Home for the weekend

I’m home for the weekend for Easter. Ironic, I know, but my family isn’t really religious at all. This is mostly an excuse to get together, gorge ourselves with delicious food, and play with my twin nephews. They’re one and a half now, and I’m so excited to see them running around like crazy! My parents only live about an hour and a half away, so it’s not really a long trip. Though every time I drive home, I do get to see my favorite sign that tells me I’m getting close:
Wow, thank you, road sign. You know, I’ve considered myself an atheist my entire life, but your gawdy, giant glory on the side of the highway has made me reconsider. Thank you.

I probably shouldn’t be on the computer, since I haven’t really seen my parents in months, but they’re currently enthralled by the Biggest Television Event for Suburban White People Over 50 (aka, the Masters). I played competitive golf in high school, but watching it on TV is torture, ugh. No Mom, I don’t care that blade of grass fell on Tiger’s pants funny and gave him a grass stain. Sigh.

Well, I’m going to go be social and suffer through some golf. As an present, I’ll show you what I’ll see on the sign when I drive back to Purdue:

Every time I pass this I think, “Yes, and I’m currently entering it.”

Mmm, nerds

Dilbert explains it all:
Though I have to say, I’m having a horrible track record with all the computer nerds I’ve dated. I hate to propagate the stereotype, but they’ve all had the emotional capacity of a nematode. Next time I’m aiming for a biologist.

Speaking of nerdiness, here are the classes I’m taking next semester:
– Senior Seminar in Genetics (One hour a week of discussing genetics. Woo?)
– Sex & Evolution (I’ve been dying to take this class since I got here, but it’s only offered every other year. I’m psyched! Why do we have sex? Why do (most) species have two sexes? Weeeee!)
– General Physics 2 (Oh god, so close to being done…Sorry for all you physicists, but it’s just not my thing. Now, if it was Elegant Universe kind of theoretical wacky physics, I’d be all in. But I hate doing nothing but math filled with trick questions, bah!)
– Population Genetics (This may be a mistake. I’m taking this as my “fun” elective…yeah, a 500 level graduate course. Oh boy.)
– Senior Biology Labs (Protein Expression and DNA Sequencing. Still waiting to hear back if I can get out of DNA sequencing, since I just spent a summer doing an independent research project where I was sequencing. I’ll be sad if I have to do it all over again.)
– Honors Thesis Research (Still have to pick my topic with my advisor…there are too many ideas floating around now!)

The masochistic part of me still wanted to TA one of the intro biology labs to get some teaching experience before grad school, but looking at my schedule, that may be a bad idea. I guess it really depends if I get out of that one lab or not. I could still TA in the spring, but I’d sort of like to be able to put teaching experience on my resume for when I’m applying. Any thoughts? Other than the fact that I’m a giant nerd?

Mmm, nerds <3

Dilbert explains it all:
Though I have to say, I’m having a horrible track record with all the computer nerds I’ve dated. I hate to propagate the stereotype, but they’ve all had the emotional capacity of a nematode. Next time I’m aiming for a biologist.

Speaking of nerdiness, here are the classes I’m taking next semester:
– Senior Seminar in Genetics (One hour a week of discussing genetics. Woo?)
– Sex & Evolution (I’ve been dying to take this class since I got here, but it’s only offered every other year. I’m psyched! Why do we have sex? Why do (most) species have two sexes? Weeeee!)
– General Physics 2 (Oh god, so close to being done…Sorry for all you physicists, but it’s just not my thing. Now, if it was Elegant Universe kind of theoretical wacky physics, I’d be all in. But I hate doing nothing but math filled with trick questions, bah!)
– Population Genetics (This may be a mistake. I’m taking this as my “fun” elective…yeah, a 500 level graduate course. Oh boy.)
– Senior Biology Labs (Protein Expression and DNA Sequencing. Still waiting to hear back if I can get out of DNA sequencing, since I just spent a summer doing an independent research project where I was sequencing. I’ll be sad if I have to do it all over again.)
– Honors Thesis Research (Still have to pick my topic with my advisor…there are too many ideas floating around now!)

The masochistic part of me still wanted to TA one of the intro biology labs to get some teaching experience before grad school, but looking at my schedule, that may be a bad idea. I guess it really depends if I get out of that one lab or not. I could still TA in the spring, but I’d sort of like to be able to put teaching experience on my resume for when I’m applying. Any thoughts? Other than the fact that I’m a giant nerd?

Sperm Bank Sued for Supplying Bad Sperm

I don’t have any professional training in ethics or law, but I can tell this is sure going to open up a can of worms. A 13 year old girl with Fragile X syndrome, which can lead to varying degrees of learning disability, is suing a sperm bank under product liability law. The sperm she was conceived with, which her mother bought from the bank in question, carried the genetic disorder (genetically, it’s fairly easy to show it didn’t come from mom).

“Donovan does not have to show that Idant was negligent, only that the sperm it provided was unsafe and caused injury. “It doesn’t matter how much care was taken,” says Daniel Thistle, the lawyer representing Donovan, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.”

According to Wikipedia (which we know is infallible), sperm donors may be subjected to various levels of genetic testing. Does anyone know if there are laws requiring them to test for certain disorders? I’d imagine some would be a good idea to test for, especially if they’re dominantly inherited and late-onset like Huntington’s*. Most recessive alleles are rare enough that there’s not as much reason to test – that is, the odds of two random people carrying the same allele is incredibly low. At first glance you may think it’s a good idea to hold sperm banks responsible for testing. I mean, you’re selling a product, and you don’t want to give someone a horrible disease, right?

Well, things aren’t as simple as they seem. No two sperm are identical, and errors do occur. A single point mutation that occurs at extremely high rates is the cause of the most common form of dwarfism. A one in a million occurrence isn’t going to show up in any sort of genetic testing you may do on a semen sample. The same holds true for any sort of disorder that results from aberrant chromosome number (Down Syndrome, Klinefelter’s Syndrome, etc).

Even family history can’t always alert us to a problem. This girl’s situation is the perfect example. Fragile-X is a dominant X-linked disorder, so you should be able to see it in males, right? Well, not exactly. Fragile-X is caused by having too many trinucleotide repeats, much like Huntington’s. Trinucleotide repeats like to do this thing called genetic anticipation, where in every generation they expand and make more and more copies. So while daddy’s repeat number (and all of his family members’) may be in the “normal” range, after expansion, there may be enough repeats to cause the syndrome. The number can also vary from sperm to sperm, so there’s no good way to test this.

So you can see why if she wins, this is going to set a scary precedent. Sperm banks can screen like crazy, but there’s always the possibility of getting some bad sperm. It’s ridiculous to think you can sue them because something turns out wrong. Anyone who’s ever reproduced is taking that same risk. In fact, it’s probably lower because most people don’t do genetic screening unless there’s reason to be afraid. Sperm bank sperm is probably a safer bet than your man. So, should you be able to sue your spouse for providing bad genetic material? I certainly don’t think so, but who knows…maybe the ensuing paranoia over reproducing would help fight our overpopulation problem.

Let’s hope the judge on this case has some basic understanding of genetics.

*Of course, then you get into the whole ethical debate about whether or not to notify the donor or his children if he does have Huntington’s…but that’s a whole other issue.

Do not date a scientist

Unless you weren’t convinced by xkcd the first time:I laugh, but then I remember the time during field work when my professor found a rattle snake eating one of our study organisms, and he poked the snake with a foot long ruler until it barfed it up to check if it had ear tags or not. In the name of science! (I at least got cool photos out of the deal)

I promise I’ll try not to link to SMBC every day, but it’s a little too amazing for me to control myself.

Texas legislator asks Asians to change their names…

…so that they are “easier for Americans to deal with.” Um, what? I think these quotations speak for themselves:

Brown suggested that Asian-Americans should find a way to make their names more accessible.

“Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?” Brown said.

I may be wrong, but I thought the way we used to make immigrants change their names to calm our xenophobic fears was now viewed as Not A Very Cool Idea. I think Brown might have missed the memo somewhere. But really, do you need to be fluent in a language to say someone’s name? How would she feel if she lived in China and was forced to change her name to something more Chinese? I’m no mind reader, but I’m going to guess she wouldn’t be thrilled.

You know, I’m sure this was just some dumb thing she said. She’s probably apologized already.

Brown spokesman Jordan Berry said Brown was not making a racially motivated comment but was trying to resolve an identification problem. Berry said Democrats are trying to blow Brown’s comments out of proportion because polls show most voters support requiring identification for voting. Berry said the Democrats are using racial rhetoric to inflame partisan feelings against the bill.

“They want this to just be about race,” Berry said.

Orrrr she can just refuse to admit she said anything wrong. That’s cool. What the hell?

How does she not think singling out Asians is a problem? There are plenty of European names that are hard to pronounce. Are we going to put a limit on how many consonants can appear in a row without a vowel? Watch out, Polish people! Or how about silent letters? I guess I’ll be deleting half of my last name, damn those Irish! Thank you, Betty Brown, for coming up with standards over what’s an acceptable American name and what isn’t.

Indiana Atheist Bus Campaign

Many of you are probably getting tired of hearing about all the different atheist bus campaigns, but since I’m helping with this one, you get to hear one more. Indiana is trying to get its own bus campaign started, mainly focusing on big cities and college campuses. If you’ve never been to Indiana, most of the stereotypes you’ve heard about it are probably true. Outside of Indianapolis and the Chicago suburbs (yes, we have those) it’s a extremely conservative and religious state. To name just a few annoying examples, we have blue laws prohibiting the sale of alcohol on Sunday and this is one of our default license plates:
Various groups including the ACLU have been trying to fight the license plate to no avail, so what better way to counter it than to put our own ads on motor vehicles? Not to mention there are already religious ads running on the buses that service Purdue and the surrounding area. Campus Crusade for Christ has had an ad for years, and just recently the Creation Museum has one too. Don’t ask me what the heck they’re doing advertising up here.

The fun part? The cost to get a full bus painted for a year ($1250) is the same as getting a dinky side ad for 8 months. I have no idea why, but wouldn’t it be awesome to have something like this driving around your town?

Well, but snazzier looking. I have limited Photoshop skills.

So, if you want to help inject a bit of secularism into Indiana, please spread the word, or even better, donate to the cause. Big hat tip to the Secular Alliance of IU, who are the masterminds behind this project. I’m but a mere Purdue liaison.

Evolution 09, here I come!

I just found out that I was accepted for the Undergraduate Diversity Program for the Evolution 2009 conference. Woohoo! They’re going to cover my registration fees/travel costs/etc so I can attend and present my poster, along with 14 other individuals. This is a pretty big conference (and I’m a huge evolution nerd), so I’m really excited! Hopefully this helps me figure out what I want to do for grad school, since that’s approaching quickly.

Though I sort of wonder what “diversity” aspect got me in. Is it because I’m female, or because I’m an atheist? Not too sure if “atheist” is in the minority at an evolution conference, ha. Well, I do participate in a lot of diversity-related clubs and stuff, so I’m going to tell myself it was the whole package.

Idaho*, here I come!

*Seriously, first Nebraska, and now Idaho? I’m not quite sure how you biologists pick your conference locations.

College is a random place

I’m out of insightful things to say at the moment, so I’ll leave you with this this scary photo I took with my phone’s camera today (pardon the crappy quality):
In case you can’t tell, that’s a deer head. In a tree. WTF? This is in the yard of the house across from my apartment complex. I walk past this location every day on my way to class, but I never noticed it until now. I usually take a different path back, so I had only seen it from its nubby behind which I guess just looked like a branch. I wonder how long this creepy thing has been watching me, gah!

College, the only* place where you can find taxidermied animal heads in trees!

*I hope.

Holy Pharyngula Effect, Batman!

So last night after midnight I checked my Google Analytics page like I compulsively do every night (I have a weird thing for data…mmm, data!). I thought I’d have a couple more hits since my book review seemed to be fairly popular. I was getting about 100 a day, then 500 the day Pharyngula linked to me about the urban dictionary entry. I was thinking maybe it would be 800 now or something.

Holy shit.

10,000 hits yesterday! I went from 20 sites referring to my blog to 155. What the hell? I totally didn’t expect that to happen. I honestly thought the only people who’d read that post were my friends who had been listening to me whine about the book while I was reading it. Especially since it was so gigantic, and most internet people scream “tl;dr” at anything more than three paragraphs. Hell, I wasn’t even trying to be funny. I just needed to rant in my ranty way, which apparently is amusing?

Wow. Well…uh, hello random internet people!

The only scary part is that 90% of the Google searches that led people here involved the now infamous phrase “gobbler of whangs.” I’m not so sure how I feel being so closely associated with that…hmmm…

Friend: you’re close to being a D-list internet celebrity now
Me: yay

Me: I’m terrified that when the author finds my review, he’s going to email me crying and threatening to kill himself or something
Friend: If he does, post it!