The Opposing Thumb – Page 16 – An opinionated digit leafs through the biological literature

The Marquis’ Cabinet of Wonders III

May 18, 2014 Leave a comment

The inner life of the cell, a series of animations created for Harvard’s BioVisions Program by XVIVO.

Return of the Bell Curve

May 17, 2014 Leave a comment

It’s the fuckin’ gene that does the runnin’. The horse got nothin’ to do with it.- The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984). It seems that not a day goes by without an overblown claim for a gene being made. The gene for homosexuality has been cloned. Scientists have found the gene for intelligence. Genetic basis of […]

Beauty is in the Biological Knowledge of the Beholder

May 16, 2014 Leave a comment

OT feels that readers of a previous post were left with an unflattering view of the late, great Richard Feynman as a of soulless technocrat. Feynman added to his intelligence and analytical skills a palpable sense of wonder and play, a brief snippet of which can be glimpsed in this clip, where he takes down […]

Epidemiology II

May 14, 2014 Leave a comment

Why Did AIDS Ravage the U.S. More Than Any Other Developed Country?

Epidemiology I

Print the Legend

May 12, 2014 Leave a comment

Phineas Gage (1823-1860) & his little friend. Protecting patient anonymity is an important part of clinical research- from those little black bars over the eyes to complex data coding protocols, every effort is made to protect privacy. The initials or aliases that litter the medical literature often hide fascinating, touching lives, like that of Henrietta […]

The Marquis’ Cabinet of Wonders II

May 11, 2014 Leave a comment

Artificial life.

ZEEV PANCER (1957-2014)

May 10, 2014 Leave a comment

Image by Madalena Parreira. You are not a real scientist until you make a discovery. And if you make a great discovery, you’re a great scientist– E.O. Wilson. Once upon a dinner, many years ago, a young OT was seated next to a Grand Old Man of Science. Grand asked Opposing, in a gruff old […]

Natural Born Killer

May 9, 2014 Leave a comment

Albrecht Durer, Death King on Horseback, 1505. Commenting on OT’s smallpox post, alert reader Jonathan Howard asks: “Why do people die of smallpox? Which is the vulnerable, the lethal organ? Can we now do anything about the tissue damage?”. Why and how infections kill is often surprisingly difficult to ascertain. Experimental approaches often measure only […]

Could it really be this simple?

May 8, 2014 Leave a comment

Modeling studies done in 2009–2011 showed that in these 14 priority countries, achieving 80% circumcision prevalence among males aged 15–49 within five years (“catch-up”), and maintaining this coverage rate in subsequent years (“sustainability”), could avert 3.4 million new HIV infections within 15 years and generate treatment and care savings of US$16.5 billion.