A paper in the most recent Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences examines in detail how one weed, Amaranthus tuberculatus (waterhemp) developed resistance to a class of herbicides called protoporphyrinogen oxidase inhibitors. PPO is the last, vital enzyme step in the pathway that l...
Amy Smith’s Tedtalk was really stimulating, especially the wrap up -- if we were in Zambia, 300 of you would be farmers ... and 100 of you would have AIDS. But there’s something a little disturbing about her thesis.
Rewind. Amy Smith, a professor of engineering at MIT, invents stuff to help poor...
Communicatrix may be breaking new ground in the what-to-blog-if-you’ve-nothing-to-blog-about realm. Not content with that old standby of blogging the search terms people have used to find you (as I am) she’s sharing the sites she has Stumbled Upon using the fine Firefox extension of that name. Of...
Astounded by the news (via Harper's Weekly) that one of the poor saps whose AOL internet searches had been revealed for all the world to see had been looking for “easter cookie recipe for jesus' suffering,” I popped that sucker into Google. And you know what? There is such a thing!1 One of t...
At the Post Office:
Me: Good morning. I’d like five 80 cent priority stamps please.
Man behind counter: I’ll see. (Wanders off)
Me: (Drums fingers. Looks at scraps of paper on counter. Glances at watch.)
MBC: (Wanders back.) We don’t have any.
Me: (Voice a tad squeaky, incredulous...
