Blog

Big Data: Unseen by Human Eyes
Monday, April 06, 2015
A story titled “Learning to See Data” by Eric Foner in the Review section of the Sunday New York Times (3-29-15, pSR 1) described in layman’s terms ... Read More
Nitrogen Vacancy Probes the Small World
Thursday, April 02, 2015
I just read about nitrogen vacancy detection of single proteins with electron paramagnetic resonance, or EPR, in an article that referenced related ... Read More
Scientists Are Respected, But Not Believed
Friday, February 06, 2015
In January and into February, the Contra Costa Times published a series of articles relating to the public’s perception of science and scientists. To ... Read More
Book Review: Poison Spring: The Secret History of Pollution and the EPA
Thursday, February 05, 2015
Poison Spring: The Secret History of Pollution and the EPA (Bloomsbury Press) is a must-read for scientists, particularly chemists and biochemists in ... Read More
Yelling “Fire”
Wednesday, February 04, 2015
Fear is a powerful emotion. So is the desire to believe the narrative with which we are most comfortable. Behaviors such as ostracizing HIV sufferers ... Read More
Book Review: On Immunity: An Inoculation
Monday, February 02, 2015
Based on the title, I expected On Immunity: An Inoculation by Eula Biss to delve into the biochemistry of immunity, but after a few pages it was clear... Read More
2014: An Interesting Year in the Energy Patch
Friday, January 02, 2015
2014 was an interesting, perhaps pivotal year for hydraulic fracturing (fracking, HF). During the year, the supply of domestically sourced fuel ... Read More
Book Review: The Invisible History of the Human Race
Friday, December 05, 2014
In The Invisible History of the Human Race, Dr. Christine Kenneally asks, “How does human history jive with genomics?” and “What would explain ... Read More
Why You Should Know about the Excipients Search Tool
Monday, December 01, 2014
The American Pharmaceutical Review Excipients Search Tool is the first commercially accessible search tool featuring the latest excipients available ... Read More
An Update on Hydraulic Fracturing
Friday, November 14, 2014
The elections of 2014 have come and gone, and the dust storm surrounding hydraulic fracturing (HF) seems to be settling down. Scientists have studied ... Read More
The Enterovirus Outbreak in the U.S.: Should We Be Worried?
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
The Enterovirus D68 is spreading across North America. Thousands of children across the U.S. are reporting respiratory problems and have been found to... Read More
Success of the Third sbv IMPROVER Network Verification Challenge
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
The accomplishment of the Human Genome Project in 2001 created the illusion that the time would soon come when everyone would go to the doctor’s ... Read More
Plastic Bags: A Matter of Choice
Monday, September 08, 2014
We often vacation in Maui. About two years ago, we found that local environmental activists had successfully pressured the county government to ... Read More
Seek and Ye Shall Find, But Not Always
Monday, September 08, 2014
The National Energy Technology Laboratory (Pittsburgh, PA) released a comprehensive report on September 15, 2014, titled “An Evaluation of Fracture ... Read More
Book Review: Quantitative In Silico Chromatography: Computational Modelling of Molecular Interactions
Tuesday, September 02, 2014
Chemistry is a beautiful science replete with chemical reactions that produce vividly colored solutions to megatons of clear liquids or white powders ... Read More