I came across a fascinating story regarding McMaster University in Ontario Canada. The basic gist of the article is that more than 180 students were divided into groups and assigned the task of trying to identify the molecular makeup of four sins specifically: lust, gluttony, wrath and sloth (laziness). Click here for the full story. http://dailynews.mcmaster.ca/story.cfm?id=7312 The student groups then sought a hypothetical solution using biology/chemistry to try and remedy those sins. My … [Read more...]

Here's an interesting - yet disturbing - story from The Daily Telegraph, a UK-based newspaer of a researcher who fudged data results and forged the names of study co-authors on as many as 90 peer-reviewed publications. This fraudulent researcher also happened to be one of the world's premier anaesthetists, which enabled him to perpetuate these scientific shenanigans for years. While the fraud was ultimately found out nearly a decade later, it's striking that such bad science could … [Read more...]

You’d think it’d be easy defining “life” - by that I mean the actual processes of living. Think about it, as living beings, each of us is intimately acquainted with what it means to be alive and exhibits the traits or processes of living entities.  The concept of life seems so obvious. But if you think back to your freshman biology the differences between living and non-living entities were determined by the various life functions that were exhibited. Here’s a short list … [Read more...]