Samson shivered in the early morning chill, jingling the chain joining his collar and leash. The sun was a big orange food bowl hanging low on the horizon, bathing the neighborhood in its warm glow. Most of the residents were still in bed at this hour, but a few dotted the sidewalks with their best friends in tow. Samson led his best friend a few blocks to the park. It was the first Sunday of the month, which meant Pug Day. Many breeds of dogs came to the park, but the overwhelming majority today would be Pugs, the flat, wrinkled-face…
The Science Creative Quarterly
From December, 2006
TERRY’S WRITING CHALLENGE #2
We thought perhaps (especially for those of you who are globally inclined) that you might enjoy a little writing contest we have going over at our sister site, Terry. Prizes consist of our bookstore’s gift cards which are usable even for those of you who are not local (via their website). $1500 in total, and an opportunity to present material in a variety of forms – take a gander at the rules below, presented, of course, in limerick form PDF | JPG There once was a website named Terry1 That wanted to make people wary Of things going on In…
BILL HICK, SCIENCE PRICK, HOUSES ON FOOLS
Dear Mr. Hick, I’m thirteen years old, writing from Atlanta, Georgia. My friend has a German Sheppard named Sparky. Sparky is a neutered male, but that doesn’t stop him from sometimes demonstrating some pretty gross sexual behavior. What I mean is: He likes to hump my leg. He also likes to hump my friend’s leg, and the legs of a lot of our other male buddies. So my question is: Can a dog be gay? Billy Greeling Atlanta, Georgia Dear Billy, Well this is a strange question, Billy. At first, I figured you were going to inquire why spayed or…
THE ANTI-VACCINE DISEASE: RANT OR REASON?
In a recent bacterial pathogenesis lecture, my class was shown a short video on whooping cough, a sometimes-fatal childhood disease caused by the bacteria Bordetella pertussis. Children no older than 2 years old were unable to breathe, taking desperate breaths in between painful coughing fits, mucus covering their faces. We had been studying the creation of ideal vaccines with the pertussis vaccine as an example. After the video, our professor mentioned in passing that an outbreak of whooping cough had occurred in Britain due to parents opting not to vaccinate their children because of a possible but rare link between…
NEUROEROTICA
“How do you feel?” she asked. “I’m not sure. Interested, but a bit tense maybe,” said Brad, a thin man with short dark hair, sitting upright in a chair in Janet’s office. Her test subject. Jotting down the last bit of demographic data, she put down her pen and studied him. The screening was complete and the testing begun. He sat quietly, waiting. Once his nervousness faded to near-boredom, she spoke. “Just close your eyes, and relax. Let go.” “Okay.” “Visualize the activation of a number of areas of your brain but don’t try to influence them. Observe, don’t control.…
DIGGING IN THE DIRT: IS THE STUDY OF THE RHIZOSPHERE RIPE FOR A SYSTEMS BIOLOGY APPROACH?
Rhizosphere study systems biology an auspicious approach Introduction: the rhizosphere and systems biology. Both complex: maybe perfect for each other? The rhizosphere is complex. Really, really, ridiculously complex. Dauntingly complex even. Quantitatively now, soil has over 10000 distinct microbes in a single gram [7]. The term rhizosphere was coined to describe, literally, the sphere of influence of the plant root (rhiza): a definition which has also come to include not only the area around a root colonized by microorganisms, but also the parts of a root which contain microorganisms [9]. Notwithstanding the multifarious effects of soil chemistry, climate, and other…
DOLLY REDUX
The world mourned the passing of Dolly the cloned sheep in 2003, but the amiable ovine’s contributions to science did not end with her death. After three years of trial and error, the Scottish researchers who made history by manipulating genes to produce Dolly have announced another breakthrough: the creation of the world’s first clone-based haggis. Haggis, a traditional Scots dish made by combining the heart, liver and lungs of a sheep with oatmeal and suet and then cooking them in the sheep’s stomach, has not previously been linked to the science of genetics. “We thought we’d study the effects…