Filarial worm genome published

Elephantiasis is one of the more terrifying filarial diseases, mostly because of the gruesome images available online. The nematode worms that cause this disease are transmitted by mosquitoes, which is one of the reasons for my interest.
The adult worms live in the human lymphatic system, and prevent the circulation of body fluid. Thus, fluid [...]

New article on Rachel Carson and DDT

FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), one of the most interesting magazines out there, has a new article on the “Rachel Carson is evil/DDT will save the planet” insanity in the media.
I think they pretty much sum up why an idea that is unsupported by facts has such staying power:
“At one level, these articles send [...]

We now have a water feature

In our basement. Last night the pipe leading from the well pump to the reservoir tank suddenly burst, and because I was asleep, it just spewed water for a couple of hours.
So instead of finishing off my grading, or puttering in the garden on a nice day, we’ll be running around looking for heavy [...]