Various and Sundry

This past weekend was a busy one. The CHE Graduate Student Symposium that I co-coordinated was all day Saturday.



We had a great turnout (over 40 people over the course of the day). This photo was of the brave souls that made it all the way to the end of the day.



I was very pleased with the variety we had (there was even a poster session) and quite a few History of Science faculty attended in the morning.

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In other news I have decided to run the Monona 20K this year. It's just a hair under a half-marathon, so I'm going to try the intermediate half-marathon training schedule that Hal Higdon offers. Basically, instead of optional run Wednesdays, they are pace days (try to run that distance at the pace you want to run the race). I ran the Madison Half-Marathon at the 11:30/mile pace, so I want to at least up that to an 11:00/mile pace, but if that starts to go well in training I will shoot for 10:30 or 10:00/mile.

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I am also doing a challenge at my climbing gym this month: Climb a Mile. It's a lot harder challenge than it sounds. It equals out to doing 220 routes in 28 days. My partner and I have increased how many days a week we go to 3 times and increased the amount of routes we do each time from 7 to over 20. On the one hand it has really increased our stamina and technique, but disincentivizes trying new routes because you have to finish a route for it to count. In order to get a lot of routes done in one trip we usually do a warm up route 4 times, level up a route 3 times, level up to our peak route and do two of those 2 times each, then level back down the way we came up and add on at the end if we still have energy. Since we are doing routes more than once we try to change our technique each time, which has been interesting.

And, best of all, we are on pace to actually accomplish it! There is a party and raffle at the end, but really, it's about changing up our routine and trying something new for us.

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And finally! I finally broke down and got a tablet. Every time I thought about getting it I said, "oh, my netbook isn't that bad," and then last week it didn't even have enough available memory to run java. Since I waited this long I was able to get the Google Nexus 7 with 4G, so I can use it even when there isn't WiFi. So far I really, really like it. The difference in memory and power is exponential. I held off getting a blue tooth keyboard until I used it a little, but I do need to get that for taking notes with it. If I had the Nexus 10, the larger screen would make the on-screen keyboard workable, but I would prefer smaller size for most of it's uses and have an optional keyboard for the times I need that.

Science Tuesday - Chagas, "Model Species," and the Missing Link?

Chagas Disease Costs U.S. More Than Better-Known Illnesses
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr., The New York Times, February 11, 2013

Chagas disease may be obscure, but the economic burden it imposes on the world is greater than that of better-known diseases, like cervical cancer or cholera, according to a new study. Even in the United States, the authors said, the costs of Chagas are commensurate with those of more publicized diseases, like Lyme disease.

(In the same league, perhaps, but not quite equal. In their study, published in Lancet Infectious Diseases, the authors calculated that Chagas cost the American economy $900 million a year. A 1998 study estimated that Lyme disease cost $2.5 billion.)

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Mice Fall Short as Test Subjects for Humans’ Deadly Ills
By GINA KOLATA, The New York Times, February 11, 2013

For decades, mice have been the species of choice in the study of human diseases. But now, researchers report evidence that the mouse model has been totally misleading for at least three major killers — sepsis, burns and trauma. As a result, years and billions of dollars have been wasted following false leads, they say.

The study’s findings do not mean that mice are useless models for all human diseases. But, its authors said, they do raise troubling questions about diseases like the ones in the study that involve the immune system, including cancer and heart disease.

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An artist's rendering of a placental ancestor. Researchers say the small, insect-eating animal is the most likely common ancestor of the species on the most abundant and diverse branch of the mammalian family tree.

Rat-Size Ancestor Said to Link Man and Beast
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, The New York Times, February 7, 2013

Humankind’s common ancestor with other mammals may have been a roughly rat-size animal that weighed no more than a half a pound, had a long furry tail and lived on insects.

In a comprehensive six-year study of the mammalian family tree, scientists have identified and reconstructed what they say is the most likely common ancestor of the many species on the most abundant and diverse branch of that tree — the branch of creatures that nourish their young in utero through a placenta. The work appears to support the view that in the global extinctions some 66 million years ago, all non-avian dinosaurs had to die for mammals to flourish.

Scientists had been searching for just such a common genealogical link and have found it in a lowly occupant of the fossil record, Protungulatum donnae, that until now has been so obscure that it lacks a colloquial nickname. But as researchers reported Thursday in the journal Science, the animal had several anatomical characteristics for live births that anticipated all placental mammals and led to some 5,400 living species, from shrews to elephants, bats to whales, cats to dogs and, not least, humans.

A team of researchers described the discovery as an important insight into the pattern and timing of early mammal life and a demonstration of the capabilities of a new system for handling copious amounts of fossil and genetic data in the service of evolutionary biology. The formidable new technology is expected to be widely applied in years ahead to similar investigations of plants, insects, fish and fowl.

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