Eclectic Living
“Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the oftener and more steadily we reflect on them - the starry heavens above and the moral law within.” -Immanuel Kant Have you ever been awestruck? It's a truly palpable feeling, hence the bolt-of-lightning idiom often associated with it. Awe is often accompanied... Continue Reading →
For eclectics, the new year is generally an uplifting time. It's an excuse to take stock of one's life and reset the switch. Eclectics revel in change and new things, so a whole new year holds a lot of promise and potential energy. Many of us use the new year to resolve to make certain things better... Continue Reading →
In this Mini Post, two of our favorite subjects, microbes and dirt, come together. In a new report, researchers were able to extract a powerful new antibiotic from a bacteria found in the soil. Teixobactin is made by the soil bacteria Eleftheria terrae. The researchers are excited because they feel the way this antibiotic works... Continue Reading →
Robert Lustig has been espousing the view for years that sugar is the new cocaine. I've only done cocaine once, and I can safely say that it had a little bit more of an effect on me than sugar does. But the cumulative effects of all the sugar inundating our society are no doubt more... Continue Reading →
I committed a double homicide this week. Two of the little suckers in one trap, the promise of some yummy peanut butter just millimeters away. We tried to give them every opportunity to avail themselves of the no-kill traps, but after one of their brethren found himself so incarcerated (he was later released at the... Continue Reading →
According to this Science blurb, American children are prescribed antibiotics 57% of the time for respiratory infections, which are only 27% bacterial, resulting in 11 million unwarranted antibiotic prescriptions each year. This is increasing antibiotic resistance and, the article fails to mention, wreaking unnecessary havoc with our good microbes.
Not to be too much of a grotesque, but even flu vaccines are affected by our gut microbiota. Science reports that certain bacteria in the gut increase the efficacy of the flu vaccine. Keep those guts healthy!
Score one for conspiracy theorists. Our minds are being controlled by outside forces - but Obama and DARPA aren't to blame.* In keeping with the theme that little critters have a lot more to do with our world than we thought, at least two of these (a protozoan and a virus) are widespread in humans and... Continue Reading →
As I've long surmised, lexiconic erudition has salubrious effects similar to sybaritism. Well, that's not exactly true, but you get the point. According to a new study, learning new words triggers feelings similar to those you get from having sex. Evolutionarily, this may have helped encourage language development. I wonder if learning in general also stimulates the... Continue Reading →
What if we could diagnose depression with a simple pin prick? According to an article in Science, this could become a reality soon, because depressed people tend to have different levels of certain RNA molecules in the blood. We probably all know someone who has experienced depression. Maybe understanding some of the markers of depression will... Continue Reading →
Poppa's Cottage 