Word of the week: Lordosis

Lordosis behavior is a sexual response during estrus in certain female animals, such as mice and cats, that consists of a downwards arching of the spine. Lordosis aids in copulation, as it elevates the female genitals so the male can more easily mate with the female. Guess what can stimulate lordosis!

MC Hawking and more...

It occured to me that some of you may not know about this guy! MCHawking is the baddest physics rapper. Sounds lame? The beats are good, and the lyrics are phat:
"Fuck the damn creationists I say it with authority,
because kicking their punk asses be me paramount priority.
Them wack-ass bitches say, "evolution's just a theory",
they best step off, them brainless fools, I'll give them cause to fear me.
The cosmos is expanding every second, every day,
but their minds are shrinking as they close their eyes and pray.
They call their bullshit science like the word could give them cred,
if them bitches be scientists then cap me in the head."

Totally unrelated, but i pulled this gem from slashdot commenting on recent stories about transgenic mice: "so just for the record, we can make super strong fearless immortal mice that can sing, regenerate body parts, sniff out landmines, and have partial human brains. scientists don't mod their computer cases, they mod their mice!"

Genetically engineered man-hoes

Progesterone receptor KO in mouse have been done a long time ago. We know they make infertile females that can't ovulate. But nobody had bothered to take a good look at the males since progesterone is not really our thing. Although their general morphology is normal, these males seem to be sex fiends. PRKOs showed a significantly reduced latency to mount and increased likelihood of achieving ejaculation, increased mount and intromission frequency and decreased latency to intromission. These guys are doing it more and without breaks. So if anyone is interested I've got a stockpile of RU-486 in the freezer for 50$ a pop.

Geeks meet geeks

Seeking romance

#1 I've been single-stranded too long! Lonely ATGCATG would like to pair up
with congenital TACGTAC.

#2 Menage a trois! Ligands seeks two receptors into binding and
mutual phosphorylation. Let's get together and transduce some signals.


#3 Some dates have called me a promotor. Others have referred to me as a
real operator. Personally, I think I'm just a cute piece of DNA who is still
looking for that special transcription factor to help me unwind.


#4 Highly sensitive, orally active small molecule seeks
stable well-structured receptor who knows size isn't everything.


#5 There must be a rational way to meet a date! I'm tired of hanging out in
those molecular diversity bars, hoping to randomly bump into the right
peptide. I want a molecule that will fit right onto my active site and
really turn me on. I'll send you my crystal structure if you send me yours!



#6 Gene therapy graduate. After years of producing nothing but gibberish,
I've shed my exons and ready to express my introns. All I need is a cute
vector to introduce me to the right host.


#7 My RNA, I'm sorry I misread your UAAUAAUAA and inserted three tyrosine's
when you repeatedly asked me to stop. Something got lost in the translation.
Please forgive me.


#8 Naked DNA with sticky ends seeks kanamycin-resistant plasmid. EcoR1 sites
preferred.


#9 Uninhibited virus seeks reason to make me shed my protein coat.


#10 This very selective oligonucleotide has been probing for just the right
target for long-term hybridization.


#11 Mature cells seeks same who still enjoys cycling and won't go apoptotic
on me. Let's fight senescence together!


#12 I'm a prolific progenitor with great potential for growth
and self-renewal. Call me if you're a potent hematopoietic factor who still
believes in endless nights of colony stimulation.


#13. I don't always express myself of the surface, but I'm looking for a
signal that you appreciate my complexity. Send me the right message that
will penetrate my membranes, turn on my protein expression and release my
potential energy.

Nature Comics

Finally Nature has released its first online comic book! Check out issue #1, Adventures in Synthetic Biology.

U2 IA?

IA updates. Sounds like it is going on bit of an early xmas break. check out the geek novels, I'm 13 for 20.
And this Friday its all day U2 in the bay in honour of the concert.

Podcasting and more...

I've been listening to Nature podcasts for a little while now and have to say they are actually quite entertaining... From the same bunch of people at Cambridge comes the nakedscientist podcasts, that make the 30-40 min bus ride more bearable. They also freelance artcles such as this one which havea good dose of british humour.

Hallowe'en

Pictures from the Hallowe'en party!


Guillaume as Freddy (with Rob laughing his ass off in the background)
Scarriest couple, the dead baby wand was temporarly replaced with a beer bottle
Still smooth with the ladies. Alenko will probably look like that when he's old.
Best costume. Apparently even the fabric is the real deal.
what is the stewardess doing with this massiv geezer? aiiiiight
this pirate prefers shorts
Alenko dedicating his life to God and the Ottawa Senators

microsoft vs linux... according to microsoft

bayblab

Seems like microsoft needs to address linux directly, they quote lots of "3rd party" sources, haven't had alot of time to go through it myself.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/facts/default.mspx

Agriculture the worst mistake ever and why you should eat dirt

I have so far read two chapters of Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel and highly recommend them (I anticipate the rest of the book will also be worth reading). Diamond puts an interesting perspective on human history. Here's a sample of some of his other ideas:

• Why eating dirt might be good for you
• The evil that is agriculture
• The human appetite for mass extermination
  

Translational regulation, Innate immunity

A few recent papers I came across with maybe some implications for understanding translational regulation. Also an interesting one on a new role for a mitochondrial protein in innate immune signalling. Not that I've read them...if anyone does be sure to give me the low-down!

• Regulating Gene Expression through RNA Nuclear Retention. Kannanganattu et al., Cell.
• Higher-Order Substrate Recognition of eIF2α by the RNA-Dependent Protein Kinase PKR. Dar et al., Cell.
• Mechanistic Link between PKR Dimerization, Autophosphorylation, and eIF2α Substrate Recognition. Dever et al., Cell.

• Identification and Characterization of MAVS, a Mitochondrial Antiviral Signaling Protein that Activates NF-κB and IRF3. Seth et al., Cell.

Panda-Dover trial

For those who follow this trial, about whether creationism should be taught in science class you'll get a kick out of this article. It seems that after failing to demonstrate that creationism could be considered a scientific theory, they decided to change the definition of a theory. Under this new definition hopefully flyingspaghettimonsterism will be tought to our children.

Nature Podcasts, RNA Wars and Scary Medicine

• Nature now has a free podcast. Check it out.
• Are microRNAs ancient remnants from an RNA-world arms race? Viruses produce miRNAs to manipulate the host cell during infection. Likewise cells can make miRNAs of their own as an anti-viral defense. The latest findings are reviewed in Molecular Cell.
• Just in time for Halloween - vintage drug ads! Very entertaining in a sci-fi horror kind of way.
  WARNING: SOME IMAGES MAY CAUSE ANXIETY, HALLUCINATIONS AND/OR NIGHTMARES.

Canadian Research at its Best

What can a canadian scientist with depressed rats, a bag of weed and too much time on his hands do? Well publish in JCI! I knew all along that it made your neurons grow man ... oooh cheetos!

Speaking of Evolution...

This paper in PNAS about evolution of antibodies Vs. HIV is dope!

Hot Papers

If you want to check out the most cited papers on a monthly basis check out this site. Always a fun read!

Trivia Night

The new season of Trivia is upon us. I will host the first trivia night on monday Oct 24. Brace yourself for some really geeky questions as usual...

IA updates

uh huh,
IA updates

Cancer stem cells and Drosophila tumour suppressors

• Induction of tumor growth by altered stem-cell asymmetric division in Drosophila melanogaster
• Epithelial cell polarity and proliferation control: links from the Drosophila neoplastic tumor suppressors
• Asymmetric localization and function of cell-fate determinants: a fly’s view
• A cell initiating human acute myeloid leukaemia after transplantation into SCID mice
• Human acute myeloid leukemia is organized as a hierarchy that originates from a primitive hematopoietic cell
• Neural Stem Cells and the Origin of Gliomas
• Stem Cells and Brain Cancer
  
• Isolation of cancer stem cells from adult glioblastoma multiforme
• Cancerous stem cells can arise from pediatric brain tumors
• Prospective identification of tumorigenic breast cancer cells
• Tumour Stem Cells and Drug Resistance
• Multiple Drug Resistance in Cancer Revisited: The Cancer Stem Cell Hypothesis
• A distinct "side population" of cells with high drug efflux capacity in human tumor cells
• Cancer, aging and the optimal tissue design
• The paradox of response and survival in cancer therapeutics

Poker Night

Heads up to the bay crew. It's poker night once again. If you want to lookm like a pro, memorize these hand names. My personal fav, the Motown hand!