It’s made the news a couple of years ago–researchers at the University of Minnesota “created a beating heart in the laboratory“. Basically, they used the protein fiber matrix from one heart, stripped of muscle cells, as a scaffold upon which to grow a new heart, using a solution of cells from another rat. Since it …
Category Archive: From the old blog
Feb 04 2012
What Do Women Want? (Another Biology Valentine)
Because it’s February, another from the old blog: In this past Sunday’s [note--this is from late January 2009] New York Times Magazine, Daniel Bergner reports on a number of modern sexologists who have set out to explore what Freud once termed the “dark continent” of female sexuality. This is no brief article, but a detailed …
Feb 03 2012
A Scientific Valentine
…Because, despite everything I try, it remains February. I write today of human love Not as some gift from god above, But scientific views thereof From many different fields. Each science may have different tools, And so the scientific schools, Although they may agree on rules, Have very different yields. The chemists say it’s chemistry; …
Feb 02 2012
The Evolutionary Biology Valentine
This one made it to The Open Laboratory one year, but has yet to show up in a Hallmark card. In sociobiology, Why I love you and you love me— Which anyone can plainly see— Is mostly in our genes. No, not the ones you buy in stores, But what a scientist explores– I like …
Feb 02 2012
Science Of Love (A Valentine)
It’s February, and I’m already getting searches for various sorts of scientific valentines. So as a public service, I’m gonna be re-posting several of my favorites from previous years. These are not anti-love or anti-science, but you could call them anti-reductionist. Love is not something that chemicals do, it’s something that we do. When science …
Jan 16 2012
Today Is Religious Freedom Day
…and for those of you named Peter Palumbo, this post is an illustration of why Freedom of Religion must also necessarily be Freedom from Religion. The cross on the hill was a beautiful sight On the days when the sky was most bluish; It stood for the soldiers who gave up their lives Well, except …
Jan 15 2012
Football, With God On Our Side
Yeah, technically it’s a Super Bowl song, but after last night’s game, I just couldn’t help it. Oh, the workouts are nothin’ And the wind sprints are less We don’t even practice We think that it’s best Cos practice means nothing I’m forced to confide— But we’ll win big on Sunday With God on our …
Jan 14 2012
The Power Of Burgers
This week, David Letterman welcomed New York City’s new Steak ‘n Shake; quite possibly, the one person most thrilled by this is a man who can no longer eat. (after the jump:)
Jan 10 2012
Am I Published In India?
Ok, I need some information. Do I have any readers in India? My stats say no, but a couple of recent search terms and an email have got me thinking. More after the jump:
Dec 31 2011
2011 Psychic Prediction Scorecard
It is traditional, at the end of the year, to revisit the predictions made at the beginning of that year. I did my best, last January, to view the future, but it didn’t turn out quite as expected:
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