Author Archives: kirkmike157

Vitamin F

Posted on August 28, 2015

  Sabine is a mouse midwife. She’s looking after about 20 expectant mouse moms, and the prognosis for the babies is not good. 3/4 of them will be born looking relatively normal, and no one is too concerned about these. … Continue reading →

Posted in Drug Development, Genetics, Medicine, R&D, Science | Leave a comment

Pig Blood

Posted on July 31, 2015

There were two dead pigs dangling from the ceiling, spinning around together in a slow pirouette. Another was submerged in a vat of scalding water, and one more lay sprawled on the grate of a heavy iron rack. Kurt had … Continue reading →

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Who were the Denisovans anyway?

Posted on July 29, 2015

Originally posted on TwilightBeasts:
Human evolution used to be the preserve of two groups of academics: the ones who liked fossils and the ones who liked stone tools. Both regarded the other as peculiar for being obsessed with the wrong…

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Sympathy for the Devil

Posted on June 12, 2015

Tim Hunt is a 72-year old British Nobel laureate who was forced to resign from his position at the University College of London this week because of things he said at a press conference. Those sentences have been reproduced widely … Continue reading →

Posted in CaBRI, Science, Short Stories | Tagged | Leave a comment

Lineage-Enders

Posted on April 21, 2015

Teddy Wayne recently wrote a piece for the Sunday New York Times called “The Childless Life” (the digital version is titled “No Kids for Me, Thanks”) which at face value was a discussion of the individual choice to go vocally, self-righteously extinct. In … Continue reading →

Posted in Environment, Genetics, Natural History, Science, Sperm donation | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Of Mice and Men, and Cats and Women

Posted on February 9, 2015

 Wookie Bear I am infested with parasites. My entire house is lousy with them—the word lousy is derived from the singular form for lice, a particular small mammalian ectoparasite. We categorize our parasites by where they live—the endoparasites like ascarid worms … Continue reading →

Posted in Genetics, Natural History, Science | Leave a comment

Yeitse

Posted on January 22, 2015

This post was inspired by Michael Eisen (@mbeisen), who innocently asked about the DNA content of various foods on Twitter a few days ago. As expected, the responses were mostly the rantings of idiots, all sound and fury, signifying nothing. Michael … Continue reading →

Posted in Environment, Genetics, Science | Tagged , , | 4 Comments