And here I thought that biology journal editors should have a handle on...well...biology.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090630101229.htm
As cool as the idea is that bats have long lifespans compared to similarly sized mammals due to more accurate protein folding (or better HSP's? Are they also resistant to prion diseases?), the publishing journals editor is quoted near the end of the article saying "As it turns out, one of these bat species lives out its long life in Florida. Since bats are rodents with wings, this chemical clue as to why bats beat out mice in the aging game should point scientists to the source of this elusive fountain." (emphasis mine)

Phylogenetically, we're closer to being rodents with thumbs, than bats are rodents with wings. I don't expect your average non-biologist to know this, but the journal editor? What kind of journal is this, anyway?

ursuscelticus and I played with the camera in it's SCUBA case, while he was here. It's remarkably difficult to actually *see* the camera screen (or look through the viewfinder) under water, but we got some fun pictures anyway. And one new icon!
( under water )

Apparently holding or comforting a thunder-phobic dog doesn't really help reduce their stress during a storm, but having another dog there (I'm guessing, one who isn't *also* thunder-phobic) does help a bit, at least, and help them calm down more quickly after.
Kalika *hated* thunderstorms and only stopped trembling and trying to hide (under the bed, where she did not fit, under me, wherever) when she started going deaf. This study found a 207% increase in cortisol levels during a storm, in phobic dogs. Given how she acted during a storm, I'm not surprised.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2006/0601-help_for_thunderphobic_dogs.htm

From shwap23
http://www.scq.ubc.ca/sciencescouts/

I qualify for several of these...guess which ones?

Obama declares June LGBT pride month.

"LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER PRIDE MONTH, 2009
- - - - - - -
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION"

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Presidential-Proclamation-LGBT-Pride-Month/

looks like good fun to me...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=310128468072066622
*snorfle*

learned to shave today. He was getting all scruffy looking, like a moulting juvenile (which he is), and we're going to my mom's 60th birthday party this weekend with all the extended family implied by that (and good wishes for my sanity and personal survival are welcome). SO I thought it would significantly distract attention feom me to have him there, preferably looking like a Nice Young Man (tm). Plus he's been expressing irritation with the handfull of straggly hairs on his chin, like the beginnings of an anemic Shaggy-from-Scooby-Do beard. So I got him a razor and some nice shaving cream, showed him how it works and hopefully how not to make himself all bloody, and let him finish. He did fine.

I kind of hope he keeps it up at least until he can grow something with a little more dignity. I suppose I'll have to call him Tiercel, then; he won't be an eyas much longer.

That would be Southeast Veterinary Pathology Conference. Don't ask me why it's always in Tifton, GA, I have no idea. It isn't even at the diagnostic lab, it's in this agricultural conference center. Anyway, last weekend we all piled into a van and drove 10 hours so we could present. The conference is fun, the driving part not so much, but I was glad to go especially since we weren't sure we'd have the funding to (NC State didn't; I think it was the first year ever they weren't in attendence). So I presented glioneuromatosis in a shih tzu. It's a diffuse...tumor? hamartoma? of nerves in the intestinal mucosa (well, hers is just mucosal, it can go all the way through the muscularis but that causes more problems), also she keeps getting colonic polyps that look like becoming carcinomas. She's 7; this has been going on for years. I'd love to know what gene defect she's got; there was a similar case report in a human a few years ago. And looky; you can see the weird neurons lit up with NSE (an immunohistochemical stain). Cool, hey?



The red cells are the labled neurons; they don't belong there. The rows of whitish ones are colonic mucosal glands, and the stuff between them is mucous. All the little blue dots are nuclei.

One of the Eyases friends family (a family from his school) just had their house badly damaged in a fire. Another mom from the school and her daughter have entered a mother-daughter look alike contest, trying to win a 1000$ Kroger gift card for them, to help out.
So...if you've got a minute, go here and click? Please?
http://roanoke.upickem.net/engine/Votes.aspx?PageType=VOTING&contestid=6763#SubmissionDisplay
It's Susanna Rinehart and her mother Sheila, 3rd down on the right on page 17.


Thanks!

Houston is apparently following the example of Palin, in charging rape victims for their rape kit; you know, the stuff used to collect evidence of the crime, at the hospital? Just like if you reported that you house had been burglarised, and the police charged you for fingerprinting the place.

http://www.click2houston.com/news/19400415/detail.html#

Grrr, snarl....

*sigh* I really just shouldn't read the news some days.

And this from ProMed:
"It is now apparent that the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) virus
currently circulating in humans, though genetically linked to swine
influenza viruses, has not been found in swine and that swine do not
appear to be involved in the ongoing epidemic. For that reason, and
in keeping with usage by WHO and other agencies, ProMED will drop the
term "swine flu" from our coverage. We expect the term will continue
to be used by the media and in common usage for some time. - Mod.LM]"

They go on to recommend *against* culling pigs, panic, and general stupidity. Not that it'll do much good.

In other terms, I had a crappy day and I'm cranky. Got a parking ticket 'cause my pass wasn;t displayed (stupid thing falls down anyway), and found our that since that's happend once already this (academic) year, I can't get it waived, and had to pay. Plus I had crossed communication with the senior clinician I'm on with. grumble grumble whine...

Study break is over now, back to work.

The name "swine flu" is a terrible misnomer; thsi virus has never been isolated from a pig, even though pigs in the region of Mexico where it was first found have been extensively tested. It's most likely of *human* origin, though it has genetic similarities to pig and avian influenza viruses. Flu viruses swap genes all the time. Regardless, calling it "swine flu" is making people act stupid, including Egypt, where they're killing all 300,000 of their pig herd. They've had no cases, the virus does not come from pigs. How will this help?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8024946.stm

So...no, your flu vaccine won't protect you
no, you won't get it from pigs or pork
and people are stupid

"Bohemian Rhapsody", as played by an old-school computer

Endless caverns is now infected, and sick bats have been identified in neighboring (to me) Giles co. Biologists are recommending that cavers stay out of caves, since the disease may be spread by human activity. Places in the NE have lost up to 90% of their bats.
I'm really hoping to see the little guys swooping over our pool this summer, but I'm terribly afraid that we won't see them anymore in summers to come.
http://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#label/ProMed/120eaace71d4b0ed

Again, if you're local and find sick or recently dead bats I'd love to have them. Standard disclaimers on avioding direct contact [yes, they're a rabies vector, though not a terribly likely one in this area]. Don't touch bats with you bare hands. Don't get bitten. It's probably most prudent to call me, and I'll come get them.

I am glad that it sounds like this is not an infectious disease outbreak, but the sudden deaths of 21 polo ponies from teh Venezuelan team in FL yesterday and today is concerning. It *does* sound like a toxin, hopefully one that can be identified realtively easily, and that other animals aren't being exposed to.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hT06XPGGar8kXA3LUfZE61fu2auAD97M9MB80

EDIT: it appears it was a misdosed vitamin/mineral suppliment, and the horses most likely had a selenium overdose.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=7411620&page=1

I hadn't heard of a Ruben's tube until I stumbled across it via vrend, but this is something that I really *must* make. I need one! And it would be so easy! Just a long tube with lots of holes, a speaker that fits in the end and a propane tank...
All I need is a place to put it; prolly wouldn't go well in a small cono, but it seems portable. Would it qualify as a 'contained fire' for the purposes of having at the park?

Hmm...

looking for a brief stress relief? Come battle my cute brute: http://weaselfang.mybrute.com
You canmake your own little cartoon avatar and watch them bash on each other!

...I was thinking of 'Ferritina, the weasel queen' from Girl Genius when I made this one...

I once read a book, who's titile and authour I've forgotton, but would dearly love to re-discover. This was along time ago, so th details are fuzzy and may be innacurate. It was a science fiction novel about intellegent, alien, micro-organisms; they reproduced by budding, or dividing and so I think were all female. They loved prime numbers, and were all 'named' with prime numbers. The main (human) character was a girl who also loved prime numbers (and this book was the source of my fascination/irrational preference for prime nimbers).
I suspect the author is a woman. I really wish I could remember more, bevause I wanted to talk about the possibility of microbial aliens at the Technicon panel (so B'burg folk; come to my Alternative Anatomy panel at Technicon this weekend!). But it's embarrasing to bring up a book you can't remember the author or title of.
*sigh*

Have any of you ever read a story that sounds like this?

at least it is if you aren't pregnant, anyway. And I won't be getting pregnant.

( scientist transferred to isolation unit in hospital after accidental needle stick...with )
ebola virus.
I hope she's ok.

And in other news, I have PCR primers, and will be trying them out on real, live virus (not ebola) Friday! Carefully.

Got called in at 6 this afternoon to necropsy a cow, and didn't get done 'till about 8:30. The cow had laryngitis, but that was not really her biggest problem. The ambulatory clinician was there, hovering and sticking her fingers in everything (I can't culture that if you smear your fingers all in it, dear), and wanting me to get the trachea out so she could see what she'd been asculting. Yeah, there was kind of a yucky laryngitis, but as the student got into the abdomen, there was also *massive great sheets* of fibin everywhere (fibrin is the yellow stuff that oozes from a scrape; it's an inflammatory product. It's fascinating in that quantity, cows make lots of it). She had a perforating abomasal ulcer (the abomasum in a cow is her proper stomach). ( ulcer. don't click if you dislike like gross pictures- you've been warned )
Why ulcers? We always attribute them to 'stress'. Unless they've had NSAIDs; then we attribute them to NSAID administraion. I think being a dairy cow sounds terrifically stressful, actually.

Also her mesenteries were pettechiated, and I think kind of pretty:
( with veins like leaves )

And the ambulatory clinician brought me a present; she'd delivered (via c-section) a curly calf with massive hydrocepahly. It's head was like a balloon. ( looky )

So, yes...It's twisted that I find all this wonderfully fun.

I also did try the big handheld circular saw that hangs from the ceiling in necropsy, and determined that the blade needs to be replaced before it'll be functional. But otherwise it *works* (smirk...power tools...drool)