One of the boys meets reality show

I was sure by now they would've ran out of ideas for new reality shows. Can it go lower than extreme facial reconstruction home edition or who wants to mary paris hilton's dog. Yes it can! In this new reality show contestants fight to be sperm donors. In other news, shares of nivea moisturizer have tripled.

really really small genome

The smallest genome award goes to Mycoplasma genitalium, the "other" mycobacteria that gets passed around the lab. But it is an obligatory parasite. Well now our pal Craig Venter has sequenced the smallest genome for a self-sufficient bacteria. This little ocean bug named Pelagibacter ubique ("ubiquitous sea bacteria", how original), has no gene copies, no junk and a genome so streamlined it minimizes the amount of nitrogen used for replication. At just 1354 genes, its so small, so so small.

Nano-camel-bodies

Ablynx is a biotech startup exploiting naturally occuring camel antibodies that consist solely of heavy chains, and therefore offer several potential advantages as therapeutics. Scientific American has a quality story on the sci-biz of these "NANOBODIES". The company was launched through the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology in Belgium. They seem to have a pretty slick research setup aimed at launching new biotech.

In vitro steaks

Following the usual lunch conversation on the subject of growing chicken wings in TC, its seems someone was listening in. Imagine having a machine at home that could grow any meat you'd want. Finally my dream of enjoying a panda burger could become reality. check out this paper in tissue engineering.

IA updates

yeah.
IA updates

Check out conferences without leaving your bench

I just came across this sweet Nature News blog collection. Day by day accounts from attendees of scientific conferences around the world. Definitely worth checking out.

One for the boys

Check it out: The Secret Life of Sperm.

A.K.A. Chris Lemieux

Paintball was fun!

Lock and load!
Plaid camouflage. That's so 90s.

I'd make a witty fashion comment, but I'm too scared to mess with this guy...

Nothin' like a shot to the kisser to start things off...

Defending his M.Sc. thesis - "Guerilla warfare tactics for Eastern Ontario farm fields"...can you spot the Tang?


"I shot you!" - "I shot you first!"- "No I did!" Either way - you're both dead.
Don't mess with team Edge...

It sure was fun to finally get out of the lab and shoot guns at each other!

Zero casualties incurred. Minor collateral damage.

Victory for the Union of Concerned Scientists

Last week—after several years of pressure from the Union of Concerned Scientists and the coalition group Keep Antibiotics Working (KAW)—the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made history by banning the use of the animal-antibiotic Baytril in poultry due to worries about the increase in antibiotic-resistant infections in people. This action marks the first time the FDA has withdrawn an agricultural antibiotic from the market because of concerns about antibiotic resistance affecting human health. Baytril is a fluoroquinolone antibiotic, much like the commonly used human antibiotic Cipro.

From the immunologists trying to be cool department

Check out the spin on this article about Licensing of natural killer cells by host major histocompatibility complex class I molecules. This is priceless: "Scientists have discovered that a group of important immune system cells has a surprising resemblance to cinematic British superspy James Bond: the cells receive a "license" that allows them to unleash their most potent attacks on enemies". In other news, we still haven't defeated "Dr. Evil" with our anti-cancer compounds. Allright back to work.

Pikey

Listening to RP I heard a jingle from 'Snatch' the movie.
Checked it out, it's definitely Pikey not Parkie (definition 5)
Crazy. SIlly brits

Faster Sequencing

Sweet new sequencing method 100 times faster than current Sanger-based technology. One machine-person team does adenovirus genome in a day and human genome in 100.