Monthly Archives: August 2012

Morning musing: Decline of the doctorate?

Posted on August 18, 2012 by biochembelle

Of late, I have noted, among a subset of scientists, a disposition that the quality of the PhD candidate and/or PhD training declined. Of course, this is based on purely subjective measures – usually centered on the degree of independence … Continue reading →

Posted in attitudes, biomedical workforce | 4 Comments

Churning (fake) butter: More safety questions for food manufacturers

Posted on August 14, 2012 by biochembelle

In case you missed it, check out this post for context. August seems to be turning into a month of popcorn toxicology. While doing a bit of house blogkeeping this morning, I ran across a release about a new study on a diacetyl … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Science, reporting, & communication

Posted on August 13, 2012 by biochembelle

Last night, I posted about a basic research paper that has gotten some press attention. As is often the case, much of the nuance and context of the original work is missing from the press coverage or buried at the … Continue reading →

Posted in communication, public outreach, science literacy | Leave a comment

Popping up trouble with butter and Alzheimer’s

Posted on August 12, 2012 by biochembelle

Love popcorn? Been having trouble with your memory lately? Perhaps you saw the story popping on news and health websites about the link between popcorn flavoring and Alzheimer’s disease and panicked. What have I been doing to my brain all these years? But … Continue reading →

Posted in science behind the story | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Silence speaks

Posted on August 4, 2012 by biochembelle

I typically don’t write about politics (for lack of a better word) here (though I am a little less successful on Twitter). It is simply not my schtick and does not particularly fit with style or content here. Today I’m … Continue reading →

Posted in diversity, family | Tagged , | 2 Comments