Eclectic Living
Ah, it has been a long time since I've had occasion to write a post. I'm still plugging away on the fun but time-consuming 125-year-old house remodel - almost done with the interior, and it's rented beginning in March. We're already well into 2016, yet I feel like the year has barely begun. There are so many... Continue Reading →
Bariatric surgery often helps people lose weight - just ask Al Roker. But it turns out the weight loss associated with bariatric surgery may have less to do with having a smaller stomach and more to do with how the surgery permanently changes one's gut microbiota. A new study found that people who have undergone bariatric surgery... Continue Reading →
Food is a problem for a good chunk of the planet. There are over 800 million undernourished people in the world, and millions more that have other forms of malnutrition. According to Mark Bittman, the problem is more one of poverty than of a lack of food. Maybe this is true, but almost all of the potential... Continue Reading →
We've spent a fair amount of time (too much?) discussing the plight of lab mice, so it's time to give the lab rat its due. Rats are amazing little critters, and they have a lot to tell us about ourselves, especially if we subject them to torturous trials and tribulations. In a recent study, rats... Continue Reading →
I like me some Dutch people. I lived in Holland for half a year back in the '90s for a "study" abroad during college. Mostly I just drank beer and played soccer and ate Chinese food with my Dutch roommate Huub ("Wil je chinees" he would ask me: "Do you want to Chinese?" I always... Continue Reading →
Do you wax nostalgic about the days when we were a primordial ooze floating in the ancient ocean? Me, too. But how did that ooze come together to start forming beings that could reproduce themselves? No one's quite sure how those first complex molecules, like RNA, formed. Was it magic? Abracadabra, let there be life! Well,... Continue Reading →
How much does language shape culture? Does English lead to more efficiency because of how precise it can be (with, by some estimates, more than twice as many words as the next verbose language)? Or does English delay learning because of its Byzantine and vermicular rules?* Is Spanish the opposite because of its relatively straightforward structure?... Continue Reading →
As visitors to the Cottage are aware, we like to get dirty. Another thing we like is the potential that crowdsourced science has to rapidly improve our knowledge. Here's an opportunity to combine the two. The Natural Products Discovery Group is offering free soil collection kits, which they will then analyze for fungal compounds that... Continue Reading →
Mice have occasionally entered the Cottage (both figuratively and literally), but the current study was one in which mice were not being poked and prodded (or stretched, as the case may be).* The gist of this study (and I'm sure you've already heard about it on Facebook or The Huffington Post) is that somebody measured 15,521... Continue Reading →
Our heroic little fuzzy friends, mice, have taken another one for the team (our team, not theirs). Scientists recently fed mice a diet of emulsifiers commonly found in many of our processed foods. Turns out these emulsifiers may be emulsifying the mucus lining that protects our gut lining. This could be via direct action or... Continue Reading →
Poppa's Cottage 