Bio-control

There are libraries of jokes about the huge policemen of Haryana. Often, by insinuation, it is meant that anything that grows huge in size, has compromised on some grey matter. Of course, history is replete with people of minor stature who have enjoyed making their case of higher brain power over brawn (Woody Allen for e.g):)


So, it was a very pleasant surprise to learn that a very ingenious way of bio-control was thought up and practised by our own Haryana Police and that too in the famous "milky-town" of Karnal. BBC reports the story of enterprising Thaanawalas (police station) in Karnal who have used domesticated white mice to maraud the hoardes of rats that feast on ...interestingly paper, clothing and jute sacks of narcotics..! hmm... !!

"Innumerable rodents have invaded the Moharar Maalkhana [record room] and we have been helpless," said the senior superintendent of Karnal, Arshinder Singh Chawla.

"These rats or mice are voracious eaters and have chewed up vital papers, clothing and even the jute [rough fibre] sacks we normally use to store narcotics, illicit alcohol and weapons confiscated from criminals and crime scenes," he said.

The unusual experiment in the police compound at Karnal has attracted the attention of university animal biologists. Mr Chawla has already had a number of queries from the small animals lab of the Haryana Agriculture University at Hissar.

I wonder if Hissar Univ will start churning out their own version of cloned “mice” with steel teeths perhaps..?OR a new breeding program of buffalos with mice..to make “Miffalos”? I just hope thats not considered sacrilege.

Operations to remove landmines laid along the Indian-Pakistan border in 2002 became increasingly precarious after it was discovered that rats had moved hundreds of anti-personnel mines from their mapped locations.

I bet that sounds hilarious, but I shudder at the implications! Also perhaps a very easy way of de-mining the border.. (like that is ever going to happen). Just stick some sweets to the mines and bury them. When the “Parakram” is over, unleash the rats to retrieve the mines!! voila..!!

Obama Signs Memo to "Protect" Science

NEW YORK  – At the White House signing this afternoon of an executive order to overturn the previous administration's ban on using human embryonic stem cells in research, US President Barack Obama also signed a memorandum that he said is aimed at insulating science from politics.

The text of the Scientific Integrity Presidential Memorandum was not immediately available, and it is unclear exactly what measures might be taken to protect scientific enterprises from political partisanship.

But President Obama said today that the memorandum charges the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy with development of "a strategy for restoring scientific integrity to government decision making."

He said that his administration will "base our public policies on the soundest science …[and] appoint scientific advisors based on their credentials and experience, not their politics or ideology." In addition, Obama said that his administration will be "open and honest with the American people about the science behind our decisions."

He also said that promoting science is about more than providing resources, but also involves "ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda – and that we make scientific decisions base on facts, not ideology."

Pyrosequencing video

Genome Sequencer FLX System Workflow:
High throughput deep sequencing on the 454 system using Pyrosequencing and bead tech

Helicos High Throughput Sequencing

Helicos High Speed Gene Sequencing

Daylight Saving..? Really saving?

Today, March 8th, America springs its clock an hour earlier, moving ahead to usher in Spring. In 2005 Congress passed the Energy Policy Act, including a provision to extend daylight-saving time by 3 weeks in Spring and one week in Fall.This round of daylight saving time will end Nov. 1, when we'll set the clocks back again. Spring forward, and fall back.
The idea was that this would help in energy conservation. It was estimated that we would possibly save 100,000 barrels of oil per day and enjoy a 1% decrease in energy consumption because people will turn interior and exterior lights on later in the day, thus saving electricity (or candles).But 3 years later, many studies cannot quantify a saving and some even report more energy spending due to this silly rule. As one of my colleagues mentioned, there are Indian reservations in Arizona that follow it and some dont. So you travel through Phoenix thinking its 10:00AM for the meeting, pass one reservation, drive into the next and pooofff! you are in magic land.. ! Its 9:00AM.. time machine !!


According to researchers in Finland, daylight saving time has mixed effects on people's health. Sleeping patterns are disturbed, more so with night owls than morning folk. Another study found a spike in heart attacks during the first week of daylight saving time. When it ends in the fall, heart attacks briefly become less frequent than normal.
You will literally be going back in time if you travel to Mexico over the next month.We switched to daylight saving time early on Sunday morning, March 8.But Mexico won't switch until a month from now, April 5.    That means when you cross over the border from San Diego to get to Tijuana, you may get there before you left!

Carmina Burana

The tempestous composition of Carmina Burana by Carl Orff.
Listen to the University of Warsaw Choir (MP3)

Made famous by Old Spice for Men, this epic composition exposes the fickle nature of man's fortune and fate.

O Fortuna velut luna statu variabilis, semper crescis aut decrescis; vita detestabilis nunc obdurat et tunc curat ludo mentis aciem, egestatem, potestatem dissolvit ut glaciem. Sors immanis et inanis, rota tu volubilis, status malus, vana salus semper dissolubilis, obumbrata et velata michi quoque niteris; nunc per ludum dorsum nudum fero tui sceleris. Sors salutis et virtutis michi nunc contraria, est affectus et defectus semper in angaria. Hac in hora sine mora corde pulsum tangite; quod per sortem sternit fortem, mecum omnes plangite!

O Fortune, like the moon you are changeable, ever waxing and waning; hateful life first oppresses and then soothes as fancy takes it; poverty and power it melts them like ice. Fate - monstrous and empty, you whirling wheel, you are malevolent, well-being is vain and always fades to nothing, shadowed and veiled you plague me too; now through the game I bring my bare back to your villainy. Fate is against me in health and virtue, driven on and weighted down, always enslaved. So at this hour without delay pluck the vibrating strings; since Fate strikes down the string man, everyone weep with me!

Harold Varmus on Daily Show

Jon Stewart hosts Harold Varmus , President of MSKCC and Nobel Prize winner on the Daily Show.
They discuss about science funding and his new Book The Art and Politics of Science (Hardcover)
Dr. Varmus discusses about Science funding and the fight on cancer as well as the funding crunch at NIH during the Bush years.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Harold Varmus

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Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
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When Spine matters in Sex

A very interesting article aobut Bean weevil sex organs and how it gives an evolutionary advantage to have bigger spines on the penile organ.
Read this interesting article by Ed Yong in ScienceBlog

Reference: Cosima Hotzy, Göran Arnqvist (2009). Sperm Competition Favors Harmful Males in Seed Beetles Current Biology DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2009.01.045

Making of a Scientist

At the screening of a short film," Naturally Obsessed, The Making of a Scientist", Nobel prize winner James Watson made several provocative comments about the teachers. He was also of the opinion that young scientists should not be nice to each other but should be having the passion to win... a euphemism for cut throat attitude.

Read the whole story at Scientific American