tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-189425692011-11-20T04:30:10.893-05:00Pharmacology, Pharmacognosy, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pharmacy, and general musings on medicines from the Earth... <br> ...but, uh, no, nothing here about pottery.Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.comBlogger891100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1150648716058450462006-06-18T12:34:00.004-04:002010-08-25T18:49:50.337-04:00

http://cenblog.org/terra-sigillata/Please note that Terra Sigillata has moved to ScienceBlogs.com (as of 9 June 2006) to Wordpress (as of 21 July 2010) to CENtral Science (as of 24 August 2010). Kindly update your bookmarks to the following URL:hhttp://cenblog.org/terra-sigillata/This site will remain live for archival purposes but some classic posts will migrate over to the new site. Thank you

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1149887789263933402006-06-09T17:06:00.000-04:002006-11-19T22:07:45.476-05:00

Well, dear readers, the time has come to close up this shop and move over to ScienceBlogs.com. The new site went live today at noon EDT (1700 GMT) along with a snazzy new ScienceBlogs.com homepage and, count 'em, 25 new bloggers!I am deeply indebted to all of your who have supported me here over the last six months and I'll close sometime over the weekend with a (hopefully) thoughtful thank-you

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1149765131276438462006-06-08T07:09:00.000-04:002006-06-08T07:12:11.290-04:00

Mosey on over to The Examining Room of Dr Charles for The 36th Skeptics' Circle, the biweekly compendium of the best of debunking and deboning of the critical thinking-challenged.

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1149683774678377182006-06-07T08:21:00.000-04:002006-11-19T22:09:34.763-05:00

Cancer research and the cause of women in science and medicine lost a true leader and shining example last week with the passing of Dr. Anita Roberts to gastric cancer. She was only 64.From her Washington Post obituary:Dr. Roberts, the 49th most-cited scientist in the world and the third most-cited female scientist, was chief of the Laboratory of Cell Regulation and Carcinogenesis at the

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1149508322622282972006-06-05T07:50:00.000-04:002006-06-05T08:19:53.246-04:00

More later on this beautiful post by Bitch Ph.D....Okay, so I've only been around for six months after commenting on the blogs of others for about another six. Yet I am amazed at how many truly good friends I have made via these online discussions and conversations. I've only met a couple of you in real-life and look forward to meeting more, especially with the pending move to

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1149436379444681152006-06-04T11:11:00.000-04:002006-11-19T15:22:16.966-05:00

Here a belated plug to my Colorado compatriot, hard-working microbiologist, and real-life journalist, Ewen, at his microbiology/infectious diseases blog, Complex Medium. If you're a fan of Michael Pollan from reading The Botany of Desire or have been thinking about buying his new book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, take 28 minutes and listen to Ewen's interview with Pollan on one of nation's best

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1149213413823363632006-06-01T21:34:00.000-04:002006-06-03T09:51:56.840-04:00

Before I turned in for the evening, I got my feed from Derek Lowe's In the Pipeline for his take on the media frenzy that will accompany the kickoff of the ASCO meeting in Atlanta this weekend.Dr Lowe is a great chemist and fabulous source for all sorts of pharmaceutical news and information. In fact, coverage of his blog in the 1 August 2005 edition of The Scientist is what originally got me

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1149179988391658182006-06-01T12:12:00.000-04:002006-06-01T14:40:28.616-04:00

Thank you readers and blog-lleagues for the best wishes and congrats - my promised thank you posts have gotten tied up in communications online and off, as well as the June 1 NIH grant deadline. Again, the move to ScienceBlogs.com wouldn't have been possible without your support, links, and advice.However, the news from SEED Media Group is that the launch of the second waves of their stable of

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1148980315906156682006-05-30T05:07:00.000-04:002006-05-30T05:43:51.806-04:00

I'm quite happy to announce formally that Terra Sigillata will be one of the new blogs in the new wave of additions to ScienceBlogs.com, the "global, digital science salon." ScienceBlogs.com is a division of Seed Media Group in New York City and publishers of Seed Magazine. The proposed move and launch date is June 2nd.I have to admit that the invitation to join ScienceBlogs.com came as a bit

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1148917918125901322006-05-29T11:48:00.000-04:002006-05-29T11:51:58.126-04:00

Dear Readers, if you've ever corresponded with me via e-mail you may have just received a verification e-mail from SpamArrest. I mistakenly activated the control before importing my address book into the application.Rest assured that spam control e-mail is not itself spam. I have now entered all of you into the application and you should not have to respond to the e-mail in order to correspond

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1148732295148422652006-05-27T08:02:00.000-04:002006-05-27T09:02:07.883-04:00

It took a quiet Saturday morning for me to catch up on the fact that the co-founder of ConsumerLab.com, Dr William (Bill) Obermeyer, was featured on NPR earlier this week. Allison Aubrey of NPR's Morning Edition produced a thoughtful four-and-a-half minute segment on the seven-year mission of Dr Obermeyer and colleagues to provide consumers with independent laboratory testing of specific brands

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1148655579853728442006-05-26T07:50:00.000-04:002006-05-26T18:57:40.370-04:00

Funny that I should receive an e-mail from the US NIH today on this topic, the same day that Seed Magazine's ScienceBlogs.com posts a question on whether there should be public input on the federally-funded, research grant review process. For those of you outside the US, NIH is our national health agency whose funds are designated by the US Congress for the general good of public human health.Dr

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1148395009014366332006-05-23T10:32:00.000-04:002006-05-23T12:59:05.500-04:00

A well-organized and aesthically-pleasing edition of Grand Rounds is up from half a world away in the Philippines at Parallel Universes.Thanks to Dr. Emer for selecting our post by way of my blog bud, Bora at Science & Politics.

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1148392127814555572006-05-23T09:32:00.000-04:002006-05-23T10:22:12.020-04:00

The expansion of offering so-called complementary and alternative medicine services in the context of "conventional" medical centers and private medical practices has been on my mind of late. Orac just recently posted an encore discussion of the topic that makes for good reading. Serendiptously, a number of British scientists issued yesterday a scathing indictment of the British National Health

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1148240791034309912006-05-21T15:27:00.000-04:002006-05-21T20:15:55.396-04:00

David Douglas of Reuters Health reported last Friday on the publication of a clinical trial revealing that a one-week trial of Benadryl (diphenhydramine HCl) was superior to Clarinex (desloratadine) in managing symptoms of moderate-to-severe allergic rhinitis, or hay fever. The article was published in the April 2006 issue of Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (2006;96:606-614)You can read

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1148038751931035052006-05-19T07:34:00.000-04:002006-10-30T01:37:59.226-05:00

I just saw this link posted yesterday by Bora at Science & Politics. It's a truly heart-warming story about the kind of things that go on at Duke University 99.9% of the time:Patient's Family Says 'Thank You' For Saving LifeDURHAM, N.C. -- For three years, Ara Everett has been treated for Stage 4 breast cancer and a brain tumor. But she has survived longer than she and her family ever

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1139182994346101402006-05-15T00:05:00.001-04:002011-08-28T11:06:30.947-04:00

I've been dabbling on this post for 3 months or so, partly because I was unsure of my goal or message. I'm still not sure but I know that I just want to tell a story. Learning of journalist Anton Zuiker's StoryBlogging effort helped me commit to finishing it. Let it suffice to say that I have been blessed to meet a number of prominent people as of late, mostly outside of my scientific discipline

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1147345121723868112006-05-11T06:26:00.000-04:002006-05-12T07:25:34.593-04:00

Okay, so this is turning into Bora Zivkovic week at Terra Sigillata. I can't help myself because he is one of the most influential bloggers in my short career.Today's is Bora's 40th birthday - go on over and wish him a happy birthday. Bill Hooker's lead in the shout-out for assistance to Bora and his family has resulted in some very nice posts and contributions. Bora, being who he is, is now

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1147204648350351892006-05-09T18:34:00.000-04:002006-05-09T16:04:44.716-04:00

For those of you who are regular readers or are coming over from Tara's Grand Rounds at Aetiology, you are probably familiar with our colleague, Bora Zivkovic (aka Coturnix), known best for his blog, Science & Politics. He's trying to finish his thesis while supporting his family and has hit a bit of a financial rut; I know it took a lot of humility for him to put out a call for assistance.My

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1147137564201981782006-05-08T21:14:00.000-04:002006-05-09T07:44:06.980-04:00

For several years, various media outlets have asked my opinion about herbal medicine and dietary supplement issues. I've generally written several pages of responses only to find a few key quotes mined from my paragraphs of wisdom (in my mind). No problem at all; I just have trouble with churning out sound bites. So, I'd like to share with you stuff that never makes it to the so-called mainstream

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1146846236204198592006-05-05T12:22:00.000-04:002006-05-05T13:27:32.650-04:00

Seems like there is a good deal of interest today in Rep Patrick Kennedy's one-car accident last evening that he has attributed to taking a combination of the prescription sleep aid, Ambien (zolpidem tartrate), and Phenergan (promethazine), an old phenothiazine antipsychotic drug most often used now to treat nausea and gastrointestinal upset.Fortunately, Rep Kennedy emerged from the accident

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1146820995667554982006-05-05T05:04:00.000-04:002006-05-05T05:23:15.683-04:00

As we've discussed the promise and danger of open collaboration wikis for medical information over the last week or so, many have raised concerns about who might be providing information for such sources. Several of us have expressed concern that zealots or others with a particular agenda, usually not supported by science, might hijack entries on more controversial or polarizing issues.My

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1146570556263053942006-05-02T07:34:00.000-04:002006-05-02T07:49:17.666-04:00

An extremely valuable link on academic/medical wikipedias has emerged from the comment thread, this time from Wikipedia co-founder/chief organizer, Dr Larry Sanger. Larry's essay at Digital Revolution entitled, "Text and Collaboration," takes a lengthy but clear and highly worthwhile look at many of the issues of a wikipedia (or whatever) for medicine and the academy at-large.As I commented there

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1146456614289885902006-05-01T00:05:00.000-04:002006-05-01T00:13:37.043-04:00

Medscape visionary, Peter Frishauf, took the time to respond to my earlier post and our discussion on the virtues of a medical wikipedia:"Group,Thanks for all the kind words. I want to emphasize that in my editorial I said some variant of Wikipedia for medicine would be welcome. Larry Sanger, PhD, a Wikipedia co-founder, is working on just such a venture, to be run by the Digital Universe

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1146405498616089332006-04-30T09:48:00.000-04:002006-04-30T10:07:52.923-04:00

I just wanted readers of Terra Sigillata to know of our local-interest blog carnival, Tar Heel Tavern, whose issue #62 has gone live at my sister blog, Bull City Bully Pulpit.I mention this to our sci/medblog readers here because Bora of Science & Politics has, as usual, submitted a thoughtful and insightful post on the need for supporting science education as a central necessity for a

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1146141672884747552006-04-27T08:59:00.000-04:002006-04-27T10:32:25.596-04:00

I've had one of those blogger moments where a commenter states a case far better than I can.anjou is a lymphoma survivor who monitors cancer patient information boards for flagrant, medically-incorrect posts or fraudulent product advertising. I've come to learn through a happy accident that in real-life, she and I have only one degree of separation.From my previous post on Peter Frishauf's

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1146142326021620812006-04-27T08:41:00.000-04:002006-04-27T08:52:06.400-04:00

Bora's creativity never ceases to amaze me.The best of biweekly baloney detection is now live at Science & Politics. Bora's format is that of a scientific paper, with some really great posts that my aggregator missed.The next Skeptics' Circle will be hosted halfway round the world by EoR at The Second Sight on 11 May 2006. Check the submission guidelines and send your best work to:

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1146050092806251302006-04-26T07:07:00.000-04:002006-04-26T07:59:16.433-04:00

From the New York Times:"Tom Ferguson, MD, who spent his life as a physician persuading people to take the reins of their own health care and to use the Internet as a powerful tool in that quest, died on April 14 in Little Rock, Ark. He was 62."Tom's complete New York Times obituary can be found here (free registration required; photo credit: Austin American-Stateman).Those of us medbloggers

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1145854792995939382006-04-24T00:49:00.000-04:002006-04-24T01:13:47.066-04:00

Even we PhDs know that pediatric patients are not simply little adults.As a relatively new parent, my hat has always gone off to Dr Clark Bartram of Unintelligent Design and other peds docs like Dr Flea, for taking care of our little people. In my mind, the only folks with better bleacher seats in heaven are pediatric oncologists.Well, my compatriot over them thar mountains has asked quite

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1145628426190616952006-04-21T10:02:00.000-04:002006-04-21T10:07:06.386-04:00

As I am currently reading a book on 40 years of scientific research on Cannabis sativa as a medicinal agent, I was appalled (but not surprised) to learn that the US FDA has overruled a 1999 Institute of Medicine report of the benefits of medical marijuana.Does this latest decision have to do with the fact that the FDA is currently considering an application for a pharmaceutical grade

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1145622628037623842006-04-21T08:23:00.000-04:002006-04-21T09:37:25.456-04:00

This week has seen very active discussion in the blogosphere on the concept, intent, and goals of science and medical blogging. My colleague, Bora/Coturnix, started this iteration on defining science blogging over at Science & Politics. Much of the ensuing discussion has focused on presenting data and hypotheses for open consumption, with several arguments that doing so might create an

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1144979608508516712006-04-19T22:32:00.000-04:002006-04-21T02:50:35.376-04:00

Folks in my research field have been waiting for this day for many years. Members of the American Society of Pharmacognosy learned last week that Professor Norman R. Farnsworth of the University of Illinois at Chicago will release his group's NAPRALERT database this week to open access.Previously a clanky version of PubMed/ScienceDirect for natural products, NAPRALERT has previously been the

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1145347382755252102006-04-18T03:40:00.000-04:002006-04-18T04:09:25.616-04:00

As a fabulous Easter visit with my family and a looming grant deadline has made it difficult to get off a real post, Bora Zivkovic (the famous Coturnix) at Science & Politics gets me off the hook with his treatise on what science blogs are.Most interesting are his comments on how he has taken to posting some of his own hypotheses and unpublished data:"What does publishing a hypothesis mean? I

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1145015698544617612006-04-14T07:44:00.000-04:002006-12-22T01:06:22.416-05:00

[We're heading to points north today to visit family for the Easter holiday. I love the southern US, but the forecast here for Sunday is sunny and 91F/33C - that just ain't right, especially for the Easter Bunny. As I'll be AWOL for a spell, here's a lengthy post with a lot of great links, particularly for docs and other health-related folks. Best wishes to all for Passover, Easter, and whatever

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1144931599833405272006-04-13T08:15:00.001-04:002007-01-30T03:02:29.030-05:00

As I am bogged down with yet more grant-writing, late manuscript reviews, and volunteer teaching, I'd like to draw your attention to several superb blog carnivals.First is The 32nd Meeting of The Skeptics' Circle over at Pooflingers Anonymous. As the previous host, I intentionally did not submit anything out of respect for Matt's time and the growing success of the Circle, due in no small part

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1144842476621195522006-04-12T07:37:00.000-04:002006-04-12T07:47:57.176-04:00

Grand Rounds vol. 2 no. 29, the best of this week's medblogging is up at Anxiety, Addiction, and Depression Treatments. A huge collection of great topics very nicely hosted with short descriptions of each post instead of the diatribes common to some carnival hosts.Also, you have until this evening (10 PM MDT on 12 April; 0500 GMT 13 Apr) to submit your best critical writing to The Skeptics'

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1144755325774877622006-04-11T07:27:00.000-04:002006-04-11T20:49:42.313-04:00

Being a scientist, I'm trying an experiment. I've moved some of my more personal and local-flavored posts to a new blog called Bull City Booster. I don't want to dilute the science content here, but I also like to muse about things going on in my real-life community. Since Blogger doesn't easily support categories, I thought I'd take a lesson from one of my blogging mentors, Coturnix/Bora

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1144634015479222062006-04-10T12:01:00.000-04:002006-04-09T22:14:25.013-04:00

This is not woo - this is a symposium sponsored by the complementary and alternative medicine branch of the US National Cancer Institute with the goal of interrogating the scientific basis of the best of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in the Western treatment of cancer.The NCI's Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine (OCCAM) is sponsoring a conference titled Traditional

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1144327917856542902006-04-06T08:39:00.000-04:002006-04-21T07:08:58.266-04:00

This post has been moved to my new local interest blog, Bull City Booster.

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1144214629508701492006-04-05T01:02:00.000-04:002006-04-05T01:50:33.130-04:00

I've finally made it home from what was supposed to be a 24 hr trip to the AACR meeting to write this post at a chronological anomaly in time. At 1:02 am and 3 seconds today, the ethnocentric American digital clock reads 01-02-03-04-05-06. For much of the rest of this world, the anomaly won't occur until 4 May, for obvious reasons. The reason I care or even mention this is that it was pointed

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1143472919074180172006-03-30T08:00:00.000-05:002006-04-01T07:01:17.000-05:00

Welcome to the 31st Meeting of The Skeptics' Circle. Check, check... one, two...is this thing on?Many advanced degrees but they still can't teach us how to use A/V equipment, eh? Hey, Matt, Pooflinger..whatever, could I trouble you to grab me another Kulmbacher Eisbock while we get going? Uh, and, yes, please do carry mine back with your other hand - I'd like to be certain that the dark color

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1143637345755325622006-03-29T07:32:00.000-05:002006-04-21T07:11:36.746-04:00

This post has been moved to my new local-interest blog, Bull City Booster.

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1143472725734892362006-03-27T10:12:00.000-05:002006-04-01T07:17:49.320-05:00

Yours truly is still accepting submissions for The 31st Meeting of The Skeptics' Circle, that biweekly blog carnival of critical thinking, debunking, and deboning of questionable stories anywhere in the scientific and historical realm. In fact, we'll pretty much consider any well-reasoned piece that is apolitical, as the Circle is not meant to advance any one political agenda. More on the

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1143085466873537582006-03-23T00:04:00.000-05:002006-03-25T11:56:11.713-05:00

Part of why I started this blog was to give myself practice in writing on science topics for a general audience. As I learned professional technical writing during my graduate studies, several mentors suggested that I examine writers whose papers I enjoyed reading. My own favorite is Bob Eisenman at the Univ of Washington - his early 90s Cell papers on Myc, Mad, and Max in oncogenesis still

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1142945509421346182006-03-21T07:38:00.000-05:002006-03-21T09:10:48.693-05:00

By now, you've probably already heard about the young, previously healthy British volunteers for a Phase I clinical trial now fighting for their lives after receiving a monoclonal antibody therapeutic, TeGenero's TGN1412. New Scientist has a concise overview, but I also refer you to Insider at PharmaGossip Derek Lowe's In the Pipeline and Anthony Cox's excellent Blacktriangle for viewpoints from

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1142614141838095652006-03-17T11:38:00.000-05:002006-11-12T15:49:25.426-05:00

Being the father of a 3 1/2-year-old girl who is likely to be an only child, I have a unique opportunity in our rich academic and athletic community to provide PharmPreSchooler with superb role models who just happen to be women.So, we got season tickets this year for one of our local university women's basketball teams. My closest research colleague and I have a had a blast taking our little

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1142557756921511742006-03-16T19:48:00.000-05:002006-03-16T20:55:25.400-05:00

Getting 3,000 hits is a major milestone in the career of any baseball player. My own favorite all-time 3,000-Hit Club member from my childhood is the late Roberto Clemente. In 1972, in his last at-bat of the season - also to be the last at-bat of his career - the great Pittsburgh Pirates right-fielder smacked a double off of New York Mets pitcher, Jon Matlack. Clemente, an understated

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1142461156221581192006-03-15T17:10:00.000-05:002006-03-15T17:19:16.240-05:00

I spent part of the day over at Orac's place, bitching about our NIH grants being cut even more than they were originally cut when we each got ours. Well, one of my primary scientific organizations, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), just came across with the following e-mail alert. You can be sure I'll be calling our US Senators tonight and tomorrow. Feel free to join in from

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1142414125883502832006-03-15T04:02:00.000-05:002006-03-15T04:15:25.896-05:00

Got a little insominia right now and I think I know the cause:I neglected to post a link yesterday to the week's best of the medical blogosphere, Grand Rounds, hosted by yet another Down-Under-and-to-the East colleague, PICU nurse Geek Nurse. (Saying "PICU" gets me out of the conundrum of using "Peds" vs. "Paeds.").Beyond the usual scads of incredibly moving and insightful posts, recent Grand

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1142384260162577232006-03-14T19:57:00.000-05:002006-03-15T03:22:52.650-05:00

Paige's Page is still accepting submissions for The 30th Meeting of The Skeptics' Circle, that biweekly blog carnival of critical thinking, debunking, and deboning of questionable stories anywhere in the scientific realm.Submit your entries here by tomorrow evening, or thereabouts. The carnival will appear on Thursday, 16 March 2006.General guidelines, archives and schedules are here. Initiated

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1142344544747982622006-03-14T07:53:00.000-05:002006-03-16T10:06:03.863-05:00

No amount of higher education could take away the fact that I sometimes behave like a juvenile teenage boy. Hence, my reverence for the animated South Park series. I've often visited the real place, the windswept high mountain valley town of Fairplay, Colorado, and the surrounding area that played host to miles of trail running and several lab outings for hikes and rafting down the Arkansas

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1142103477373262732006-03-13T19:09:00.000-05:002006-03-15T04:02:25.396-05:00

Beer is a natural product, representing the best of botany (barley and hops), biochemistry (the conversion of starches to fermentable monosaccharides by enzymes in germinated barley), and the unusual pathways of a genetically-tractable model organism (the yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, can make ethanol from sugars).My new home state just celebrated 6 months since the passage of new legislation

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1142018669405615982006-03-10T13:43:00.000-05:002006-03-10T14:58:28.323-05:00

I'm looking for a little insight here from my dear readers, especially my regular lurkers and women with careers in science and/or medicine. What I'm not looking for is validation, just some understanding as to where I might be going wrong as a mentor of female scientists.As many of you know, 8 March of this week was decreed Blog Against Sexism Day. I'm pretty proud of the fact that, on average

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1141955160150112882006-03-10T00:02:00.000-05:002006-03-09T21:18:37.990-05:00

Let me ask this question: who should be responsible for assuring the content and purity of dietary supplements in this country???One might think the US Food and Drug Administration would have this task within its bailiwick. However, the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act essentially prevents the FDA from acting until adverse events due to supplements are detected.In no way do I

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1141872860762692782006-03-08T21:49:00.000-05:002006-03-09T07:35:18.883-05:00

If you've gone anywhere on my blogroll, you'll have learned already that the San Antonio office of the The Holocaust History Project (THHP) was damaged extensively by arson this past Sunday, along with several businesses in a warehouse complex near the San Antonio International Airport. The complete THHP press release details the incident as well as past criminal efforts to try and silence this

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1141786902956047562006-03-07T21:43:00.000-05:002006-03-07T22:16:24.880-05:00

Another non-pharmacology post:Mark my words: The "biggest new thing" to come out of the upcoming SXSW Music Festival in Austin next week will be another band from Athens, GA, called Modern Skirts.Since I'm an old(er) fart, my exposure to new music comes either from postdocs in the lab or the various music rags I get. Frankly, Orac's Random Ten the other day really spanked me because the guy is

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1141736055049058352006-03-07T07:48:00.000-05:002006-03-07T09:33:45.370-05:00

The best of medblogging this week is up at Kim's Emergiblog. I don't even know where to begin with my picks because the whole dang issue is outstanding.By the way, kudos to Dr. Nick for getting Pre-Rounds a regular feature on Medscape. I really enjoy the interviews with hosts, like this one with Kim.Speaking of Kim, her own post, They Called Him 'Mac', is particularly insightful about how

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1141658481047995712006-03-06T09:58:00.000-05:002006-03-06T10:21:21.640-05:00

Congratulations to everyone involved in "Crash," perhaps the biggest Academy Award Best Picture upset in many years. Kudos especially to director and co-producer, Canadian Paul Haggis.I mention Crash on this blog only because Hollywood's attempts to make cinema out of natural products pharmacology has often been argued. I did hear that Mark Plotkin was pretty good playing himself in Shaman's

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1141393102200700272006-03-03T08:15:00.000-05:002006-03-04T08:05:13.023-05:00

Although I'm not a microbiologist or a public health professional, I do a bit of recreational reading on public health and infectious disease issues. Most of my interest in microorganisms comes instead from the compounds that they make to kill each other and how we might harness them to treat infectious diseases that affect humans. My dabbling in public health issues stems from my reading of two

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1141302302664191572006-03-02T06:44:00.000-05:002006-03-02T07:35:26.826-05:00

Well, we're back to the blogosphere after weeks of reading and writing, followed by three days of grant review service to the US federal government and our fellow scientists and physicians. A very depressing time was had by all, knowing full well that the payline for some NIH institutes will drop below the 10th percentile during the next funding cycle. I've never seen so many scientists,

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1140781282806244792006-02-24T06:05:00.000-05:002006-02-24T07:29:51.090-05:00

I'm in the midst of reviewing grant applications for a US research funding agency and have been pretty frazzled and distracted from blogging. I couldn't stomach writing a post on this week's press citing mostly negative outcomes from a trial of glucosamine and chondroitin in patients with mild arthritis pain, the Glucosamine/chondroitin Arthritis Intervention Trial (GAIT). However, most

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1140568868792905352006-02-21T19:37:00.000-05:002006-03-17T07:54:52.943-05:00

ADDENDUM 17 March 2006SUMMARY FOR NEW READERS: Thanks to Daily Grail for referring to this post. The bottom line is that significant pharmacological concern exists for taking Hoasca/Ayahuasca together with the SSRI class of antidepressants. The biochemical basis of this concern is discussed below in my hypothesis to account for a published case report of a fatality associated with Hoasca

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1140567961868456572006-02-21T19:14:00.000-05:002006-02-21T19:26:01.883-05:00

Now that the Daily Telegraph crossword brouhaha has died down, I guess I'll have to earn my hits with some new content.Until then, let me point you to a blog I've missed completely until recently, Science, Shrimp, and Grits, and their lovely, illustrative post, "Freshman Chemistry Takes on Homeopathy."After reading the post, even the most staunch supporter of homeopathy has to ask if they are

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1140440207880502962006-02-20T07:46:00.000-05:002006-02-20T21:29:37.746-05:00

For those of you still trying to solve this past week end's Telegraph crossword, the other word for terra sigillata is Samian ware.According to the Wikipedia entry,"Samian ware is a kind of bright red Roman pottery also known as terra sigillata. It is similar to the earlier Arretine ware and both types are attempts to copy more expensive metal originals. Because of this they display skeuomorphic

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1140355336903623522006-02-19T08:13:00.000-05:002006-02-19T08:22:16.913-05:00

In the past 36 hours, I've had a spike of traffic from the UK, all mostly via Google searches for 'terra sigillata.' This little ol' blog usually only gets about 40 hits per day, and even fewer on the weekends, but was well over 300 yesterday.Although my header notes that I don't discuss pottery, this early post details the overlap and distinction between the potter's terra sigillata and the

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1140314151718915042006-02-18T20:35:00.000-05:002006-02-19T08:29:20.663-05:00

Dear Editors of Print Magazines to which I subscribe,I really, really appreciate your coverage of liberal issues that speak to the core of my being and the values I am trying to instill in my young daughter: equality and tolerance, the fight against racism and poverty, the mysteries of love and the power of music and the written word.However, when writing about science and medicine, I implore you

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1140095927672918792006-02-16T08:04:00.000-05:002006-02-17T09:10:11.426-05:00

Eh Nonymous at Unused and Probably Unsafe has just posted the the 28th meeting of the Skeptics' Circle.As my blogging mission develops, I'm realizing that I can do more than simply educate and inform. I can also do my little part to defend and protect the scientific method and help to restore the basic scientific competence that has so badly deteriorated in the US, not just among the public but

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1140063474552294552006-02-15T22:52:00.000-05:002006-02-15T23:17:54.590-05:00

First, make sure to get over to Intueri for yesterday's Grand Rounds 2(21). The Valentine's-influenced personal ad presentation of picks is worth a visit in itself. Of course, always great to read the best medblogging of the week.Second, did a bit of housekeeping on my profile to emphasize further the stature of my nym-sake, John Jacob Abel. When molecular biologists look down their noses at us

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1140021503858757542006-02-15T07:54:00.000-05:002006-03-25T00:21:49.966-05:00

As PharmMom reminds me, I am not a real doctor, nor do I play one on TV.So what am I?I am a PhD pharmacologist with what I hope is excellent training at the lab bench. This means that I study how new drugs work to modify physiology and pathophysiology in a manner that works toward restoring and maintaining health. We pharmacologists also devise strategies to make existing drugs more potent and

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1139944391943999352006-02-14T13:16:00.000-05:002006-02-14T14:19:21.286-05:00

I've started about five different posts since last week, but haven't really finished with any of them. The time I used to spend in the evenings musing about the world has been replaced by the joys of being a father to a marvelous 3-year-old daughter. I've found lots of new stuff to discuss in botanical and alternative medicine, but I thought I'd reflect a bit on how extreme views of any sort have

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1139396203082588822006-02-08T05:41:00.000-05:002007-02-12T03:29:52.396-05:00

You'd think the funding folks would learn at the NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). But, not as evidenced by the report in tomorrow's New England Journal of Medicine detailing the lack of efficacy of saw palmetto (Serenoa repens) extract in the treatment of benign prostatic hypertrophy. Yet another well-designed double-blind, placebo-controlled trial has

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1139351060715729832006-02-07T17:07:00.000-05:002006-02-07T17:24:20.730-05:00

Grand Rounds 2(20) is up at Science & Politics hosted by everyone's favorite "Red-State Serbian Jewish atheist liberal PhD student," Bora Zivkovic. The cream of the medblogging crop is there for the taking.While we're at it, here's another quick plug for Bora who was featured by Dr. Nick last week on Medscape.

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1139235698453622192006-02-06T09:11:00.000-05:002006-02-06T09:27:03.283-05:00

Thanks to Dr Tara Smith over at Aetiology for the heads-up on Time magazine's recent article on Bush administration meddling in the scientific process. I'm far from being a political blogger, but it's an issue of great concern for all scientists, and not just those in the US.Missing from the Time article is the outstanding website compiled by Rep Henry Waxman's office on the numerous abuses of

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1138827606543934712006-02-01T15:03:00.000-05:002006-02-02T07:32:00.623-05:00

Just as I was coming up for air after the recent NIH grant deadline, Orac does another tremendous job discussing the case of the 2003 death of a young Coloradan cancer patient at the hands of an alternative "medical" practitioner.I can't do the story the justice it deserves right now and it's making me sick to even think about the case (septicemia from "UV Blood Irradiation"), so just go to

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1138545358870305042006-01-29T09:10:00.000-05:002006-01-29T09:36:01.096-05:00

Yes, I know this is a natural products/herbal medicine blog but, believe it or not, even pharmacologists sometimes have cause for isolating RNA in their experiments. I'm also really keen on good science journalism since there are so few writers qualified enough to cover science and medicine.How many of you have used Chomczynski & Sacchi's RNA isolation method using acid phenol-guanidinium

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1138462176753801072006-01-28T10:20:00.000-05:002006-01-28T10:29:36.766-05:00

My apologies, friends. Just as I have started to build a readership that is approaching 'dozens,' I've gotten quite bogged down in writing my parts of several research grant applications that are due on Feb 1.Something about the letdown after the holidays has frozen my brain and amplified my already excellent aptitude for procrastination. Not to mention this week was the year's 'Day of Gloom',

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1137765904449999692006-01-20T08:40:00.000-05:002006-01-25T17:00:23.646-05:00

That was the question awaiting me Tuesday morning when I first checked e-mail and my telephone messages. Odd, I thought, because my institution is very protective of our e-mail addresses and direct telephone numbers. Ah-ha, the woman must have read our most recent paper where all of my contact info is in black-and-white in the corresponding author section.This inquiry highlighted for me the chasm

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1137453203261151472006-01-18T09:17:00.000-05:002006-01-19T10:36:43.693-05:00

...but not for the reason stated in this warning that I found in my snail-mail box from a large dietary supplement manufacturer .Late Friday night, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a warning about two diet supplements imported from Brazil found to contain prescription drugs and an unapproved amphetamine. I wasn't going to write about this since I got tied up with working on a

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1137532442676494802006-01-17T15:57:00.000-05:002006-01-17T16:14:02.693-05:00

Many thanks to GruntDoc for hosting Grand Rounds, vol. 2, no. 17.I'm honored to have my explanatory missive, "Why Terra Sigillata?," selected for the Science section of this issue.I also got a huge kick out of Insider's take at PharmaGossip on Ode's 'homeopathy for flu pandemic' cover story in the Humor in Medicine section. My treatment of the same issue is far too verbose and pales in

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1137436351636150432006-01-16T13:25:00.000-05:002007-02-08T17:55:45.650-05:00

I've only hung out my e-shingle for a month and already have to confess to being a computer idiot.Here I was, pissing and moaning that I have yet to get any thread comments, even doing so on someone else's blog. I now realize that I had set up Blogger to moderate comments, partly because others had warned me of some spammer problems.Well, it would've helped for me to 1) put in an e-mail address

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1137121508842567772006-01-12T21:54:00.000-05:002006-01-13T18:04:23.026-05:00

A favorite song of mine from the 90s is a tune called, "Good Things," done by The BoDeans of Waukesha, Wisconsin, on their 1991 disc called "Black and White." The heart of The BoDeans was the duet of Kurt Neumann and Sammy Llanas. Musically, they couldn't seem more far apart. But together, Kurt and Sammy were magical, vocally and instrumentally. As individuals, they never seemed as successful as

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1136894901954588672006-01-10T07:00:00.000-05:002008-02-07T19:08:19.346-05:00

The Wall Street Journal has a few great science reporters and hats off today to Peter Landers for his story on the discovery of the cholesterol-lowering statins.Dr. Akira Endo's work of the early 1970s has been buried in the annals of what ultimately became the first double-digit billion-dollar blockbuster drug class. I'm proud that I at least acknowledged his early work in in my very first post

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1136767425889827532006-01-08T19:40:00.000-05:002006-01-10T07:14:07.936-05:00

My profile notes one of my favorite books as Freakonomics, a partnership of NYT writer, Stephen Dubner, and U of Chicago economics Nobelist-to-be, Steven Levitt. A great book that chronicles Dr. Levitt's unique way of using economics theory and actual data to ask and answer difficult societal questions.One of their chapters compares the KKK to real estate agents, the connection being that

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1136553489295112532006-01-06T08:08:00.001-05:002009-01-28T10:46:06.334-05:00

I love Ode Magazine - much, much more often than not.Today, I have a bone to pick.In the aftermath of the 2004 US presidential election, I had to cancel my subscription to The Nation just because I got so depressed about negative news coming into every conduit of my house.Ode is a Dutch-based mag that offers original and reprinted stories describing where people and ideas are working around the

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1135991817481871282005-12-30T20:15:00.000-05:002005-12-31T09:13:41.226-05:00

As you get to know the PharmBoy, you'll learn that music has been a longstanding theme in a life that has been paralleled by scientific training. More on that in future posts, but let it suffice to say that a great many of us can cite theme songs or albums (as we used to call them) that take us back to a place, a person, or an experience.This holiday week has been a soulful and traumatic time of

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1135742099549349052005-12-27T22:51:00.000-05:002006-09-11T23:36:17.736-04:00

Forbes was among the first I saw covering this rehashed story at the beginning of the month. Yet major press outlets let it lie until the dolldrums of the postholiday news dribbles grew intolerable.Yes, it is well known that taking too much acetaminophen can damage one's liver to the point of needing a liver transplant. (Acetaminophen is sold in the US as Tylenol, and in various generic forms,

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1135646135486951932005-12-26T20:10:00.001-05:002009-05-27T20:31:36.063-04:00

Let me start by saying that the draconian US laws in the 'war against drugs' would ever prevent the following from happening here:Sounds like a good thing to me: your kid is at a rave party and wants to experiment with some substance that you took blindly 30 years ago without thinking about twice. Fortunately, the party has a booth staffed by a staff of profs and grad students who are willing to

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1135085048479062962005-12-20T08:15:00.000-05:002006-12-14T20:39:24.670-05:00

If you Google, “Terra Sigillata,” you’ll get a number of hits for various clay pottery recipes. Very complicated stuff, requiring the use of a deflocculant to separate out large clay particles from the small ones. Terra sig, as it is known among pottery hipsters, is then used to coat finished pieces to produce a very smooth, high luster and waterproof finish.What does this have to do with

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18942569.post-1134662171850372222005-12-15T10:53:00.000-05:002006-12-14T20:36:41.940-05:00

OK, so I’m a latecomer to blogging.I was also more than a week late for my own birth.The blogging spark for me was an Aug 1 2005 article in The Scientist by David Secko. That’s where I first learned of Derek Lowe over at In The Pipeline…and GrrlScientist, Pharyngula, BotanicalGirl, and, YoungFemaleScientist, among others. Secko’s tagline was “Few scientists have caught onto the Internet’s power

Abel Pharmboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134613733255861695noreply@blogger.com4