Around the Blogs

It’s Thank Gradschool It’s Friday (TGIF), which means it’s time to peruse the various other blogs out there.

Personal Development

Grad Student Solidarity and Speaking Up in Seminars and Journal Clubs - Should postdocs and grad students ‘go easy’ on each other in seminars and journal clubs? Heck no! Also see Honesty, diplomacy, independence, and solidarity in public discussions about science.

Meet the Ribosomes - A 6 minute video introduces ribosomes, discusses where they’re found, what they’re made of, how they’re built, and discusses why some parts of the ribosome might be under less selective pressure than others.

Science Itself

Bacteria Inspire Drug That Protects Against Radiation Sickness - For dealing with formerly lethal doses of radiation, there’s an innovative new drug on the horizon for tweaking the Toll-like receptor pathway.

Non-Optimal Virulence and Avian Influenza - Several people have argued that if an influenza pandemic were to occur, it will rapidly evolve to become less virulent–that is less deadly. A recent paper explains why this might be wrong.

Science Editorial: Cancer and Apoptosis - Comments on an interesting editorial about the value of cancer research in a relatively new issue of Science.

The Public and Science

Personal Genomics: Getting your Money’s Worth - With the advent of personal genomics services, choices are increasing faster than understanding of what the choices actually mean. Genetic Future aims to inform.