I was at work today when I received a phone call from my parents. They were 45 minutes out of Moscow and inbound. Surprise.
My parents had been up in Vancouver visiting my Mom’s family. I guess they decided to take a mere 500 mile detour on the way home and see me.
I wasn’t planning on […]
Lately I have been thinking about the properties of citrate. Most people encounter it as the agent responsible for the tartness of citrus fruits (thus the name).
Citrate is a key component of the TCA cycle (also called the citric acid cycle) which is the mechanism for oxidative respiration. In essence this allows us to use […]
I joined the EFF recently.
I am not sure exactly what prompted me to do so… either their efforts to take the MAFIAA cartels to task, or their efforts to take the telecoms to task for assisting in illegal spying. This is the first time I have ever given money to a political group (really).
Well… the […]
My friend Holger gets back from Germany tomorrow. While he was gone I had been borrowing his Clearwire Internet access (WiMax). I found that I simply could not go back to having no Internet at home… so I signed up for Clearwire for myself. I figure I can use it in Oregon (they have service […]
Well, my research is going very well. I am getting reams of data, it looks like I will get my name on a couple of publications. So why do I feel stuck in Moscow?
I planned on being done by now. Hell, I planned on being done a year ago. Most of my stuff is in […]
There is a problem with the Y chromosome.
All mammals are diploids (meaning two copies of each chromosome) With the exception of the sex chromosomes. Females are diploid for the X chromosome, while males are monoploidal for the X and Y chromosomes.
Now the diploid scheme has a great number of advantages, most notably the presence of […]
Costco did it to me again! I discovered this sparkling lemonade at Costco a couple months ago. While a “hippy” product, it’s really good.
I tried to find it yesterday at Costco, they didn’t have it!
Damn you Costco!
I have been watching the corruption scandals in Alaska unfold with a mixture of bemusement and disgust.
The locus for all of this is “Uncle” Ted Stevens.
Now let me state that I have been ragging on Ted (what is is about corrupt old bastards named “Ted” in the Senate?) long before it was fashionable. Long before […]
Recently I have been reevaluating my opinion of RNA.
For a long time I considered RNA to be the retarded little brother of DNA. DNA was the all-important molecule, while RNA was this disposable little thing. Biology was the interplay of DNA and proteins, RNA was an uninteresting intermediary.
Of course that was all wrong. Now it […]
I have been thinking about starting a blog for quite some time now. I am not exactly sure how much time I plan on putting into this, but it seems like a good idea.