
Mosh pit (wetwebwork/Flickr)
Tapas-sized bits of science from this week:
- Our microbes make us look fat. Actually, our microbes might be what makes us fat.
- It’s important to remember that, as drugs go, Visine is an outie, not an innie.
- The rooster crows at dawn, even if it can’t see the sunrise. Because his internal clock is pretty darned accurate.
- Speaking of poultry: You know those chickens you were going to raise in your backyard? You’d better get rigorous about hand-washing, because those birds might be teeming with salmonella.
- And don’t make fun of duck sex research. Honestly, because it’s one of those areas of basic research that might be more important than we immediately realize.
- Enough with the birds; now on to the bees. In particular, bee venom, which contains a chemical that can kill HIV. Science blogger Perrin Ireland draws the picture for us.
- The story of Henrietta Lacks — the woman whose cells, taken without her consent or knowledge, gave rise to one of the most widely used cell lines in biomedical research — has a new chapter. Last week, a research team published (and then withdrew) the full genome sequence of those cells, again without asking her family’s consent. Though, as one blogger points out, at least portions of the cells’ genome have been available for years.
- Moshers move like atoms in a gas. So say researchers studying the physics of mosh pits. That’s so metal.