Society of Systematic Biologists

So there's a rather livid article in the Independent by Johann Hari, titled "Why should I respect these oppressive religions?"Starting in 1999, a coalition of Islamist tyrants, led by Saudi Arabia, demanded the rules be rewritten. The demand for everyone to

Hari on Defamation of Religion Laws at Dispatches from the Culture Wars : Johann Hari has an excellent column in The Independent about the attempts to pass laws banning the defamation of religion and how the UN official whose job is to advocate for free speech has now had his job redefined:The UN's Rapporteur on Human Rights has

Yes, Merck beat expectations and posted a profit for the fourth quarter. But look a little closer, and you’ll see that the company’s total sales of $6 billion were actually down 3% from the year-earlier period. Ouch.Given the falling revenue and

Carl Icahn Takes Another Run At Biogen Idec at WSJ.com: Health Blog : Carl Icahn’s stirring things up again over at Biogen Idec. The company said today that Icahn had nominated four people to serve on the Biogen’s board. The company holds staggered elections for its board, so even if all of Icahn’s nominees

AstraZeneca: One Pharma Giant Not Looking for a Big Deal at WSJ.com: Health Blog : Pfizer made the big deal, Roche wants one and Merck and Sanofi-Aventis won’t rule it out. But AstraZeneca isn’t in the market.As the Economist notes in a story this week, the company’s CEO David Brennan (pictured) recently said it doesn’t

Tip for Roche: Use Non-Cash CVRs to Buy Genentech at SeekingAlpha Biotech Stocks : In an unhappy reminder of January 2008, deals continue to collapse or see reductions in price. After the trouble at Rohm & Haas (ROH), the acquisition of Genentech (DNA) by Roche is another large deal officially on the list of downward revisions in price.

As Sales Slump, Merck CEO Clark Looks to Acquisitions at WSJ.com: Health Blog : Yes, Merck beat expectations and posted a profit for the fourth quarter. But look a little closer, and you’ll see that the company’s total sales of $6 billion were actually down 3% from the year-earlier period. Ouch.Given the falling revenue and

With Pfizer buying Wyeth, Eli Lilly digesting ImClone and Roche maneuvering to seal the deal with Genentech, maybe Sanofi-Aventis figures it can make a big acquisition without getting sucked into a bidding war.The company’s new CEO Chris Viehbacher told

Short Business Notes: AstraZeneca, Biogen, Vertex at In the Pipeline : AstraZeneca's CEO bets on China, and says that company isn't in the market or a big merger or acquisition. (The same comments that came up when GSK said this the other day can be assumed to have been made, if readers want to save time. . .)Carl Icahn is making

AstraZeneca: One Pharma Giant Not Looking for a Big Deal at WSJ.com: Health Blog : Pfizer made the big deal, Roche wants one and Merck and Sanofi-Aventis won’t rule it out. But AstraZeneca isn’t in the market.As the Economist notes in a story this week, the company’s CEO David Brennan (pictured) recently said it doesn’t

Sir James Black Vents, Therapeutically at In the Pipeline : Today I can recommend this interview with Sir James Black, discoverer of propranolol, cimetidine, and more. He's 83 and has a lot to say about the current state of the drug industry:He becomes agitated when discussing a Harvard Business Review article from

Tip for Roche: Use Non-Cash CVRs to Buy Genentech at SeekingAlpha Biotech Stocks : In an unhappy reminder of January 2008, deals continue to collapse or see reductions in price. After the trouble at Rohm & Haas (ROH), the acquisition of Genentech (DNA) by Roche is another large deal officially on the list of downward revisions in price.

Merck's Dick Clark shifts position on mega merger at PharmaGossip : Merck's Chief Executive Richard Clark said the drug maker was open to buying a big rival, signaling a shift for a company that long maintained its research prowess was enough to keep it growing.In a conference call with analysts after reporting better-than-expected

Less Than Heartening News from Biotech: Deals and Layoffs at SeekingAlpha Biotech Stocks : The market definitely does not seem to think that Roche's (RHHBY.PK) offer for Genentech (DNA) is going to go through at $86.50. Check out the stock action - note the immediate drop on the announcement of the offer, and the less-than-impressive recovery Monday.

Roche Talks Up Genentech Deal Again at WSJ.com: Health Blog : Associated PressSeverin Schwan, Roche CEO, has a plan to float bonds soon in the grab for Genentech.Roche’s earnings call this morning gave the company another chance to make the case for its drawn-out pursuit of Genentech, which most recently has featured

As Sales Slump, Merck CEO Clark Looks to Acquisitions at WSJ.com: Health Blog : Yes, Merck beat expectations and posted a profit for the fourth quarter. But look a little closer, and you’ll see that the company’s total sales of $6 billion were actually down 3% from the year-earlier period. Ouch.Given the falling revenue and

Short Business Notes: Roche/Genentech, Sanofi-Aventis, GSK at In the Pipeline : The market definitely does not seem to think that Roche's offer for Genentech is going to go through at $86.50. Check out the stock action - note the immediate drop on the announcement of the offer, and the less-than-impressive recovery today. Everyone's waiting

Sanofi-Aventis Set to Join Pharma Acquisition Party at WSJ.com: Health Blog : With Pfizer buying Wyeth, Eli Lilly digesting ImClone and Roche maneuvering to seal the deal with Genentech, maybe Sanofi-Aventis figures it can make a big acquisition without getting sucked into a bidding war.The company’s new CEO Chris Viehbacher told

Textbooks have jumped the shark | Dot Physics"I have been afraid to really speak my mind on this issue because I dont want to completely enrage the textbook publishers. They do send me free books sometimes. Oh well, first what is the chance they will read

links for 2009-02-06 at Uncertain Principles : Textbooks have jumped the shark | Dot Physics"I have been afraid to really speak my mind on this issue because I dont want to completely enrage the textbook publishers. They do send me free books sometimes. Oh well, first what is the chance they will read

Herbal supplements are increasingly popular as both prevenative and potentially curative alternative medicine. Often, they're taking alongside standard medication with the underlying assumption that there's no real downside: At best, they'll help; at worst

Cancer Research Blog Carnival #18 at Science and Reason : I confess. I like to categorize things. There's something about neat little pigeonholes that I find simply irresistible. So, especially for this carnival, I've done the category thing.But first, I want to take this opportunity to raise a question that readers

Green tea blocks benefits of cancer drug at Science Blog - Think. It's not illegal yet. : Contrary to popular assumptions about the health benefits of green tea, researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) have found that the widely used supplement renders a cancer drug used to treat multiple myeloma and mantle cell lymphoma completely

Tim Gower’s experiment in massively collaborative mathematics is now underway. He’s dubbed it the “polymath project” - if you want to see posts related to the project, I suggest looking here. The problem to be attacked can be understood

Terry at What's new : This is a continuation of several threads from Tim Gowers’ massively collaborative mathematics project, A combinatorial approach to density Hales-Jewett“, which I discussed in my previous post.For any positive integer n, let be the set of strings

The stimulus package being shopped to congress by the Obama administration includes a considerable amount of science funding. The House passed a version that calls for an extra $2 billion dollars into core research at the NSF. The Senate is considering a bill

The AFL-CIO Puts Up $1 Million for Green Jobs at sustainablog : Its nice when people put their money where their mouths are. For some time now, labor has been on the green jobs bandwagon. At this week’s Good Jobs Green Jobs conference, the AFL-CIO announced a $1 million investment from the Working for America Institute

[bpsdb] This is hosted on Wikileaks, so if I'm asked to take this link down, you can find it there, safe from the lawyers (I am not hosting it on layscience.net). This forty-odd minute mp3 was originally hosted on Ben Goldacre's Bad Science, but has since been

The shit hits the fan : Jeni Barnett and LBC start the clean-up operation at NHS Blog Doctor : And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Phillistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead, and he fell upon his face to the earth. (I Samuel 17:49)++++++++++Shortly after Ben Goldacre drew attention

KentuckyFC writes "If the universe is teeming with advanced civilizations capable of communicating over interstellar distances, then surely we ought to have seen them by now. That's the gist of a paradoxical line of reasoning put forward by the physicist Enrico

New Angles on the Drake Equation at Centauri Dreams : The Drake Equation in its various forms has been tormenting us for decades, raising the question of how to adjust variables that range from astronomical (the abundance of terrestrial planets) to biological (the probability of life’s emergence) and even

Is There Anybody Out There? at Uncertain Principles : The Arxiv blog highlights a post on John Scalzi's favorite science question: the Fermi Paradox:We have little to guide us on the question of the existence intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. But the physicist Enrico Fermi came up with the most obvious

New Paper Offers Additional Reasoning for Fermi's Paradox at Slashdot: Science : KentuckyFC writes "If the universe is teeming with advanced civilizations capable of communicating over interstellar distances, then surely we ought to have seen them by now. That's the gist of a paradoxical line of reasoning put forward by the physicist Enrico

New Paper Offers Additional Reasoning for Fermi's Paradox at Slashdot: Science : KentuckyFC writes "If the universe is teeming with advanced civilizations capable of communicating over interstellar distances, then surely we ought to have seen them by now. That's the gist of a paradoxical line of reasoning put forward by the physicist Enrico

I and the Bird #93: The Compelling Nature of Birds - now up on Vickie Henderson ArtThe latest Change of Shift: Welcome to The Fishbowl is up on Digital DoorwayRead the comments on this post...

Today's carnivals at A Blog Around The Clock : I and the Bird #93: The Compelling Nature of Birds - now up on Vickie Henderson ArtThe latest Change of Shift: Welcome to The Fishbowl is up on Digital DoorwayRead the comments on this post...

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu warned climate change could severely impact California agricultural industry by the end of the century, reported the Los Angeles Times.

Energy Sec. Steven Chu: Viability of California cities and farms threatened by climate disruption at ClimateScienceWatch : "I don’t think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu told the Los Angeles Times. “We’re looking at a scenario where there’s no more agriculture in California.” And, he

Annals of Human Genetics doi:10.1111/j.1469-1809.2009.00504.xInteractions Between HERC2, OCA2 and MC1R May Influence Human Pigmentation PhenotypeWojciech Branicki et al.AbstractHuman pigmentation is a polygenic trait which may be shaped by different kinds of

What does eye color have to do with skin color? at Gene Expression : Via Dienekes, Interactions Between HERC2, OCA2 and MC1R May Influence Human Pigmentation Phenotype:Human pigmentation is a polygenic trait which may be shaped by different kinds of gene-gene interactions. Recent studies have revealed that interactive effects

Just ask Richard Mullens, who has not said he is an atheist, but was suspected of being one…and lost his job as a teacher for that reason.

It must be tough to be an atheist in Texas at Pharyngula : Just ask Richard Mullens, who has not said he is an atheist, but was suspected of being one…and lost his job as a teacher for that reason.Then on January 7th, a student in my classroom in second period left my class, went to the Principal's office, and

Rich just posted an interesting read on Web-Centric Science, after a gauntlet thrown down by The Realm of Organic Synthesis (TROS).I agree that this still is a problem: where can (organic) chemists host their data? TROS hints as Wikipedia, but an encyclopedia

Where can I host my experimental data? Open Submission Chemistry Databases #1 at chem-bla-ics : Rich just posted an interesting read on Web-Centric Science, after a gauntlet thrown down by The Realm of Organic Synthesis (TROS).I agree that this still is a problem: where can (organic) chemists host their data? TROS hints as Wikipedia, but an encyclopedia

Last year I wrote about Roger Pielke Jr's abuse of draft reports for point-scoring purposes. Coby Beck catches him doing it again:His latest effort at sabotaging productive discourse on climate science and policy is a really low blow, putting to rest any lingering

Flailing at Stoat : Stoat, always first with the news. Too busy with real work and the pub, sorry. Yes, its the RP teacup.Life is too short to wade through the full skewed mess. Read John Fleck for the summary and Coby Beck for pages more detail. Or better still, don't.Part 2

This snake really could spell doom for Indiana Jones as scientists report the discovery of a 13 metre boa constrictor weighing in at more than a ton. Thankfully for any ophidiophobics reading, the discovery published in Nature refers to a species long-since

Titanoboa! at The Panda's Thumb : Just wait — this one will be featured in some cheesy Sci-Fi channel creature feature in a few months. Paleontologists have dug up a fossil boa that lived 58-60 million years ago. They haven't found a complete skeleton, but there's enough to get an estimate

Titanoboa! at Pharyngula : Just wait — this one will be featured in some cheesy Sci-Fi channel creature feature in a few months. Paleontologists have dug up a fossil boa that lived 58-60 million years ago. They haven't found a complete skeleton, but there's enough to get an estimate

Titanoboa cerrejonensis at Hairy Museum of Natural History : The giant Titanoboa (detail) Credit: Jason Bourque, University of FloridaFrom the UF press release.New Snake: Titanoboa cerrejonensisName Means: Titanic Boa from CerrejnRelations: Boid SnakeHolotype: UF-IGM 1, a precloacal vertebraLocation: Cerrejn, northeastern

Largest Prehistoric Snake On Record Discovered In Colombia at Slashdot: Science : minimen writes "Scientists have recovered fossils of a 60-million-year-old South American snake. Named Titanoboa cerrejonensis by its discoverers, the size of the snake's vertebrae suggest it weighed 1140 kg (2,500 pounds) and measured 13 meters (42.7 feet)

Now that is one big snake at Pure Pedantry : Imagine the mice it would eat:Named Titanoboa cerrejonensis by its discoverers, the size of the snake's vertebrae suggest it weighed 1140 kg (2,500 pounds) and measured 13 metres (42.7 feet) nose to tail tip. A report describing the find appears in this week's

Giant damned snake could eat a cow at Science Blog - Think. It's not illegal yet. : Scientists have recovered fossils from a 60-million-year-old South American snake whose length and weight might make today's anacondas and reticulated pythons seem a bit cuter and more cuddly.read more

Behold! Titanoboa! at PALAEOBLOG : Giant boid snake from the Palaeocene neotropics reveals hotter past equatorial temperatures. 2009. J.J. Head, et al. Nature 457: 71Scientists have recovered fossils from a new 60-million-year-old South American snake, Titanoboa cerrejonensi. The size of its

The One-ton Boa at SciScoop Science Blog : This snake really could spell doom for Indiana Jones as scientists report the discovery of a 13 metre boa constrictor weighing in at more than a ton. Thankfully for any ophidiophobics reading, the discovery published in Nature refers to a species long-since

Baby clownfish spend their first 11-12 days of their life in deep water, but need to find a reef to live out their adult life. It is thought that they find the reef by following their noses home, but what happens when you add a little acid to the water? Like

Fish lose their way with nostrils on acid at Nobel Intent : Baby clownfish spend their first 11-12 days of their life in deep water, but need to find a reef to live out their adult life. It is thought that they find the reef by following their noses home, but what happens when you add a little acid to the water? Like

Well, when you've got a captive audience....LONG BEACH, Calif. - "Bill Gates just released mosquitos into the audience at TED and said, 'Not only poor people should experience this.'"That was the post by Facebook's Senior Platform Manager Dave Morin on social

Now I really, really like Bill Gates at Mystery Rays from Outer Space : From MSNBC:“Bill Gates just released mosquitos into the audience at TED and said, ‘Not only poor people should experience this.’”That was the post by Facebook’s Senior Platform Manager Dave Morin on social networking site Twitter.The

Bill Gates, bioterrorist wannabe at John Hawks Anthropology Weblog : Well, when you've got a captive audience....LONG BEACH, Calif. - "Bill Gates just released mosquitos into the audience at TED and said, 'Not only poor people should experience this.'"That was the post by Facebook's Senior Platform Manager Dave Morin on social

Colors can have a profound effect on our behavior and cognitive performance. This much has been known for a while, but there has always been disagreement among scientists as to just what effect different colors have on the human mind. Now a paper in Science

He'd probably have died sooner if he was a blueshirt.... at Nobel Intent : Colors can have a profound effect on our behavior and cognitive performance. This much has been known for a while, but there has always been disagreement among scientists as to just what effect different colors have on the human mind. Now a paper in Science

Herbal supplements are increasingly popular as both prevenative and potentially curative alternative medicine. Often, they're taking alongside standard medication with the underlying assumption that there's no real downside: At best, they'll help; at worst

Green tea blocks benefits of cancer drug at Science Blog - Think. It's not illegal yet. : Contrary to popular assumptions about the health benefits of green tea, researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) have found that the widely used supplement renders a cancer drug used to treat multiple myeloma and mantle cell lymphoma completely