Sad news from Discworld

According to a note from Terry Pratchett posted on BoingBoing, he has been diagnosed with a rare, early-onset form of Alzheimer’s disease. I hope it goes well for him and that some biochemist fans answer his call!

Yet another reason not to buy products made in China

As y’all know my aunt and uncle have been heavily involved with the fight against asbestos in this country. Their latest endeavor has been assisting with consumer product testing. The results were released to the press this week. Seattle PI ran an exclusive article last Tuesday. Some highlights are below: Asbestos has been found in [...]

mercury and autism: the battle continues

David Kirby’s blog over at the Huffington Post poses an interesting question: Why is the AAP quietly opposing increased funding for autism research?  His proposed answer is that the AAP doesn’t want to rock the boat about vaccines, and current lines of research into thimerosal (or environmental contaminants, etc) as an autism factor might do [...]