Steve Fialkoff and I weren’t friends at James Madison High School in Brooklyn, NY. We were in the class of 1972; earlier…
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post Can Curcumin, Black Pepper, and Ginger Treat Retinitis Pigmentosa? Steve Fialkoff’s Excellent Experiment
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post DNA Analysis Solves the Mystery of the Rabbit Invasion of Australia
COVID and monkeypox seem to have come out of nowhere and exploded across continents. But the phenomenon of natural selection acting on…
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post Where Will the Next Pandemic Come From? Highlights from CDC’s Emerging Infectious Diseases
When monkeypox came from out of nowhere in the spring, it sounded like a joke to our collective COVID-fatigued brains. I think…
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post OrganEx Revives Pigs an Hour After Death, Holding Promise for Transplants
Transplant medicine could take a giant leap forward if donor organs could soak up oxygen for longer and decay delayed. A technology…
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post Did a Virus Type Used in Gene Therapy Cause the Recent Wave of Hepatitis in Kids?
The last thing the field of gene therapy needs is another setback. Two studies, not yet peer-reviewed, point to adeno-associated virus (AAV)…
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post From Doodle Dogs to COVID: On the Meaning of Wild Type
Zeke, shown here retrieving a stick from the surf at Lambert’s Cove, Martha’s Vineyard, is an aussiedoodle – a cross between an…
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post Y Chromosome Loss Linked to Hiked Heart Disease Risk: The Human Y Isn’t Useless After All
I’ve never been fond of the human Y chromosome. Yes, the all-important SRY gene sets the early embryo on a path towards…
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post Repealing Roe: A View from a Long-time Biology Textbook Author
The Supreme Court justices who dismantled Roe v Wade in Dobbs v Jackson Woman’s Health Organization should have taken a refresher course…
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post Jurassic World: Dominion Bashes Biotech
If a new Planet of the Apes or Jurassic Park film comes out, I’m going to go see it. The latest, Jurassic…
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post Why a Sperm Donor isn’t a Father
As Father’s Day approaches, ads from the consumer DNA testing companies ramp up. But they don’t warn that in a few weeks…
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post Time Travel, Sea of Tranquility, and the History of Genetics
Tales of time travel have intrigued me since The Time Machine film scared the crap out of me at my cousin Ron’s…
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post Can Chewing Gum Protect Against COVID?
When I was growing up in the 1960s, chewing gum was a big deal. TV ads showcased the doublemint twins and their…