Brief Bio

I was born and raised in Kalamazoo MI. I earned my bachelors of science in biology from Western Michigan University. I met and fell in love with a big goof of a man named Cliff. I have a fat lazy cat named Kerby and a dog named Bear.

Bacteria, viruses alter evolution’s speed

January 31st, 2007 at 2:51 am (News)

From Sciencedaily, if you know anything about life’s progression(for a lack of a better way of saying it) bacteria came first. Then multi-cellular organisms. So that the rest of life’s diversity evolved in about 1 billion years(in a ~3.8 billion year span for the whole of life).

Bacteria shares DNA through the use of plasmids. Some viruses use can use reverse transcriptase to integrate into the DNA of its host to make new copies of itself. It is believed that this transfer of DNA can speed the rate of evolution.

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Eagle Nebula R.I.P.

January 21st, 2007 at 9:43 pm (News, Science, Thoughts)

The iconic Hubble image the is probably the wallpaper on hundreds of million computers is no more. The Eagle Nebula was destroyed by a supernova 6ooo years ago according to the NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. Just imagine when humans were building the first villages a supernova was scattering the dust of the Eagle Nebula.

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Lake Vostok life to be studied

January 16th, 2007 at 8:39 am (Microbiology, News)

From Physorg, a look at Lake Vostok in Antarctica. I think they maybe doing a metagenome study.

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Researchers Warn Milk Eliminates Teas Benefits

January 16th, 2007 at 8:06 am (Food, News)

From Biocompare, this study looks at how adding milk to tea reduces the cardiovascular benefits. As an American I usually don’t drink my tea with milk, but apparently the English are big on adding Milk. Intrestingly I was watching Modern Marvels on tea. While drinking tea(an herbal).

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Scientists discover new life forms in the Arctic Ocean

January 13th, 2007 at 7:05 am (Microbiology, News)

This from Physorg.com, is a discovery of a new type of algae. Being akin to red algae, picoplankton was uncovered by biochemical means.

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