Dark Matter Cartoon from Phd Comics

Dark Matters from PHD Comics on Vimeo.

This is a video from every grad student's favorite time wasting website- PhD Comics

They explain in a cartoony form the four types of forces in the universe and what dark matter is and does. At the end, they talk about the unifying theory of everything and how science on a big scale is colliding with science on a small scale. There is a brief mention of the large hadron collider and vague allusions to how it will redefine our understanding of the physical world.

I encourage you to watch this.

Things I care about but shouldn't

These are things that I feel I have a personal connection to but shouldn't-

Lindsay Lohan has an outstanding warrant for her arrest. Hehe, here's to all of us hoping for footage.

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The ups and downs of the Dow Jones average. This though I have no investments, no stocks, no retirement account.

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CEO compensation. I am against it in all its forms.

	Bank of America Corp. Thomas Montag 2009 Total Compensation: $29,930,431		JPMorgan Chase & Co. James Dimon 2009 Total Compensation: $9,274,494
	Citigroup Inc. John Havens 2009 Total Compensation: $11,276,454		Morgan Stanley Walid Chammah 2009 Total Compensation: $10,021,969
	The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Lloyd Blankfein 2009 Total Compensation: $9,862,657		Wells Fargo John Stumpf 2009 Total Compensation: $21,340,547

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Liquor laws in states I do not live in-

Alabama
Cities and counties can choose to be "wet" or "dry" - 26 of 67 counties do not allow alcohol sales...A statewide ban on draft beer sales requires that cities and counties must take Legislative action to lift the ban in each jurisdiction. However, a section of the law allows draft beer "in rural communities with a predominantly foreign population. . . in accordance with the habit and customs of the people of any such rural community"...Twenty-three counties and cities have abolished the ban against Draft Beer in their districts...Likewise, Sunday alcohol sales are only allowed if a referendum has been passed...Ban on off-premises sale of alcohol on Sundays.

Alaska
In Fairbanks, AK, it is illegal to serve alcoholic beverages to moose.

Arizona
An obviously intoxicated person can only stay for 30 minutes at the establishment that recognized he was drunk.

Arkansas
Ban on off-premises sales of Alcohol on Sundays

California
It is illegal for producers of alcoholic beverages to list the names of retailers or restaurants that sell their products, whether it is in advertising or in newsletters...It is illegal to display alcoholic beverages within five feet of a cash register in a store that sells both alcohol and motor fuel...A server can be convicted of selling alcohol to a minor if the minor uses a false or altered ID to obtain the alcohol.

Colorado
It is illegal to ride a horse while under the influence...It is also illegal 1) for liquor stores to sell food and 2) for food stores to sell alcohol with an ABW greater than 3.2%. Beer with 3.2% ABW is called "low point beer." Beer with higher alcohol levels can be purchased in liquor stores...The sale of alcohol is prohibited on Election Day....Ban on off-premises sale of alcohol on Sundays.

Connecticut
Beer cannot be sold after 8 p.m...Pharmacists who use alcohol in compounding prescriptions must have a specific state license to do so.

Delaware
Allows parents, guardians, or legal age spouse to furnish alcohol to minors in the private home of any said family member for medical, religious, or educational purposes.

Florida
1965 Law requires containers to be one of four sizes: 8, 12, 24 or 32 ounces only, prohibiting craft brewers from packaging in 22 ounce "bombers", 750ml bottles, or any number of European style bottles.

Georgia
The 1935 Law prohibiting the sale of beer having more than 6% ABV was repealed in 2004…Bans off-premises sales of alcohol on Sundays.

Hawaii
Underage purchase of alcohol is prohibited except for law enforcement purposes…Underage consumption of alcohol is not explicitly prohibited.

Idaho
Possession of an unregistered, unlabeled keg is punishable by a maximum fine of $1,000 or prison for 6 months.

Illinois
A person commits a "social host offense" by renting a hotel or motel room for the purpose of or with the knowledge that such room be used for the consumption of alcoholic beverages by underage persons.

Indiana
It is illegal for liquor stores to sell milk or cold soft drinks. They can, however, sell soft drinks at room temperature….It is illegal to carry an alcoholic drink from the bar to a table - this can only be done by a waiter or waitress…Drinks "on the house" are illegal...Ban on off-premises sales of Alcohol on Sundays.

Iowa
In Ames, Iowa, it is still illegal for men to have 3 sips of beer while they are in bed with their wives...It is illegal to "run a tab" in Iowa.

Kansas
Ban on off-premises sales of Alcohol on Sundays…Underage consumption of alcohol is illegal except for cereal malt beverages (defined as any fermented but undistilled liquor brewed or made from malt or from a mixture of malt or malt substitute, but not including any such liquor which is more than 3.2 % ABW).

Kentucky
It is illegal to send a bottle of beer, wine, or spirits as a gift to anyone in Kentucky - this can result in a 5-year term in prison...Ban on off-premises sales of Alcohol on Sundays.

Louisiana
Underage possession of alcohol is illegal except when in a private residence, and furnished by a parent, guardian or legal aged spouse for one or more specified religious, educational, or medical purposes.

Maine
It is illegal to possess an unlabeled, unregistered keg - punishment is a maximum fine of $500 and/or time in prison. It is illegal to destroy the label on a keg, punishable by a maximum fine of $1,000 or 6 months in prison.

Maryland
Alcohol beverage writers must be certified as experts by a state agency in order to be eligible to receive product samples. The beverage writer can only receive three bottles per brand.

Massachusetts
In Woburn, MA, it is illegal to walk around with a beer in your hand.

Michigan
Prohibited to serve alcohol on Christmas Day, including at restaurants serving holiday buffets...Local laws exist too - one town prohibits brewpubs from selling beer-to-go...It is illegal for a minor (person under 21) to give an alcoholic beverage as a gift to anyone, even if they are of legal drinking age...It is illegal to allow restaurant diners to take an unfinished bottle of any alcoholic beverage home with them.

Minnesota
It is specifically NOT a crime to be inebriated in public...Ban on off-premises sales of Alcohol on Sundays.

Mississippi
A parent, guardian, or legal age spouse may furnish beer or wine to minors over the age of 18.

Missouri
In St. Louis, MO, it is illegal to sit on a street curb and drink beer from a bucket...It is illegal for any person under 21 to handle household trash with even one empty alcohol beverage container in it…In Natchez, MO, it is illegal to serve elephants beer or other alcoholic beverages.

Montana
It is illegal to destroy the label on a keg, punishable by a maximum fine of $500 or 6 months in prison…A parent or guardian can furnish alcohol to a minor in a non-intoxicating amount for one or more specified religious, educational, or medical purposes.

Dengue and my research on host factors

NPR reports that Dengue outbreaks spread to the Southern reaches of the United States. This is an issue that is close to my heart as I spend my days studying how Dengue infects humans and carries out its lifecycle.

Dengue is important and you should know about it because it infects hundreds of millions of people a year. This is equivalent in its range and severity to American Idol which also causes tens of thousands of people to develop debilitating headaches and delirium. Before Dengue virus kills you, or maybe instead of killing you, it makes you bleed profusely in a socalled Hemorrhagic fever. It also causes joint pain, fever, chills and muscle pain so severe they call it "breakbone fever".

The virus is a close cousin to Hepatitis C. It is composed of RNA (similar to DNA) and a three proteins. This is a bit less biologically sophisticated than most enzymes except that it is self replicating and does so by taking advantage of host proteins. This is where I come in. I study which host proteins the virus uses and how it uses them. As a genetic pauper carrying only nine genes of its own, Dengue virus has to steal host proteins to reproduce its genes, makes its protein shell, make its enzymes and assemble itself.

Part of what makes this virus a major public health concern is that it exists as a "quasispecies". That is, there is a large amount of heterogeneity in natural isolates of the virus. Our immune system is really good at reacting to something but if it looks slightly different, structurally speaking, the immune system doesn't react very well to it. Herein lies a huge problem- antibody dependent enhancement. This is a phenomenon where antibodies, the immune system's sticky proteins that help it kill invaders by showing immune cells what to eat and digest, fail to prevent the virus from moving around and carrying out its business. So the virus gets coated in antibodies that don't immobilize it and gets eaten by immune cells that fail to kill it. The virus reproduces itself in the immune cells and eventually spreads in the blood to the liver. Multiple subtypes of Dengue exist which produce different antibodies in their host and if you have had one subtype, you are more likely to have a severe reaction to another.

The virus is spread by mosquitoes from infected person to infected person. The virus infects the salivary glands of the mosquito as well as human immune cells, human liver cells and even cells from other animals. If you think about how different these types of cells really are (and they are really really different) you can appreciate how resilient this virus actually is in its ability to infect. Since there is no vaccine or cure for Dengue fever, once you get it you are boned. The best approaches to control Dengue focus on controlling the mosquito populations.

Craig Venter Created Synthetic Life and it has turned the lay public into bumbling morons

It has been a long time but I felt I had no other place to turn. I just read the NPR article about Craig Venter's project to synthesize a cell and read through the comments left by morons and halfwits on the facebook comment list under the article. This is why scientists are leery to share our findings with the public. Of those who care enough to actually read the article (no giant slice of the population pie that it is) the majority of the comments are outright stupid. I will include these comments along with insight into the issue or derisive insults as appropriate. Names were kept the same to protect us from idiots.

Here goes-

Miles E Batten

btw on the subject of a "superbug" - we've already weaponized small pox and a few other diseases if i'm not mistaken.

You're mistaken. We have not weaponized smallpox but this is a relevant question for bioethicists. We do have controls in place to prevent even genomic regions from Smallpox from being synthesized.

Stephen Adams

Jean Lamont wrote:
"I think the idea of this organism "leaving the lab and running amok" is 100% hysterical and preposterous...." You mean like Monsantos genetically altered corn running amok ? Ever heard of the concept of invasive species? Trust corporations to do the right thing with this is like trusting BP to clean the Gulf of Mexico properly.

Craig Venter's research group is not a corporation and this project is not something that could exist outside the lab. This was an enormous project to synthesize, assemble and transfect DNA into a cell. This is not corn and cannot be planted. It would be fortunate if the cell can survive for long even under the most nurturing of conditions. Take your pent up rage at corporations and corporate irresponsibility and apply it somewhere that makes sense.

Bobbi Brookshire

My little cousin died at 13 from a tumor in his brain. If they could help with something like growing the brain that is fine, but are you killing babies for thier parts?

You are confusing this with stem cells. You are ill informed about stem cells anyway. I suspect that you also have a tumor in your brain.

Michael Burhenne

God creates DNA, DNA becomes man, man destroys god, man creates DNA, DNA becomes zombies, zombies eat man, zombies rule the earth!!! It's the natural order of things.

Well at least I see where this one is coming from.

Darrel Warren

Yay, this finally proves to me that we were not created by a god. I think life is what you get when you have the right environmental conditions, a muddy soup of amino acids, and a lighting strike to that muddy soup.

This does??? I think what this proves is that we can synthesize pieces of DNA, recombine them into bacterial and yeast artificial chromosomes and insert them into a cell. There are lots of questions about how the first cell formed. I find them interesting and like to hypothesize about them, but I don't think that it addresses God or religion or philosophy in any meaningful way.

Eli Lorrain T

o whomever asked why we can do this but can't cure cancer.... well duh. If we cured cancer where would the AMA the HMOs and big Pharma get their mad paychecks? They aren't interested in cures, just "treatment" and all the billable hours and products that go with it.

Is this what you believe? Let me see if I can recapitulate your point of view: the whole healthcare establishment is involved in a conspiracy to prevent cancer from being cured to increase revenues. How does this viewpoint fit with the fact that the National Cancer Institute funds cancer research to the tune of billions of dollars a year resulting in the production of numerous therapeutics to lengthen the lives of cancer patients, slow cancer progression, diagnose cancer before it starts and determine risk?

Andrew Chang

I'm looking forward to my strawberry flavored fish.

We all do.

Miles E Batten

The mistrust of science and underestimation of the integrity of people who work in scientific fields is disappointing but unsurprising to say the least. people get whipped up into such a frenzy over every major scientific breakthrough until it eventually becomes a staple in their lives. genetic manipulation, especially in regards to regenerative medicine, will have a larger impact on contemporary society than the space race and the internet combined.

I friended this person.

Ken Hood

- it was inevitable......but remember, putting the genie back in the bottle is impossible and this kind of work has a habit of getting out of control..........

Vague allusions to scary scenes in science fiction movies. The technology for this achievement existed prior to its undertaking in the same way that the technology to build a wall existed before the construction of the Great Wall of China.

Barbara Babcock

Great...just great. We are overflowing with real life and now scientists want to make artificial life? What are they thinking?

Please, please, one embarrassingly stupid question per session Barbara. This is not a project that culminates in us releasing the product into the wild. This is a lot like the first space shuttle launch. We weren't trying to add clutter to outer space. Certainly there is enough matter already in outer space. This was about proving that we could do it and gaining the insight and technical abilities that go along with having done it.

豪豪

I'm gonna grow myself some hot femmbots.

The sex robot thing keeps coming up. I don't understand the connection.

Bobbi Brookshire

WOW! But why do we want to create babies in a lab, what is the reason?

I think Bobbi didn't read the article closely. They didn't synthesize babies, they synthesized a type of bacteria.

Cory Layman

That's sort of like taking apart a structure of Lego's building a new structure, and then claiming to be the person who invented Lego's. It's not as if we've invented new elements. Everything can be reduced again to it's base, and so it renders no real physical change.

At least Cory understood what the project was about. This accomplishment is notable not for its ingenuity but for the fact that it could be done.

Amanda Davis

I don't like this at all. Like a copy of a copy - the quality degrades. Most people already fail to consider the implications and responsibilities of creating life by natural reproduction, much less in a lab...

I can personally assure you that this cell will not get faded like a fake drivers license- its edges will remain crisp.

I guess I blame the country's high school biology teachers for this but I don't really think it's fair. There were several issues that people addressed over and over again- conflict with the idea of "playing God", issues with misuse of technology, confusion of the issue with stem cell research, paranoia about healthcare, impact on issues of overcrowding and sexy robots.

If the "playing God" people had had more to say about the philosophical underpinnings of why this conflicts with their understanding of creationism, I would feel that the nation's population is being overeducated in religion and undereducated in science. However, the comments were entirely superficial.

Why do people distrust scientists and technology? I would say it is a lack of understanding that breeds fear, but I don't understand the lay public yet I don't fear them. Hmm, noodle scratcher.

Confusion of the issue with stem cell research. Umm, I think people were looking for an excuse to interject a comment demonstrating their commitment to their religion as a way to identify themselves with something larger. Have you considered inserting irrelevant comments that show that you really really like the Pittsburgh Penguins? It would be just as relevant but less inflammatory.

People are paranoid about healthcare for the same reasons they distrust scientists- healthcare workers have deceptively large foreheads and it freaks out stupid people.

Overcrowding makes a bit of sense, as this project was about creating life on a planet that is already rich with life. I think this objection misses the point a bit because Venter's group wasn't undertaking this project to add to the biodiversity of life (which I should point out is always shrinking not growing) but to overcome a technical challenge.

Finally, the sexy robot argument. This could have been meant as a joke but a dozen people came to it independently which makes me wonder about an unmet market need.

Jabberwocky

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree.
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came wiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Upcoming Changes

Lots of exciting stuff on the horizon-

1) I am moving to Durham, NC in four weeks. They call Durham "Bull city". While I don't know the derivation of the phrase, it sure seems like a great place for me.


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2) I have perfected the art of making Mint Juleps. This isn't as straight forward as I thought it would be. The first time I attempted this, I used tea bag leaves in a viscous sludge with whiskey.

It requires you to make "simple syrup", a 1:1 mixture of sugar and water by volume. This mixture must then be heated, but not boiled, and cooled. The best way to do this is to use a turkish coffee pot and keep it swirling.

Take a metal cup and stick it in the freezer overnight until it develops frost around the outside. Then rub a small mint leaf around the rim to leave a menthol-taste. Muddle some more mint leaves in the bottom of the cup.

Add crushed ice. Not cubed, not wedged, not little rollerblade shaped. Crushed

Add a 1:3 ratio of simple syrup to Kentucky Bourbon.

It's very important to use a straw of the appropriate length. The straw should stick out just above the ice so that you smell the mint odor each time you drink.

Here is a video recipe for mint juleps
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3) I will be starting a Phd in the Microbiology department at Duke University. Duke is where Nixon gained his ethics, Alan Schwartz (CEO of Bear Stearns) gained his business sense and Kenneth Starr gained a sense of integrity. The microbiology department has several labs that study pathogenic fungi.

Long time no bloggy. I went to Basel Switzerland in October and had a blast. I presented a poster on the role of the alternative pathway of complement in Rheumatoid Arthritis at the International Complement Workshop. Pretty much all of Basel looks like this (I should know, I got lost and walked around the town for upwards of eight hours during two of the days). Some of the best Turkish food can be purchased in Basel.



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I sent out all of my applications for graduate schools. That was stressful. I have my fingers crossed for Harvard and UNC and Duke. I can't help but letting the school's mascots impact my feelings. Did you know that the mascot for Stanford is a tree? A tree?!?



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My parents in law came into town and Jess and I took them to Glenwood Springs. The premise is that this place is a natural mineral hot spring. A tacky tourist trap has sprung up around the pools where any manner of crystal bracelet or colorful rock can be purchased on the cheap. It was chilly when we were there but the springs were around 105 deg F leading to a really interesting fog that lingered above the water. Every once in awhile, a fat lady would emerge from a wall of fog and you could gain a brief appreciation for why so many manatees get hit on foggy days.





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I went to see University of Wisconsin Badgers blow it in a game against the University of Denver. It was a super high scoring game and DU ended up winning something crazy like 7 to 6. A kid that I coached when he was a Squirt is a freshman for DU now. Luke Salazar. I feel most responsible for his success as a college athlete and I just know that 10% of his NHL salary will be more than enough reward.