Sorry Microsoft.
At least it isn't Vista.

White Tiger

Six months ago a stripless, pure white Bengal tiger was born in an African zoo. Both her parents carry the gene for white coloring. Zookeepers suspected stripes would develop within six months, but so far the cub remains without stripes. Such tigers are not known to current exist in the wild.

Sewer Blobs from Outer Space?

Or North Carolina.



Found during a sewer inspection in North Caroline, there was initial debate over whether these were bryozoans or tubifex worms. Most scientists agree now that they are tubifex worms, unless you are Sally Kern, who probably thinks this is a part of the homosexual agenda.

Here are more tubifax worms:


Aren't they adorable?

Bleeding Billboard

In response to an alarming highway death toll, the country of New Zealand decided to take action by posting bleeding billboards.
Creepy? Hell yes.
But also effective. There hasn't been a accident-related fatality in area since their posting.

Science Blurbs

News!

Vaccine
- Queensland Institute of Medical Research scientists are in the final stages of developing a vaccine for Group A Streptococcus (GAS) bacteria. Group A Strep, pictured on the right, is the cause of those annoying strep throat infections, as well as rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease. A successful GAS vaccine would greatly increase the public health. Good luck QIMR researchers, may we see your vaccine soon!
Learn more @ http://www.qimr.edu.au/news/2009/articles/strepvacc.html


Physics & Astronomy
- The world of physics is buzzing with the discovery of an outburst of "very high energy" (VHE) gamma radiation from the galaxy Messier 87, also known as M 87. The VHE gamma radiation burst was accompanied by a strong rise of the radio flux measured from the direct vicinity of its super-massive black hole. The gamma rays have energies a trillion times higher than the energy of visible light. An international collaboration of 390 scientists detected and reported the events, using three arrays of 12-meter to 17-meter telescopes to detect the gamma rays and the Very Long Baseline Array, which detects radio waves with high precision.
M 87 is 50 million light-years from Earth and contains a super-massive black hole that is more than six billion times more massive than our Sun.
Learn more @ http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/pinpointing-origin-gamma-rays-supermassive-black-hole-22754.html
http://veritas.sao.arizona.edu/
http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/vlba-locates-superenergetic-bursts-near-giant-black-hole-22755.html

- Sometimes laws fail us, even in physics. Dr Tony Roberts and PhD student Christophe P. Haynes have shown that the fractal-Einstein and Alexander-Orbach laws can fail in some instances. Don't panic though; they derived a new law to replace them.
The laws are used to describe how particles diffuse in complex environments, which affects big scientific questions. Dr Roberts said particles in diffuse in complex environments in much the same way and choose the easiest path. Thus their spread was not uniform, as the old laws predicted.
Enjoy the science @ http://www.physorg.com/news166077673.html

- Leiden theoretical physicists have used string theory to describe a physical phenomenon, something which has never been done before. Despite the theory's popularity, this is the first time that a calculation based on string theory has been published in Science. The calculation may even reveal more information on high temperature super-conductivity.
Boggle your mind @ http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/physical-reality-string-theory-demonstrated-22774.html

Medicine
- Dr. Anatolij Horuzsko, a reproductive immunologist at the MCG Center for Molecular Chaperone/Radiobiology and Cancer Virology, has developed degradable microparticles which deliver the most powerful known form of HLA-G (a natural suppressor of the immune response) straight to dendritic cells. Dendritic cells usually tell the immune system to attack a new organ after a transplant, which leads to severe complications. Dr. Horuzsko's microparticles suppress the dendritic cells, which makes the immune system ignore the organ. This is a significant improvement over current anti-rejection medications and offers a specific tolerance.
Learn more @ http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-07/mcog-mc070609.php

- Losing your mind? Drink some coffee. Various new studies show that caffeine lowers the abnormal levels of a protein linked to Alzheimer's disease. 500 mg of caffeine boosts the memory of Alzheimer to the same level of non-Alzheimer. It did not, however, increase the memory of non-Alzheimer mice.
Check it out @ http://www.j-alz.com/
http://www.physorg.com/news166078859.html

- Proton pump inhibitors (PPI) have proven to be quite successful in treating acid reflux, but new recearch indicates that a few months of prescription level PPIs can lead to a dependency. 44% of people in the study reported at least one acid-related symptom 9 to 12 weeks after stopping the PPI treatment, compared to 15% in a placebo group.
Learn more @ http://www.webmd.com/heartburn-gerd/news/20090702/stopping-ppis-causes-acid-reflux-symptoms?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Biology
- By comparing the genes of slow growing abalone to those of fast growing abalone, the aquaculture industry hope to profit by creating a super-sized abalone. To learn more about the economical biology, go to http://www.physorg.com/news166078595.html

- Dopamine and serotonin are well known neurotransmitters which affect mood. Now MIT researchers, studying the little round worms known as Caenorhabditis elegans, have found that chloride channel receptors open and close quickly in response to the binding of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine. Researchers hope that these channels may become new targets for neuropsychiatric disorders, such as depression.
Cheer up @ http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/mit-researchers-find-new-actions-neurochemicals-22756.html

Geology
- University of Washington researcher are in the process of putting 200 seismometers in the Olympic Peninsula. They are designed to zero in on tiny tremors which may indicate disastrous earthquakes.

Cancerous Mondays

Nobody likes Mondays. Here is some cancer news to lift your mood.

Because I am a lab geek, the lab geeky news comes first: John Hopkin's cancer experts have developed a successful 3-way combination to better predict the return of prostate cancer. This method examines "the length of time it takes for PSA (prostate-specific antigen) to double, Gleason score (a numeric indicator of prostate cancer aggressiveness as seen under the microscope), and the interval between surgical removal of the prostate and the first detectable PSA level."
The combination of these three measurements accurately estimates return cancer risk more accurately then any currently known method.
To learn more about the study which developed the method, go to:
http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/predicting-return-prostate-cancer-new-johns-hopkins-study-betters-odds-success-22748.html

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center researchers have uncovered genetic variables which aid lung cancer's ability to quickly metastasize. To blame is a hyperactive WNT cellular pathway, which is surprisingly the same cellular pathway colorectal cancers use. Tumor-initiating mutations in the genes KRAS and EGFR depend on a hyperactive WNT pathway, as well as the genes HOXB9 and LEF.
For more information, go to:
http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/research-reveals-what-drives-lung-cancers-spread-22751.html

Georgetown University Medical Center researchers has developed a drug which blocks the activity of the fusion protein responsible for Ewing's sarcoma. Today, most small molecule cancer drugs inhibit the intrinsic activity of a single protein. This drug take a different approach, by stopping two proteins from interacting. Because scientists have never been done before with a cancer-causing fusion protein, they hope to have a novel medical therapy in the future.
Learn more @ http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/gumc-discovery-highlights-new-direction-drug-discovery-22765.html

Lets face it: Leukemia is a bitch. Acute myeloid leukemia is even worse. Fortunately, there's hope. Dr. John Dick of the Ontario Cancer Institute, along with many other researchers from various nations, has developed a leukemia therapy which targets the protein CD123 on cancer stem cells which drive AML. This treatment is the first anti-cancer monoclonal antibody therapy that specifically targets cancer stem cells. Part of the therapy's success is that it targets the cancerous stem cells themselves, which are chemo-resistant and responsible for AML recurrence.
Enjoy the science @ http://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/abstract/S1934-5909(09)00207-0
http://www.physorg.com/news166096568.html

A new breakthrough in melanoma research was made by scientists at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research. They discovered two new genes which together double a person's melanoma risk. Alone, either gene carries a 25% increased risk. With 10,000 people diagnosed each year, Australia has the highest occurrence of melanoma in the world. In Queensland, an average of 7 people per day with this deadly skin cancer.
Follow the excitement @ http://www.qimr.edu.au/
http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/australian-researchers-identify-genes-cause-melanoma-22777.html

Underground Lair

Every nerd has long dreamed of having a secret, underground lair.
Sanford Laboratory scientists have one. Well, half of one, which is due to be completed by 2016. An awesome, Umbrella-Corporationesque lab dedicated to dark matter research is located 8000 feet underneath South Dakota mountains. Since any interfering radiation disrupts dark matter, scientists claim an underground lab is an ideal studying environment.
But we know the truth. They just want their own underground lair. ^_^


Enjoy the Science @ http://io9.com/5301462/dark-matter-lab-dedicated-5000-feet-underground
And @: http://www.lbl.gov/nsd/homestake/

And a Few Thoughts Before I Go

I leave on a 12 hour ferry ride tonight to go celebrate Fourth of July with family, so I will be offline for the weekend. I know you'll miss me, but here is some news to keep you company on those long, lonely nights.

- Little kids know to fear two things: needles and ear infections. (Why? Because they hurt.) Good news for the little ones though: new research is paving the way for a vaccine for Otitis media. Not only that, it's completely needle free! Dr. Lauren Bakaletz, (director of the Center for Microbial Pathogenesis in The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital) is working in collaboration with John Clements (Tulane University School of Medicine) to develop the droplet vaccine, which has already had successful trial on chinchillas.
Learn how it works @ http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090630220515.htm

- Scientists have uncovered potential hope in Alzheimer medication development. They discovered evidence that a cluster of peptides may be responsible for the devastating disease. The peptide, Amyloid Beta 42, is part of the Amyloid Precursor Protein. It grows to form six unit rings, a pair of which is called a "dodecamer," which over time may rearrange itself into B-sheet structures. These B-sheets lead to the fibrils that form brain plaque, a tell-tale sign of Alzheimers and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Learn more @ http://www.physorg.com/news165687229.html

- Alheimer's patients have even more reason to rejoice, as researchers at the University of South Florida and James A. Haley Hospital have discovered a link between memory decline and blood stem cell growth factor. Granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (GCSF) is responsible for stimulating blood stem cell growth in the bone marrow. New evidence indicates that it also seems to reverse memory impairment.
Don't forget to check it out @ http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/blood-stem-cell-growth-factor-reverses-memory-decline-mice-22743.html
And @ http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090701160557.htm

- While some researchers are playing with peptides, or stimulating growth factors, Sanford researchers are looking for genes related to schizophrenia. Some diseases, such as Huntingtons, can be traced to a single genetic defect. Schizophrenia is difficult because it is believed to involve various interactions among a multitude of genes. But modern technology has finally pinpointed schizophrenia to a specific chromosomal region.
Follow the maddness @ http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090701131309.htm

- Do you love playing in the sun, but fear the deadly wrath of melanoma? Well, with a death toll of nearly 50000 a year, no wonder you're afraid. Hope is right over the horizon though, in the form of a knight in shining armor known as: Herpes!
What?
It sounds like a pretty grim decision - herpes or skin cancer - but researchers are using a modified type of herpes virus in the fight against melanoma. Known as viral-gene therapy, they inject the virus into the tumor to kill it. So far, the results are fairly mixed, and the procedue is still undergoing clinical trials.
Learn more @ http://www.physorg.com/news165687558.html

- Our poor DNA undergoes so much abuse throughout our life that it has developed an impressive repair system, which even goes as far as telling the cell to commit suicide if it cannot fix the damage. This unique biochemical system holds hope for cancer researchers who hope to learn the secret behind these suicide signals and apply it cancer cells, limiting their reproduction and growth.
To learn more about DNA repair, go to http://www.physorg.com/news165692290.html

- While we know that antibiotics disrupt our normal civilization of internal microbes, University of Michigan scientists are studying the extent of the disruption, and finding that it may take up to weeks before our internal microbes return to normal.
Enjoy the science @ http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090618170026.htm

American Athiest Fever continues

Late last night/early this morning I blogged about the New York atheists put an ad on 20 NYC buses claiming that "You don't need to believe in God to be a moral or ethical person."
While the ad has no doubt ruffled a few feathers, I doubt it received the amount of negative attention that its Florida counterpart, a billboard reading "Being a good person doesn't require God. Don't believe in God? You're not alone."
The billboard, posted by Free Thought Flordia, has received numerous complains and protests by those who claim the billboard is offensive to Christianity.

I will admit that this sign seems slightly more blunt then the NYC ads. However, I don't see how it can be offensive. It clearly falls within their freedom of speech. It doesn't bash or target any particular religion. I suspect the majority of the complaints are from the same evangelicals who hate gays and Planned Parenthood.

Astronomy Photo of the Week

A rising cresent Earth, as seen from Apollo 17 command module.

Find more beautiful pictures @ http://www.nasa.gov

Glowing Salamaders

Today Nature magazine is publishing an article led by developmental biologist Elly Tanaka, (from the Center for Regenerative Therapies at the Dresden University of Technology), explaining the mechanics of salamander limb regeneration. Elly Tanaka genetically engineered an axolotl salamander with a green fluorescent protein in all cells of the body, which allowed her to visually trace the fate of cells during regeneration. Her discovery was quite startling and already the science blogging community is buzz with excitement.

Scientists have long observed the salamander's unique ability to regenerate not only limbs, but jaws, skin, and even parts of brain and spinal chord. Scientists originally theorized that regeneration occurs because cells at the amputation site lose their identities and turn back their developmental clocks and become "pluripotent" stem cells (capable of developing into many cell types in the body), which then recreate the lost limb.

This study explains that cells at the amputation site retain memories of their identities and regenerate to form the same type of tissue in the replacement limb. The concept of cellular memory is still wearily approached by scientists and researchers, but in the case of the salamander, it's what makes regeneration possible. It also means that instead of stem cells, the amputated cells simply reproduce more of themselves; muscles grow from muscles, and bones from bones.

Enjoy the science at:

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/45149/description/Salamanders_don%E2%80%99t_regrow_limbs_from_scratch

http://www.conncoll.edu/ccacad/zimmer/GFP-ww/cooluses24.html

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/07/01/a-new-clue-about-salamanders-amazing-regenerating-limbs/

http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre55g50u-us-salamanders/

Lets All Jump on the Atheist Bus!

New York City Atheists, Inc. placed a pro-atheist ad on 20 New York city buses which reads "You don't have to believe in God to be a moral or ethical person."

While I am sure it has stirred up its share of complaints, I like this ad campaign better than last year's atheist ad campaign in England, which stated "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." While London's atheist ad was amusing, it did stir controversy. The New York counterpart is far less contriversial; it doesn't focus on whether or not there is a god. It simply states that you don't need religion to be ethical. No one can deny that this fits within their rights of free speech, and gives encouragement to NYC atheists without (hopefully) drawing too much criticism.

Even Joseph Zwilling, the director of communications for the Archdiocese of New York, claims that the ads are not offensive to the Catholic Church, because of their careful wording.