Refocusing PLoS Medicine’s Editorial vision (video) [A Blog Around The Clock]

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List of Identified, Known Carcinogens in Electronic Cigarettes vs. Conventional Cigarettes, and Which Anti-Smoking Groups are Telling Smokers to Smoke

Based on the best available scientific evidence, I have compiled a list of the identified, known carcinogens present at greater than trace quantities in electronic cigarettes compared to conventional cigarettes.
Below that list is a table listing a number of anti-smoking organizations and which of the two products they have stated or implied they would prefer [...]

Heritability of height vs. weight [Gene Expression]

Megan McArdle has a post, Thining Thin, a follow up to America’s Moral Panic Over Obesity. She says:
1. Obesity is increasing in the population, so it can’t be genetic.
Well, average height is also increasing in the population. Does that mean that you could be as tall as me, if you weren’t too lazy [...]

Scientists program blood stem cells to become vision cells

Source: University of FloridaDate: July 30, 2009
Summary:
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Florida researchers were able to program bone marrow stem cells to repair damaged retinas in mice, suggesting a potential treatment for one of the most common causes of vision loss in older people. The success in repairing a damaged layer of [...]

Comparison of Carcinogen Levels Shows that Electronic Cigarettes are Much Safer Than Conventional Ones

The FDA last week condemned electronic cigarettes on the basis that an FDA laboratory detected carcinogens (tobacco-specific nitrosamines) in the cartridges of several electronic cigarette manufacturers. The FDA held a press conference in which it attempted to scare electronic cigarette users into discontinuing e-cigarette use (and therefore a return to conventional cigarette smoking). In addition, [...]

Lateral Patellar Tilt

The role of patellofemoral malalignment in anterior knee pain has been shown by many investigators. Detection of lateral displacement was the sole purpose of earlier studies until Laurin et al. introduced the concept of patellar tilt as a form of malalignment. This tilt could be observed even with the patella completely reduced in the femoral [...]

Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Other Anti-Smoking Groups Would Condemn a Million Ex-Smokers to Return to Cigarette Smoking, Causing Countless Deaths

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids has joined a number of other anti-smoking groups in calling for a ban on electronic cigarettes and an immediate removal of these devices from the market. In a press release issued last week, the Campaign wrote: “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has acted to protect public health from so-called [...]

Seeking Your Submissions: Scientia Pro Publica [Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)]

Image: wemidji (Jacques Marcoux).

Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (And thus knowledge itself is power)
– Sir Francis Bacon.

Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) is a blog carnival that celebrates the best science, nature and medical writing targeted specifically to the public that has been published in the blogosphere within the past 60 [...]

Animals in Research: Unnecessary Duplication [DrugMonkey]

The Speaking of Research group has posted an open letter criticizing an analysis of research redundancy which forms the backbone of a USDA complaint authored by an ARA extremist*. The open letter points up the essential vapidity of the complaint and I encourage you to go read. (There are links to activist sites there so [...]

How the pathology of Parkinson’s disease spreads

Source: University of California – San DiegoDate: July 27, 2009
Summary:
Accumulation of the synaptic protein α-synuclein, resulting in the formation of aggregates called Lewy bodies in the brain, is a hallmark of Parkinson’s and other related neurodegenerative diseases. This pathology appears to spread throughout the brain as the disease progresses. Now, researchers at the [...]

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