I’ll pass on the blue latte, thanks
If you’ve been taken in by the hype surrounding the algal food supplement spirulina or quaffing blue lattes made with algal powder and no coffee…
Stop now.
There’s mounting evidence that the neurotoxin BMAA, beta-methylamino-L-alanine (an amino acid that is not used to make proteins) can lead to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), motor neuron disease (MND) also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and related neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinsonism. There’s also evidence that BMAA can be passed from mother to suckling infant in breast milk too.
Thanks to DrRachie for the alert on this.
Th...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - July 13, 2016 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
I ’ ll pass on the blue latte, thanks
If you’ve been taken in by the hype surrounding the algal food supplement spirulina or quaffing blue lattes made with algal powder and no coffee…
Stop now.
There’s mounting evidence that the neurotoxin BMAA, beta-methylamino-L-alanine (an amino acid that is not used to make proteins) can lead to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), motor neuron disease (MND) also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and related neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinsonism. There’s also evidence that BMAA can be passed from mother to suckling infant in breast milk too.
Thanks to DrRachie for the alert on this.
Th...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - July 13, 2016 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
Photographers’ rights in the UK
Photographers’ rights in the UK*: Basically, you can photograph anyone or anything from a public place. Period. 6’19” in on the video.
Caveats: Photographing Ministry of Defence (MoD) property might sometimes be in breach of The Official Secrets Act, by which everyone is bound whether or not they have signed it. In this era of increased terrorist threat tension, you might also arouse police suspicion if you’re taking detailed photos of known sensitive sites or if you’re repeatedly photographing an individual and it seems like harassment.
But, the police do not have the right to stop you photo...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - July 12, 2016 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
Photographers ’ rights in the UK
Photographers’ rights in the UK*: Basically, you can photograph anyone or anything from a public place. Period. 6’19” in on the video.
Caveats: Photographing Ministry of Defence (MoD) property might sometimes be in breach of The Official Secrets Act, by which everyone is bound whether or not they have signed it. In this era of increased terrorist threat tension, you might also arouse police suspicion if you’re taking detailed photos of known sensitive sites or if you’re repeatedly photographing an individual and it seems like harassment.
But, the police do not have the right to stop you photo...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - July 12, 2016 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
The smell of summer rain
The smell of rain, petrichor, is the delightful and earthy scent produced when rain falls on dry soil. The word is constructed from Greek, petra, meaning “stone”, and ichor, the fluid that flows in the veins of the gods in Greek mythology, according to Wiki.
The actual odour is aerosolised oils from plant material that has died and been adsorbed on to the surface of clay or other particles in the soil and a compound known as geosmin. Aerosols form and are carried into the air much more readily in a light summer rain than during a wintry downpour. That said, Mrs Sciencebase will attest to the smell during a seve...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - July 11, 2016 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
Today in Overselling the #microbiome: Lick-hiker's guide to Inner Strength
Well, thanks, I think to Christie Aschwanden https://christieaschwanden.com for pointing me to this.Valio unveils Lick-hiker’s Guide to Inner Strength with travel presenter Ian Wright - hasan & partnersValio - Gefilus Trailer from hasan & partners on Vimeo.From the Press ReleaseInternational travel presenter Ian Wright is on a mission to seek out and lick the dirtiest locations in Europe for The Lick-hiker’s Guide to Inner Strength, a campaign that promotes the virtues of Gefilus, a good bacteria product range by dairy giant, Valio.Simultaneously almost certainly over-promoting the benefits of this on...
Source: The Tree of Life - July 9, 2016 Category: Microbiology Authors: Jonathan Eisen Source Type: blogs
Prevailing Wind – A timeless song
Prevailing Wind by Dave Bradley
I grew up on the North East coast of England and feel endlessly drawn to the sea although I live, here in Cambridge, almost as far away from any coast as you can get in England. Oh well. It’s always inspirational to see the whitecaps on any visit and to spend time at the shorelines in any kind of weather, although sunny and warm is preferred over freezing cold and tipping down. It’s perhaps the beauty of it, the briskness, the stones and sand, the spindrift, the mindfulness, the timelessness…
A recent trip to the coastal village of Mundesley with Mrs Sciencebase and some fr...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - July 9, 2016 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
Prevailing Wind – A timeless song
Prevailing Wind by Dave Bradley
I grew up on the North East coast of England and feel endlessly drawn to the sea although I live, here in Cambridge, almost as far away from any coast as you can get in England. Oh well. It’s always inspirational to see the whitecaps on any visit and to spend time at the shorelines in any kind of weather, although sunny and warm is preferred over freezing cold and tipping down. It’s perhaps the beauty of it, the briskness, the stones and sand, the spindrift, the mindfulness, the timelessness…
A recent trip to the coastal village of Mundesley with Mrs Sciencebase and some fr...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - July 9, 2016 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
Worth a read: A simple proposal for the publication of journal citation distributions
This paper in BioRXiv is definitely worth checking out. Abstract is below: Although the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) is widely acknowledged to be a poor indicator of the quality of individual papers, it is used routinely to evaluate research and researchers. Here, we present a simple method for generating the citation distributions that underlie JIFs. Application of this straightforward protocol reveals the full extent of the skew of distributions and variation in citations received by published papers that is characteristic of all scientific journals. Although there are differences among journals across the spectrum of JI...
Source: The Tree of Life - July 8, 2016 Category: Microbiology Authors: Jonathan Eisen Source Type: blogs
A path towards the extinction of "Impact Factor"
From Ewen Callaway in Nature News:Beat it, impact factor! Publishing elite turns against controversial metric : Nature News & CommentBest part - the news from ASM"And in an editorial that will appear on 11 July in eight of its journals, the American Society for Microbiology in Washington DC will announce plans to remove the impact factor from its journals and website, as well as from marketing and advertising. “To me, what’s essential is to purge the conversation of the impact factor,” says ASM chief executive Stefano Bertuzzi, a prominent critic of the metric. “We want to make it so tacky that people will...
Source: The Tree of Life - July 8, 2016 Category: Microbiology Authors: Jonathan Eisen Source Type: blogs
Does H. influenzae need DNA uptake genes to form lab biofilms?
This morning I had another Skype conversation with the (most recent) former post-doc.We mostly talked about the toxin/antitoxin work. One question that came up was whether the antitoxin knockout strain was unable to form simple biofilms as well as to take up DNA.The kind of biofilm I mean is a simple film of cells that might stick to the surface of the glass or plastic container the cells are being cultured in. Formation of such films depends on the species (do its cells have a sticky surface), on the genotype (how much of the sticky substances are being produced), on the container properties (glass? polystyren...
Source: RRResearch - July 6, 2016 Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Rosie Redfield Source Type: blogs
Agilent - where men are thought leaders
Well this is disappointing. Was googling for a person and found this Agilent "Thought Leaders Program". It is described asThis invitational program promotes fundamental scientific advancements by contributing financial support, products and expertise to the research of influential thought leaders in the life sciences, diagnostics, and chemical analysis.Alas it might be described better as "Agilent Male Thought Leaders Program". In my estimation (based on the pronouns used in the descriptions of the people and in Googling around for more information), of the 31 "thought leaders" 28 are male. That comes to ...
Source: The Tree of Life - July 6, 2016 Category: Microbiology Authors: Jonathan Eisen Source Type: blogs
One more bicyclomycin try!
The previous Bioscreen experiment failed because, as we suspected, the vial we purchased didn't contain the expected mg of bicyclomycin. The highest concentration we tested (20 µg/ml) caused only a very slight slowing of growth, so we contacted the supplier and had them send us a new vial. This contained more visible powder than the previous one had, although still a very tiny amount), and we used it for a new Bioscreen experiment, testing concentrations up to 10 µg/ml.This time the 10 µg/ml culture showed a substantial slowing of growth. We also saw smaller decreases in growth, proportionally, with th...
Source: RRResearch - July 4, 2016 Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Rosie Redfield Source Type: blogs
Poppies: Wave at Lincoln Castle
Part of our recent wet-and-dry whirlwind tour of some interesting places in England took in the city of Lincoln, its cathedral, castle and the Poppies Wave installation, which has also been touring the country since its inauguration at the Tower of London in 2014 as Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red.
It was a poignantly wet and grey day to photograph this memorial to the fallen of World War I, 100 years since the start of the Battle of the Somme, 1st July 1916. Find out more about the installation here and see additional photos from my collection here. (Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science)
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - July 3, 2016 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
Blast from the past - Stephen Jay Gould on the "Planet of the Bacteria"
An influential article in my career development was this piece on the Washington Post in 1996 by Stephen Jay Gould. I was already convinced bacteria were important and interesting. But it was nice to see the person who got me interested in evolution (via his books and then a class I took from him in college) emphasizing the bacteria. Here is a link to the Post archive of it.PLANET OF THE BACTERIA - The Washington PostWell, my mom sent me a copy of it and I kept it all these years. Just scanned it so, I thought I would share what it looked like in the paper since this is VERY different from looking at the ...
Source: The Tree of Life - July 2, 2016 Category: Microbiology Authors: Jonathan Eisen Source Type: blogs
