Craig Venter: Rock star of Biology

 That is, if you are willing to concede that biology has “rock stars.”  Today I went and saw Craig Venter speak on the University of California Berkeley campus and it was a ridiculous talk to say the least.  In case you don’t who he is, he was one of the pioneers of private industry that competed with the US government in the sequencing of the human genome in 2000 and he recently has started his own company where they are attempting to basically sequence everything they can get their hands on.  Why is he a rock star you ask?  Well after the sequencing of the human genome in 2000, he had the gall to attempt to patent large regions of the genome - insane you might think, but to Craig Venter it seemed reasonable.  

Big beer helps little beer: Sam Adams to help craft brewers during hops shortage

The brewers of Sam Adams have made the stand-up decision to sell tons of their hops to craft brewers on an at-cost basis, helping out the struggling microbrewers during the nationwide hops shortage.

Boston Beer Company founder and master brewer Jim Koch said:

For a couple of months now, we’ve all been facing the unprecedented hops shortage and it’s affected all craft brewers in various ways. The impact is even worse on the small craft brewers–openings delayed, recipes changed, astronomical hops prices being paid and brewers who couldn’t make beer.

So we looked at our own hops supplies at Boston Beer and decided we could share some of our hops with other craft brewers who are struggling to get hops this year. We’re offering 20,000 pounds at our cost to brewers who need them. (thanks, Universal Hub!)

I have yet to figure out exactly who will take advantage of this offer, but I wager that small-time New England breweries like Smuttynose and Magic Hat are no doubt feeling the crunch, as I’ve seen their brew prices increase by nearly 25% ($9.49 for #9) at the always-cheap Trader Joe’s in Brookline.

Cheers to Jim for your corporate social responsibility efforts. Now please get rid of the Cranberry Lambic. It’s disgusting.

Good news night owls (and college grads who can’t quite seem to get up for their 9am job…)

A new study published today in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the peer-reviewed journal put forward by the National Academies, shows that being a “night owl” or a “morning lark” can be traced to one’s genes.  Now all those years of hearing your parents (or significant others) complain of your “laziness” you can just say its your nature to be a night owl, therefore its not your fault for sleeping in late - not that I’m speaking about myself or anything.  Normally, studies attempting to investigate our body’s biological clock, or circadian rhythm, are hampered with too many variables due to the fact that people’s emotions, state of mind, nutrition, fitness, etc. all affect their sleeping habits.  This recent study bypasses these confounding traits of human subjects by isolating skin cells from 28 individuals - 11 “larks” and 17 “owls” - and show that their cells follow the same biological clock.  Amazing huh!  Its not just some mental state but the molecules in our cells also are telling us when to rise and wake.   

Vengeful SpongeBob short circuits Sandwich, MA

Apparently the melted mylar balloon above took action against the unfortunately-named Sandwich, MA on Cape Cod. After it drifted into a set of powerlines, the dirigible caused a loud explosion.

SpongeBob - attack!

 Photo from WBZTv

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A tie:

and….