Check out the Best of 2009 for two lists of the top ten science books. One list was chosen by "editors" and the other list was chosen by "readers."[Hat Tip: Jason Rosenhouse whose book The Monty Hall Problem: The Remarkable Story of Math's Most Contentious Brainteaser made one of the lists.
Sometimes it's almost impossible to find an image of a specific molecule that honors a Nobel Laureate. This is another one of those times.[Photo Credit: Wikipedia]
Ginko biloba is the only living species in the division (phylum?) Ginkgophyta. It is a species of deciduous tree that's only distantly related to to the other trees that we see around us. Some taxonomists classify it as a gymnosperm but that's not a universally recognized classification. It's certainly not an angiosperm (flowering plant). 
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I wish I'd been there a bit later 'cause ever since I learned about Ginkgo I've wanted to taste the berries.
Charles and Camilla are visiting Toronto but you wouldn't know it if you didn't read the papers. Unless, of course, you just happen to be caught up in one of the mini traffic jams that are associated with such visits. 
Today, Charles is accompanying Camilla to Dundurn castle in Hamilton. The great house was built by Sir Allan Napier MacNab who happens to be Camilla's great-great-great grandfather. MacNab was Prime Minister of the Province of Ontario and was a member of the ruling elite that William Lyon Mackenzie opposed in the 1837 "rebellion."
"for their discoveries of key regulators of the cell cycle"
Leland H. Hartwell (1939 - ) won the Nobel Prize for his contributions to understanding the cell cycle. His discovery of the regulatory molecule CDC28 led to the idea of "checkpoints"—steps in the cell cycle where specific action is needed to progress to the next stage. 
This year's Nobel Laureates have discovered the key regulators of the cell cycle, cyclin dependent kinase (CDK) and cyclin. Together these two components form an enzyme, in which CDK is comparable to a "molecular engine" that drives the cell through the cell cycle by altering the structure and function of other proteins in the cell. Cyclin is the main switch that turns the "CDK engine" on and off. This cell cycle engine operates in the same way in such widely disparate organisms as yeast cells, plants, animals and humans.
How were the key regulators CDK and cyclin discovered?
Lee Hartwell realized the great potential of genetic methods for cell cycle studies. He chose baker's yeast as a model organism. In the microscope he could identify genetically altered cells - mutated cells - that stopped in the cell cycle when they were cultured at an elevated temperature. Using this method Hartwell discovered, in the early 1970s, dozens of genes specific to the cell division cycle, which he named CDC genes. One of these genes, CDC28, controls the initiation of each cell cycle, the "start" function. Hartwell also formulated the concept of "checkpoints," which ensure that cell cycle events occur in the correct order. Checkpoints are comparable to the program in a washing machine that checks if one step has been properly completed before the next can start. Checkpoint defects are considered to be one of the reasons behind the transformation of normal cells into cancer cells.
[Photo Credit: Susie Fitzhugh and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center]
The images of the Nobel Prize medals are registered trademarks of the Nobel Foundation (© The Nobel Foundation). They are used here, with permission, for educational purposes only.
I thought you would like to know that you will be contacted by Dr Werner's Attorney shortly regarding her video. The posting of this video is in violation of copyright laws. We are aware that you have had this video up since March of '08 however I suggest you delete it immediately.This immediately triggers the Streisand Effect. Won't these people ever learn? No, of course not, that's because they are stupid.
Jayson Patrick
The diagram should remind you of the cell cycle and the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. Since I already covered Tim Hunt and Paul Nurse, this must be about Lee Hartwell. That means the molecule must be "start" or CDC28.
Sometimes it's almost impossible to find an image of a specific molecule that honors a Nobel Laureate. This is one of those times.
Archer John Porter Martin (1910 - 2002) and Richard Laurence Millington Synge (1914 - 1994) won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work on separating substances by partition chromatography.
The theory behind partition chromatography is complex. It used to be part of graduate courses in biochemistry. Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen.
This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded for the discovery of a method for the separation of substances from complicated mixtures.
How can it happen, one may ask, that something apparently so commonplace as a separation method should be rewarded by a Nobel Prize? The answer is that from the very beginnings of chemistry until our own time, methods for separating substances have occupied a key position in this science. Even today, in Holland, chemistry is called "Scheikunde", or "the art of separation", and even today some of chemistry's most important advances are linked to the invention of new methods for separating various substances.
Chemistry today is to a large extent concentrated upon the study of natural products, which are obtained from animals, plants, or even bacteria and other microorganisms. A starting material of this type contains a great number of widely varied substances, some simple, others more complicated. The first thing the chemist must do is to isolate the substances he is interested in from the material and prepare them in a pure state. The next step is, if possible, to identify these substances and find out what they consist of and how they are built up from simple constituents.
The first problem, the isolation, can indeed be difficult, as it is often a matter of preparing in a pure state substances which constitute only an extremely small fraction of the starting material and which have the disagreeable tendency of, so to speak, disappearing between one's fingers when one tries to get hold of them. It is here that Martin and Synge's method has enjoyed great success, especially in what is perhaps its most important form, and is called filter-paper chromatography.
The images of the Nobel Prize medals are registered trademarks of the Nobel Foundation (© The Nobel Foundation). They are used here, with permission, for educational purposes only.
Sometimes it's almost impossible to find an image of a specific molecule that honors a Nobel Laureate. This is one of those times.
I've written a lot about Michael Ruse over the past few years. Mostly I'm upset by his lack of understanding of modern evolutionary theory [A Confused Philosopher, Down with Darwinism!, Darwinism at the ROM].[Image Credit: The photo is from Paul Nelson on the Intelligent Design website. It refers to Ruse's idea that evolution is a form of religion.]
Last night was the night we turned our clocks back one hour in Canada and the USA. It's easy to remember whether we lose an hour or gain an hour because even school children learn the phrase "Spring forward, Fall back." ("Fall" is the local jargon for "Autumn.")What do Australians do at this time of the year?
- turn their clocks back one hour
- turn their clocks forward one hour
- don't adjust their clocks
- who cares what happens in Vienna?
What is the astronomical reason for turning our clocks back one hour?
- there is no astronomical reason for adjusting our clocks
- the rotation of the Earth slows down when it nears apogee
- there aren't exactly 24 hours in a day
- clocks run slower when the Earth is farther from the sun
What happened last night in Saskatchewan?
- people turned their clocks back one hour
- people turned their clocks forward one hour
- nobody adjusted their clocks
- who cares what happens in Saskatchewan? (and where is it?)
If you normally catch the 7:33 commuter train, what will you do tomorrow?
- take the 6:33 train
- take the 8:33 train
- get on the 7:33 train as usual
- call in sick
What happens to the international date line at this time of year?
- it moves 15° east
- it moves 15° west
- it stays right where it is but "midnight" becomes 1 AM during the winter months
- nothing happens to the international date line
Did you ....
- get one hour less sleep last night?
- get one hour more sleep last night?
- slept exactly the same amount as the night before
- stayed up all night celebrating?
Mr. Big has an appointment to meet his accountant tomorrow at 12 noon. His secretary sent him an email message on Friday telling him that the appointment would have to be delayed by two hours. Mr. Big forgot to adjust his watch, so on Monday morning it was out of sync with the rest of the world. Assuming he got the email message, what time will he show up for the appointment according the adjusted clock in the accountant's office?
- 11 AM
- 12 noon
- 1 PM
- 2 PM
- 3 PM
Which, if any, of the following count as valid and rational objections to daylight saving time, assuming it is properly implemented?
- farmers will have to feed their animals in the dark
- children will have to go to school before the sun rises
- it wastes electricity
- you lose an hour's sleep in the summer
- it reduces crime
- it disrupts international flight schedules
- it's unnatural to adjust time
- it causes health problems by messing with your circadian rhythm
The other day I had to get up and move to new seat on the subway. The cause of my discomfort was a young woman who reeked of musk—the scent that male musk deer (Moschus moschiferus) use to attract females. I don't know why this woman wanted attention from female musk deer but I was pretty sure she wasn't going to find any on the subway.Only the mature male Moschus produces musk. The substance occurs in only one location on the deer's body: on its abdomen, just in front of its penis, is a hairy pouch known as the musk gland. This sac is about the size of a golf ball. It is composed of several layers of skin, with two openings immediately above the animal's urethra.I'm told that humans of both sexes get turned on by this smell. If so, the woman on the subway is not only going to attract female musk deer but she's also going to get a lot of attention from both men and women of a different species. I guess it's a good thing that I freed up the seat next to her.
In the early summer, unripe liquid musk drains into the gland from the surrounding tissues, and is stored there for some weeks or months. During the course of this time, the musk - 30 grams of it or so - "matures" into a granular, waxy, reddish-brown substance with an extremely potent and familiar smell.
When the musk has ripened - shortly before the autumn rutting season - the deer begin to discharge it mixed with their urine, apparently to mark their territory and attract females. (This behavior is familiar to anyone who has come in contact with a tomcat that "sprays.") Even in winter, male musk deer have been reported to leave behind fragrant red snow, rather than yellow.
