Criticism. Essay. Fiction. Science. Weather.
week:
1Eye design, plant solar cells and
the ape squad culture war. 2CloneBeef: coming to a burger near you
and the new (privatized) Space Race 3The story of sixty cell lines
and how they restricted science 4Why'd they have to make it a pyramid again?
and wastewater pays back 5Monkeys, Peanuts and the Science
of Unrequited Love. 6Throwing pieces of metal at a red planet
and "Its all about the Insulin, baby." 7Skate me to the moon with a rat-on-a-stick. 8Man and Machine lay down the boxing gloves,
joining forces to pursue good 9Bobbing for apples in a giant vat of grape flavoring. 10Do you believe in magic? 11Brain scans on the mind. 12Sex with cats, popping caps
and frying cars. 13The Quarterly Review drops Science;
√9 of the best so far. 14Flying on some sun rays. 15No, it's not the return of that new wave band. 16The rate of warming might be at issue,
but the fuel is definitely running out. 17Sleep your way to victory! 18I wonder how many big macs it takes... 19It's all drugs and giant waves this week 20Holy jumping jeans Batman!
That mouse is a knockout! 21They call Alabama the Crimson Tide...
or is it Maine? 22How much smaller than the head of a needle?
Well... a lot.
23Information nation ablation preservation. 24Do you want fries with that test tube burger? 25When weeds don't obey the rules. 26Two Quarters = One Half 27The things you can't see are much scarier. 28Jeepers peepers! 29It all makes so much sense...
except as good science. 30Another nugget of knowledge from the annals
of forgotten phenomena 31Very small birds and very large mountains. 32The hazelnut graham cracker one was nuts! 33Naming the new fruits. 34Gas is up but laptops are down. 3590ways brings the straight dope on a thanksgiving tall tale. 36I rolled em out on the street, but I've never once seen the old fella do the same. 37An alternative to tatooing UPC codes onto animals and an insatiable lust for rhino horn. 38"Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection..." 39Three, it's the magic number. 40Bivalves gone wild off that bubbly. 41If only there had been an experiment
to bring about the end of Edward Teller 42What's that, girl? Timmy's stuck in a well?
Wait, Timmy has Cancer?? 43Neuron fire beat electric spark. 44What do Penguins, Ostriches, and Earwigs have in common? 45Looking far, far away to find what's right here. 46Bringing some science for your valentine. 47What's so special about 2.5 pounds of gray stuff? 48I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow the house in. 49A million bases ain't no thang. 50Do the robots run this motha? Hell Yeah! 51A dormant giant looms in the Pacific Northwest... 52Cheap real estate to anyone who can
hold her breath for six hours a day. 53Like all the best megalomaniacs,
we can make Science all about us. 54Well, That's the long and short of it. 5599 Bottles of Beer on the pharmacy wall. 56Tortoises may move slow, but Orchids are definitely alive. 57Feeling hot! Lava so big the numbers don't stop. 58Attached at the hip. And a few other places as well. 59The swamp, or the savanna. You decide. 60Mom and Dad are fighting! 61The stress of death. 62N.I.M.B.Y. Well ... maybe ... 63I've got a headache this big! 64Attraction. 65Well, That's the long and short of it. 66Rafting through history. 67Before there was science there was unreason. 68Be careful with the weeds. Use them well. 69Climate change will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are. 70Lucy, a public whipping, it could only be ... 71The highs and lows of being high. 72A sign of the times. 73What was that? 74= Poetry 75The Solar System Shuffle 76Biodynamics is not the latest diet plan. 77Pulsatilla vulgaris 78Climate change will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are. A reprise. 79People cannot reason outside their own idiom. 80Soda pop or Ritalin? 81What's really up Kim's sleeve. 82Rolling the dice with molecular biology. 83Food so cheap it won't make you sick. 84In the ether with Einstein. 85Watch out for saturation.
And watch out for 2048. 86The wonderful thing about science is ... ? 87Silent or not, the truth is the truth. 88Playstation 3 or Science Olympiad? Now middle-school kids don't have to choose. 89From watch making to watch repair to Mars. 90We remember when this week seemed but a distant fantasy. 91The end of the quarter is here! 92What would they have done with Photoshop™? 93Modern minds can handle three questions. 94NAND the gardener said, "Let there be quantum tunneling." 95Get off The Pyramid. The traffic is terrible. 96Creeping to a shoreline near you -- neurodiversity. 97Baking soda vs. Baking powder - Scientific Subsitutions 98No jokes about Ice Cube allowed... 99What would your ancestors eat? 100A few rules of thumb for green ones. 101The proof is in the video. 102To those a definition for what life is. 103No, not the Stan Lee creation. 104What would they have done with Photoshop™? 105DNA is nothing but double-sided tape, essentially 106All the colors of the stage. 107Human and a monkey sittin' in a tree,
A-T-G-C-I-N-G.
108Poetic Retrospective
Drinking To A Healthy Heart
Jessica Breland
Let's start this informative article off with some important, but
boring facts on heart disease: 70.1 million people in the United
States suffer from some form of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The
estimated cost of these CVD cases for 2005 is nearly $393.5 billion.
Due to this high cost of treating CVD a huge amount of money is
directed each year towards research into CVD prevention.
If you're still reading this, there is one area of the heart disease
puzzle that is quite interesting and has gotten a lot of media
attention -- alcohol consumption. We've all heard that wine has a
beneficial effect on health, despite the fact that heavy drinking has
been linked to such negative health effects as hypertension, sudden
cardiac death, and liver cancer. I even read that Bay Area rapper
E-40 has switched from his favorite drink, Num Num juice (7-up,
cranberry, and vodka) to wine because he has heart problems. Now I was
willing to let the general public go ignorant, but E-40 without his
Num Num juice is just wrong. So here is my public service
announcement: not only is wine associated with a reduced risk of CVD,
but beer and hard alcohol are too!
An unexplained stronger inverse correlation between alcohol
consumption and CVD seen in those who live in Mediterranean countries
led many researchers to believe that the red wine drank by this
population had a more beneficial effect on CHD than beer or sprits.
Support for this hypothesis stems from the fact that the polyphenols
in red wine have been shown to reduce atherosclerosis in mice by
suppressing vascular endothelial growth factor. Polyphenols are
believed to have a special impact on atherosclerosis due to their
activity in inflammatory processes of blood vessels.
While there are a plethora of studies and newspaper articles
supporting the beneficial aspects of wine, other studies have actually
found wine to be the least effective alcohol in preventing CHD. In
fact, beer has been shown to have a larger antioxidant effect per day
than wine. The grape derived alcohol may also be less beneficial due
to gender. Beer appears to be more helpful with females, whereas wine
seems to have a more beneficial role in males.
The inconsistency of the data on which type of alcohol is most
beneficial in reducing the risk of CHD led a group of researchers to
write a review article on the subject, synthesizing the information
from peer-reviewed publications into one summary of the current story.
What these scientists found, was that while ecological studies
suggest that wine is more effective at preventing CHD than beer or
spirits, the case-control studies don't seem to find that one type of
alcohol is better than another. In fact out, of the 12 case-control
studies, four found that wine was the most beneficial, four found that
beer was the most beneficial, and four found that spirits were the
most beneficial. The fact that the data are so drastically
inconsistent leads to the belief that no type of alcohol is better at
protecting against coronary heart disease than another. So, drink
up!