I caught wind of a study at Newcastle Upon Tyne on musicality the other day. Take a brief internet linkurl:test;http://www.delosis.com/listening to determine whether you can tell brief snippets of midi fashioned melodies apart. The goal, presumably, is sussing out people with amusia. It?s no secret that some can?t carry a tune. Some folks are simply terrible, off-key singers and don?t recognize it no matter what anyone tells them, but a small percentage of folks actually can?t distinguish not

Interested in getting in on some big cash prizes but don?t have the linkurl:sequencing capacity;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/23051/ or rocketry experience to compete in the more well known linkurl:X-prize competitions;http://www.xprizefoundation.com/? If you?re good with mice, all you might need is time. In putting together the linkurl:March feature on aging;http://www.the-scientist.com/2006/3/1/28/1/ by S. Jay Olshansky and colleagues we came across the Methuselah Mouse Prize

I went to the Franklin Institute last night to watch a test screening of linkurl:Galapagos;http://www.mnh.si.edu/expeditions/galapagos/ a 1999 IMAX film that may be returning to the screen in Philadelphia. The movie is gorgeous, presenting the Galapagos islands as a ?little world within themselves? quoting Darwin, and one ?still in the process of creation,? marking the only time the c-word gets used. From the sparse, seemingly uninhabitiable volcanic lava floes, to shorelines teeming with stra

So the Ohio School Board overturned a previous decision to add wording about ?critical analysis? of evolutionary theory. Though the wording sounds somewhat innocuous several evolution defenders have painted it as the next permutation of Intelligent Design?s grand plans to cram a creation story into science class. So, this is an important victory and only one of the first that can be nearly directly attributed to the outcome of the Dover case. Quotes from the __New York Times__ linkurl:article

While doing a little background research for a notebook item running in the March issue, I had the opportunity to type the words ?Brain Transplantation? into Google?s search window. The very first hit you get is for, aptly enough, linkurl:BrainTrans Inc.;http://216.247.9.207/ny-best.htm which promises to restore health, youth, and vitality the surgical way ? by plopping your cerebrum into the body of a younger, fitter model. Now I tend to be skeptical about such things, but who wouldn?t be pli

Ari Patrinos is ending his stint as associate director of science for biological and environmental research at the Department of Energy to head up Synthetic Genomics, Inc, a linkurl:J. Craig Venter venture;http://www.the-scientist.com/2006/1/1/38/1/ launched this past summer. Having spent ten years leading the DOE?s often budget-crunched biology efforts, I couldn?t help but wonder why he was leaving prior to a huge influx of government money as mentioned in George Bush?s linkurl:State of the Un

Credit: Courtesy of Lloyd M. Smith" /> Credit: Courtesy of Lloyd M. Smith Lloyd M. Smith joined Lee Hood?s CalTech laboratory in 1982 with the idea that he would finally get to do ?real biology.? Having come from a chemistry background, people suggested that he learn DNA sequencing to get a handle on molecular biology. ?Although it was really interesting to learn because there were so many new techniques that one had to master ? it turns out once you get those techniques down it was a

Well the Keystone meeting on Epigenetics and Chromatin Modeling in Development has wrapped, and the reaction from participants was very positive, indication that the epigenetics field -- which has broadened significantly to include much of the chromatin and transcriptional control community -- is set for some significant findings. Many told me that the selection of talks was the best they?d heard in years. ?I didn?t fall asleep during any of them,? said one meeting-goer as we waited for the bu

I didn?t want to give the impression from my last two posts that it?s all RNAi all the time at this year?s Keystone Symposium on Epigenetics and Chromatin Remodeling in Development. Polycomb group complex (PgC) proteins, their binding sites, and/or how they set up silencing states in development has been a feature in practically every other talk or poster, here. Not simply a 60-year old vagary of __Drosophila__ development that gave rise to wacky phenotypes, PgCs deserve more respect says Renat

Repeats appear important in gene silencing. Repeats appear important in gene silencing. At least two talks at the Keystone Symposium Conference on Epigenetics and Chromatin Remodeling in Development implicate the power of tandem repeats in RNA-interference induced silencing. Rob Martienssen of Cold Spring Harbor talked about silencing of transposable elements (in keeping with the grand history of his institution). He explained how his lab has found that RNAi-independent and RNAi-dependent mec

A funny thing happened to the Keystone symposium on epigenetics and development, apparently a few years back it got invaded by chromatin people. At my first day at the symposium, I uncovered just a little grumbling that the histone modifications that control the winding and packing of DNA and that ultimately grant or restrict access to transcriptional machinery don?t quite qualify as epigenetic marks. The players in the field have yet to demonstrate that they are heritable said Ueli Grossnikla

Rice University physicist Neal Lane penned linkurl:an interesting op-ed;http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/3590974.html in the __Houston Chronicle__ today. On the occasion of Benjamin Franklin?s 300th birthday, Lane asks (and takes a stab at answering) the question, what would Ben make of this whole intelligent design hubbub While unquestionably a man of God, Franklin reveled in science. Lane writes that Franklin would most certainly have cut any purported ID theorist a fai