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Adventures in science.
Mutant Dragon
26 posts
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- November 8, 2012
- 04:29 PM
- 204 views
Science on Crack, 5: The science of weed
by Puff the Mutant Dragon in Puff the Mutant Dragon
Of all our country's illegal drugs, cannabis is by far and away the most popular. Depending on where you live, it may not even be illegal for much longer.... Read more »
Grotenhermen, F. (2003) Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of Cannabinoids. Clinical Pharmacokinetics, 42(4), 327-360. DOI: 10.2165/00003088-200342040-00003
- October 7, 2012
- 03:20 PM
- 255 views
Science on Crack, 4: The town that went insane
by Puff the Mutant Dragon in Puff the Mutant Dragon
In August of 1951, a strange epidemic struck the sleepy little town of Pont-Saint-Esprit in France. Over the course of a single day, hundreds of people lost their minds.... Read more »
Torsten Passie1 , John H. Halpern2,3 , Dirk O. Stichtenoth4 , Hinderk M. Emrich1 . (2008) The Pharmacology of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide: A Review. CNS Neuroscience and Therapeutics. DOI: 10.1111/j.1755-5949.2008.00059.x
- September 5, 2012
- 12:05 PM
- 262 views
Science on Crack, 3: When heroin was a drug you gave your children
by Puff the Mutant Dragon in Puff the Mutant Dragon
The strange story of heroin...and why it's so addictive.... Read more »
Elisabeth Rook, Alwin Huitema et al. (2006) Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacokinetic Variability of Heroin and Its Metabolites: A Review of the Literature. Current Clinical Pharmacology. DOI: 10.2174/157488406775268219
- July 23, 2012
- 07:00 PM
- 246 views
Science on crack: the chemistry of illegal drugs, 1
by Puff the Mutant Dragon in Puff the Mutant Dragon
I have a confession to make: I love illegal drugs.... Read more »
Jatlow P. (1988) Cocaine: analysis, pharmacokinetics, and metabolic disposition. The Yale journal of biology and medicine, 61(2), 105-13. PMID: 3043924
- April 8, 2012
- 10:23 PM
- 248 views
Confessions of a Creationist: the making of a serial killer
by Puff the Mutant Dragon in Puff the Mutant Dragon
When I was growing up, my family was deeply religious. (To the best of my knowledge they still are.) They also had some interesting beliefs. We had a book at our house, for example, entitled “Dinosaurs and the Bible”.... Read more »
O'Neal, C. (2005) Structural Basis for the Activation of Cholera Toxin by Human ARF6-GTP. Science, 309(5737), 1093-1096. DOI: 10.1126/science.1113398
- April 8, 2012
- 07:09 PM
- 243 views
The strange sad lives of zombie caterpillars
by Mutant Dragon in Puff the Mutant Dragon
"To me nature is...spiders and bugs, and big fish eating little fish, and plants eating plants, and animals eating...It's like an enormous restaurant, that's the way I see it. -Woody Allen... Read more »
Hoover, K., Grove, M., Gardner, M., Hughes, D., McNeil, J., & Slavicek, J. (2011) A Gene for an Extended Phenotype. Science, 333(6048), 1401-1401. DOI: 10.1126/science.1209199
- March 10, 2012
- 03:56 PM
- 251 views
Dairy queens and human cheese: a strange quirk of human evolution
by Puff the Mutant Dragon in Puff the Mutant Dragon
A couple of years ago, an enterprising New York chef made headlines by serving cheese made from his wife's breast milk. His stunt provoked a swift reaction from the New York Health Department, which didn't seem to find this novelty menu item amusing. Despite his venture's unsuccessful end, a London ice cream parlor tried to imitate him last year by selling a breast-milk-based product.... Read more »
Ingram, C., Mulcare, C., Itan, Y., Thomas, M., & Swallow, D. (2008) Lactose digestion and the evolutionary genetics of lactase persistence. Human Genetics, 124(6), 579-591. DOI: 10.1007/s00439-008-0593-6
- February 25, 2012
- 10:00 PM
- 341 views
Is sugar a threat to national security?
by Mutant Dragon in Puff the Mutant Dragon
Our world is gaining weight. The human population is fatter now than ever before. And if current trends are a reliable guide, in the future we'll be fatter still.... Read more »
Rodero, A., Rodero, L., & Azoubel, R. (2009) Toxicity of Sucralose in Humans: A Review. International Journal of Morphology, 27(1). DOI: 10.4067/S0717-95022009000100040
- February 18, 2012
- 09:27 PM
- 460 views
Why buying recreational drugs online is not a great idea
by Mutant Dragon in Puff the Mutant Dragon
... Read more »
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2012) Severe Methemoglobinemia and Hemolytic Anemia from Aniline Purchased as 2C-E (4-ethyl-2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine), a Recreational Drug, on the Internet - Oregon, 2011. MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report, 85-8. PMID: 22318470
- February 11, 2012
- 03:30 PM
- 315 views
Searching for E.T., III: Arsenic, DNA and alien life
by Mutant Dragon in Puff the Mutant Dragon
For those unfortunate enough to inherit it, sickle cell anemia is a devastating disease. Victims suffer from symptoms like frequent infections, persistent fatigue and bouts of crippling pain. It’s a little surprising to realize all this havoc stems from a single and seemingly minor change in the hemoglobin protein — exchanging one amino acid called glutamate for another called valine. That swap creates a pocket on the surface of the protein that can bind other hemoglobin molecules when oxygen is in short supply.... Read more »
Tackett, A. (2002) Non-Watson-Crick interactions between PNA and DNA inhibit the ATPase activity of bacteriophage T4 Dda helicase. Nucleic Acids Research, 30(4), 950-957. DOI: 10.1093/nar/30.4.950
- February 4, 2012
- 06:55 PM
- 361 views
Searching for E.T., II: Ammonia-drinking aliens
by Mutant Dragon in Puff the Mutant Dragon
In the movies, lab chemicals are usually blue, green or some other startling color. In reality, most of the chemicals you encounter in a lab are colorless or have fairly boring colors. There are exceptions, however, and this is one of them.... Read more »
Benner, S., Ricardo, A., & Carrigan, M. (2004) Is there a common chemical model for life in the universe?. Current Opinion in Chemical Biology, 8(6), 672-689. DOI: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2004.10.003
- January 30, 2012
- 07:45 PM
- 365 views
Avian flu: not so deadly as advertised?
by Mutant Dragon in Puff the Mutant Dragon
You've probably heard many times that avian flu is extremely lethal, with "a mortality rate of about 60 percent", in the words of one mainstream media article from December of last year. The 50 - 60 percent figure has been widely quoted by reporters, and if true it would indeed make avian flu an extremely dangerous virus. But is this an accurate number?... Read more »
Palese, P., & Wang, T. (2012) H5N1 influenza viruses: Facts, not fear. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1121297109
- January 9, 2012
- 10:32 PM
- 407 views
Politics vs. science II: Meat, sex and drugs
by Mutant Dragon in Puff the Mutant Dragon
This is a GoogleMaps picture of a farm near Goldsboro in North Carolina (map). The two salami-colored ponds on either side are lagoons, but not the kind where you want to swim. They’re open basins full of feces.... Read more »
Waters, A., Contente-Cuomo, T., Buchhagen, J., Liu, C., Watson, L., Pearce, K., Foster, J., Bowers, J., Driebe, E., Engelthaler, D.... (2011) Multidrug-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in US Meat and Poultry. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 52(10), 1227-1230. DOI: 10.1093/cid/cir181
- January 7, 2012
- 05:00 PM
- 404 views
Heisenberg vs. Freud: the psychology of quantum mechanics
by Mutant Dragon in Puff the Mutant Dragon
A popular but not-very-accurate version of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle shows up in a psychology journal.... Read more »
Hommel, B., Fischer, R., Colzato, L., van den Wildenberg, W., & Cellini, C. (2011) The effect of fMRI (noise) on cognitive control. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. DOI: 10.1037/a0026353
- December 31, 2011
- 02:09 PM
- 390 views
Politics vs. science, part I: The FDA drops the ball
by Mutant Dragon in Puff the Mutant Dragon
You know someone’s thinking too hard when it takes them thirty years to make up their mind. But when it takes them thirty years to make up their mind and to top it off they make a bad decision — that’s when you know politics is involved.... Read more »
Wegener, H. (2003) Antibiotics in animal feed and their role in resistance development. Current Opinion in Microbiology, 6(5), 439-445. DOI: 10.1016/j.mib.2003.09.009
- December 25, 2011
- 03:00 PM
- 376 views
Infectious controversy: lab-bred avian flu
by Mutant Dragon in Puff the Mutant Dragon
Thoughts on the lab-bred avian flu strain... Read more »
Watanabe, Y., Ibrahim, M., Suzuki, Y., & Ikuta, K. (2011) The changing nature of avian influenza A virus (H5N1). Trends in Microbiology. DOI: 10.1016/j.tim.2011.10.003
- December 17, 2011
- 11:30 PM
- 549 views
The poisoned wedding: a toxic love story
by Mutant Dragon in Puff the Mutant Dragon
The exchange of gifts at a wedding is customary in cultures all around the world. To my knowledge, however, there are no cultures in which bride and groom traditionally trade poisonous presents.... Read more »
Conner WE, Boada R, Schroeder FC, González A, Meinwald J, & Eisner T. (2000) Chemical defense: bestowal of a nuptial alkaloidal garment by a male moth on its mate. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 97(26), 14406-11. PMID: 11114202
- December 10, 2011
- 11:11 AM
- 420 views
Do Vaccines Contain Toxic Chemicals?
by Mutant Dragon in Puff the Mutant Dragon
The year 1900 marks the birth of an organization that would play a prominent role in British political life — the UK Labor Party. Their first manifest is a curious document.... Read more »
Dhareshwar, S., & Stella, V. (2008) Your prodrug releases formaldehyde: Should you be concerned? No!. Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 97(10), 4184-4193. DOI: 10.1002/jps.21319
- December 3, 2011
- 10:33 AM
- 381 views
Chess with nanobots, part II: The flu strikes back
by Mutant Dragon in Puff the Mutant Dragon
When it came to playing chess, there was never anybody quite like the “Magician from Riga”, Mikhail Tal. This Soviet chess champion was a master of the unpredictable. He loved to startle his opponents with bold and even rash... Read more »
Ginting TE, Shinya K, Kyan Y, Makino A, Matsumoto N, Kaneda S, & Kawaoka Y. (2011) Amino acid changes in hemagglutinin contribute to the replication of oseltamivir-resistant H1N1 influenza viruses. Journal of virology. PMID: 22013054
- November 26, 2011
- 01:00 PM
- 435 views
Chess with nanobots, part I: The making of Tamiflu
by Mutant Dragon in Puff the Mutant Dragon
A few years back I saw an odd 1950s foreign-language film entitled “The Seventh Seal”. It was clearly intended to be a “deep”, thought-provoking allegory, and although I don’t usually like that kind of thing, this particular movie turned out to be strangely entertaining.... Read more »
von Itzstein M, & Thomson R. (2009) Anti-influenza drugs: the development of sialidase inhibitors. Handbook of experimental pharmacology, 111-54. PMID: 19048199
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