In weird medical news, researchers have discovered that an extract made from shellfish reduces scarring after certain medical procedures. It’s a gel-like polysaccharide called chitosan, and it’s injected up the nose after sinus operations.
I don’t know what this means for my daily fix of squid goo — either my supply is about to be commodified, or the price is going to go up.
If you’ve been wondering what to do in the aftermath of Cyclone Sidr, the people to watch Chris and Sheril and influential blogger Greg Laden. Some specific information is available here and here, but I’m sure more will be coming up.
It’s mid-November, so it’s time to suggest new inductees into the Order of the Molly. Leave comments in this thread naming your favorite commenters!
We do have a bunch of new people here, but please don’t even dream of nominating any from the influx of wacky denialists — it’ll make me grumpy.
Some people, after seeing the recent Dover documentary (now available online), have been wondering who the heck this Steve Fuller wanker is, and why he’s defending Intelligent Design. Here’s a philosopher to explain Fuller to you. You’ll wish you hadn’t asked.
Enjoy the nice criticism of medical woo.
Sid Schwab takes on the credulity of believers in alternative medicine, like chiropractic.
I used to live on this stuff in the good ol’ days.
Now you can get it on a t-shirt through the University of Texas at Austin School of Biological Sciences. Although, you know, “Texas flavor” does sound like it’s setting up the punchline for a joke.
It’s the week before Thanksgiving. Have you done your Christmas shopping yet?
Deep Sea News recommends a lovely poster. It’s one of those black light posters, so you can have the gaping jaws and needle-like teeth of abyssal predatory fish glowing at you.
Street Anatomy has a list of ten anatomy related gifts…and it’s not the traditional bucket of offal under the tree. Anatomically correct chocolates, brains for cuff links, and the body bags and plush body parts are nice…but the $100 million diamond encrusted skull is a bit over the top. Leave off the superfluous diamonds and just give the gift of bones.
More carnivals, including one that is new to me!
Accretionary Wedge #3 (a geology carnival!)
And we have a new Tangled Bank coming up at From Archaea to Zeaxanthol next Wednesday—send those links to your science articles to me or host@tangledbank.net.
By the way, we’re going to run out of hosts in January, so if you’re interested in hosting, drop me a line to volunteer.
Now say something, anything here in the comments.
The Discovery Institute is spreading misinformation again. They have a document that implies that it would be OK for schools in at least some states to “teach the controversy”, by which they mean that it is alright for teachers to promote Intelligent Design creationism in their classes. I wonder if the DI would also consider themselves liable if any teacher followed their advice, and discovered that they were costing their district an awful lot of money, as in Dover? Somehow, I doubt it.
On the front page of their screed, they quote Charles Darwin: “A fair result can be obtained only by fully balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question.” What they neglect to mention is the importance of that word “balancing”: we have been balancing the arguments, and the scientific side weighs tons while the creationist side is a puff of air. They also omit any mention of facts on their side, because they have none. Darwin’s quote is not advocacy for equal time for nonsense.
We had a seminar from Marco Restani of St Cloud State University yesterday — he’s a wildlife biologist who talked about Tasmanian Devils. Just a little tip: don’t ever invite wildlife biologists or conservation ecologists to give talks. They are the most depressing people in the world, and they really make it hard to hide away from the ugly realities. This talk was no exception: the Tasmanian Devil is in big trouble, and is facing at least two major threats, each of which may be sufficient to wipe them out. And just looke at that guy! He’s adorable! How can you let them go extinct?
