Category Archives: science

Will Saletan’s incorrect conclusions on ACTN3 and race

By Michael Eisen | Published: December 6, 2008

While I was poking around for stories about ACTN3, I came upon this Slate piece from the usually reliable Will Saletan about the ACTN3 test and race. The story has a generally accurate discussion about ACTN3 allele frequencies and race, and I agree with most of what he has to say. But Saletan makes a […]

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The awful NYT story on ACTN3

By Michael Eisen | Published: December 6, 2008

A lot has been written about the genetic test for ACTN3 being marketed by ATLAS Research as a way to direct ones children towards the appropriate athletic endeavors since a story on the test appeared in the NY Times last week. Daniel MacArthur, in particular, has done a great job explaining the science behind the […]

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Don’t vote for my opponent. He believes in Genetic Medicine!

By Michael Eisen | Published: November 12, 2008

A reader sent me the following letter sent out by Fresno County Superior Court judicial court candidate Jim Kelley in his campaign against Douglas Treisman: October 28, 2008 Dear Voter: My name is Jim Kelley and I am a candidate for Fresno County Superior Court Judge.  Judges play an important role in our community, yet […]

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Junk DNA Bad, Junk Gene Good

By Michael Eisen | Published: November 10, 2008

A few weeks ago Carl Zimmer wrote a nice post at The Loom taking science writers to task for leaping at every chance to grab ahold of the “Wow! Junk DNA is not junk after all!” news hook. He correctly pointed out that we’ve known for years that non-coding DNA has lots of function, and […]

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Barack Obama – Scientist

By Michael Eisen | Published: November 5, 2008

Was up working all night, and, as I should have been focusing on my grant, I instead kept trying to figure out just what it was that I was feeling about Obama’s victory. The historical nature of the election brought tears to my eyes – how could it not. And I am already planning a […]

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Palin was not talking about Drosophila

By Michael Eisen | Published: October 26, 2008

Now that I’ve had a chance to look at the blog reactions to the Palin fruit fly idiocy, I’m amazed at how rapidly everyone assumed she was talking about Drosophila. This is because most of the world – including virtually all Drosophila researchers – mistakenly believe that “fruit fly” is the proper common name for […]

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Sarah Palin disses MY fruit fly

By Michael Eisen | Published: October 26, 2008

As I’m sure many of you have now heard, Sarah Palin delivered her first official “policy speech” in which she pressed for Congress to fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). To enable Congress to fund this without increasing spending, she returned to McCain-Palin’s favorite enemy – the earmark. And, following recent M-P […]

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Was Jesus Haploid or Diploid?

By Michael Eisen | Published: October 14, 2008

A study published last week in the Journal of Fish Biology confirmed that an earlier report of parthanogenesis in sharks was not a fluke. Chapman DD et al. (2008). Parthenogenesis in a large-bodied requiem shark, the blacktip Carcharhinus limbatus. J. Fish Biol. 73(6):1473-1477. (No link – I only link to open access articles). This is […]

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A Nobel for GFP

By Michael Eisen | Published: October 8, 2008

Congrats to Roger Tsien for winning a share of this year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry. Tsien was honored for unraveling the mechanisms of green fluorescent protein (GFP), and more importantly for developing a dizzying array of GFP variants that work more efficiently and emit different colors of light. It’s particularly exciting to see scientists rewarded […]

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Tij to head HHMI

By Michael Eisen | Published: September 30, 2008

HHMI just announced that my Berkeley colleague Robert Tjian (Tij to everyone) is going to be the new president of HHMI. As I am now an employee of HHMI, I was quite interested in the search to replace Tom Cech – and I couldn’t be more thrilled with the result. Tij is a fantastic scientist […]

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