Author Archive
DNA damaged by sports?
Does anybody fancy sports? No? That’s no surprise at all. Nearly daily doping disclosures cast a damning light on high performance activities and their morbid background. Well, it seems that taking part in the Tour de France is unthinkable without bringing along suitcases full of EPO, hGH and Insulin. Actually, most of our healthy and […]
No More Needles!!
This one’s a plea for more pleasant consultations. In other words: I never want to be scared to death again when visiting the doctor.
When I recently had a routine check at my GP, he noticed that my immunisation protection against Tetanus bacteria (given by a combined Td-Polio vaccine) had expired. He smiled maliciously – and […]
Mad Scientists and their Life Forms
You consider yourself an unorthodox, free-thinking mind? Well, I am afraid you missed a crucial deadline: a definitely weird but also inspiring competition has found its winners without you.
I refer to the world’s first “mad science contest” (themed “Build a Life Form and We’ll Send You to Hong Kong”). Searching for “biology to be brazen”, […]
Mr. Gene’s SynBio 4.0 - ipod lottery - Register Now!
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1st place: iPod touch
2nd place: iPod nano
3rd to 10th place: iPod shuffle
Apple and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple, Inc. Apple is not a participant or sponsor of this promotion.
When Scientist play jokes …
This one’s about crop growing and gardening, no kidding!
However, the location is somewhat, well, strange…
Anyway – enjoy the comical incident when Erik Fransén, a Swedish researcher, went away on a Neuroscience conference in the USA for two weeks and noticed on his return that his computer keyboard had come to life.
You can read about the […]
Ooooh that smell …!
“Whiskey bottles, and brand new carsOak tree you’re in my wayThere’s too much coke and too much smokeLook what’s going on inside youOoooh that smellCan’t you smell that smellOoooh that smellThe smell of death surrounds you”(“That Smell” by US rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, released in 1977 – a song about Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington who […]
Genetically modified muscle monsters
Only one more day until the 2008 Summer Olympic Games start. Needless to say that these Games will be a prime example of Love, Peace and Harmony (at least when visiting the slashed “world” wide web from an internet café in Beijing…).
However, I have to muddy the good mood a little. Quit the OSM (= […]
Cancer has a cacophonous melody (really?)
Well, in my opinion, the following is quite bizarre: Gil Alterovitz, an electrical and biomedical engineer with proteomics skills (and MIT alumnus, as well), is developing a computer program that translates protein and gene expression into music.
I’m not kidding. Recently, the Technology Review (TR) published an article on this guy’s conversion of genetic activity into […]
Wikification of Genes – next Effort
Have you noticed, yet, that the wwweb has swollen up like people’s bellies after Christmas? As an example, take the ten thousands of wikis that congest the virtual world. Each of them is an epitome of wisdom (well, let’s face it: most wikis are as superfluous as the fifth leg of an antelope).
Recently, the wiki […]
Be a record holder (and a Nobel Price winner, too)!
How’s work going? For my share, experiments have been going awry for weeks (and still are) while my demanding lab taskmaster is becoming more and more bad-tempered (and so am I!).
Tons of failed experiments in mind, my research grant running out at lightning-speed and the next sensational blockbuster paper out of reach, I brainstormed about […]
