Category: Uncategorized
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Virtually Speaking — 9:00PM ET on Thursday Call in — Second Life (slurl) or podcast (if you have sound only). Ultraphyte, slideshow and more!
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Interview–Thursday in Second Life, 9:00pm ET, podcast at Virtually Speaking. With luck an ultraphyte may appear. See you there!
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The day in San Fran started out with an obligatory march past the anti-immorality protesters stationed beneath the rainbow flag at the mall (rainbow flags are all along Market Street). I asked one, an African-American gentleman, if he knew the word “miscegenation.” (Sp? not sure) He did not. I thought, what a great day it…
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My students are presenting their research at the American Society for Microbiology general meeting, in San Francisco. Our hotel is on Market Street, amidst the street musicians, panhandlers, Nordstrom/Godiva, and Planned Parenthood canvassers, and of course Pride paraphernalia. I am reminded that the last time Worldcon was in SF, it was the one place where…
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Steven Shaviro joins debate on the question of sentient plants. “In her science fiction novel The Highest Frontier (2011), Joan Slonczewski poses the question of what it would mean for plants to have a sense of humor. A biologist “clones a set of genes” into an Arabidopsis plant, in order to make the plant grow…
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The hot item in our lab right now is of course the new iPad for our online lab notebooks. But it seems we’re not alone. Orangutans at the Miami zoo like their iPad too. Orangutans like to finger paint, and to admire videos of themselves. Who doesn’t? Now, they can even videoconference with orangs at…
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Some “hard science” for a change. Kenyon students are hard at work studying E. coli bacteria–actually, grilling burgers for the weekly Science Quad cookout. As you would expect, the heroic lab tech (and author of our most recent paper) is getting the job done, with the PI standing by helpfully (not much). Back in the…
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So NPR has discovered the work of Scott O’Neill, and colleagues around the globe, to fight Dengue fever (also known as breakbone fever) by releasing mosquitos. Dengue is a painful viral flu-like disease now spreading from the tropics, thanks to global warming, which brings the mosquitoes north–France had its first case last year. But why…
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Once again, salt is controversial. Do we eat too much or not? Could salt become so dangerous it gets banned or controlled? That was the premise that got The Highest Frontier into hot water with ultraphytes (disguised as reviewers) before the book even came out (certain ARCs got shredded). From a medical view, given that…
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The pessimistic view says there are no pristine ecosystems left. Human pollutants and human-borne invasives reach every habitat, including Antarctica, where islands fill up with dandelion and chickweed. Yet outside my village window, long ago logged and farmed, there are orioles, robins and hummingbirds; and not far off, bald eagles and coyotes. And enough wildflowers…
Joan Slonczewski 