I’ve been reading a lot of interesting news tidbits, and thought I’d share. Today’s edition is mostly about food.

Kraft wants to take over Cadbury.

I also stumbled accross an article saying that high protein, low carb diets may contribute to Alzheimers Disease. It’s intriguing and surprising—but also just one study in mice, so the results should be interpreted with caution.

For a new spin on urban farming, look at Detroit. While I’m not moving to detroit anytime soon, the article is a fascinating read, and some of the arial photos are astounding. [Found via the NYT Idea of the Day Blog.]

You’ve probably heard by now, but in case you hadn’t, the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to three Americans for the discovery of telomerase—something that helped pave the way for understanding cancer.

I remember learning about telomerases in college. I have to say, it’s really nice to have some idea about what this year’s prize was awarded for about without having to look up a lot of things.

By the way, this happens to be the 100th year that the Nobel Prize has been awarded, and coincidentally, it is the 101st post here on Two-Penny Words.

This post refers to:

The Associated Press. Three Americans Share Nobel Prize for Medicine. October 5, 2009.

A few neat things from Friday’s issue of Science:

• Some bacteria use nitric oxide as a weapon against toxins in the soil or host organisms.
• Wind energy could be a viable alternative for China, if they are willing to make the investment.
• I’m not sure how to summarize this. I just think transposons are neat.

A recent study found that the disparities between boys and girls in math are related to gender inequality. The article is available for free if you follow the link provided on the abstract page.

Of course, you should have known that already.

This post refers to:

Janet S Hyde and Janet E Mertz, “Gender, culture, and mathematics performance,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 106, no. 22 (June 2, 2009): 8801-8807, doi:10.1073/pnas.0901265106.

Apparently Mark Haddon has a new book out called A Spot of Bother. Haddon is the author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which was on the British Librarian’s must read list. The latter book is written from the point of view of Christopher, a teenage boy with autism. Christopher sets out to investigate the death of his neighbor’s dog, a crime in which he is initially a suspect, but winds up learning more about his family and his own past.

I had trouble putting down The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, so I think I’ll be picking up A Spot of Bother when I get a chance.

I just read a review of a book on the psychology of Italy. It sounds pretty interesting. I’ll probably read it eventually (after I get through the 80 other books on my To Read list).

Speaking of books, I did finally finish Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel a few weeks ago. I suspect most of you have read it already, but if you haven’t, I highly recommend it. Just set aside a fair chunk of time for it.

This post refers to:

Grimes, William. An Insider Explains Italy, Land of Cheery Dysfunction. New York Times. August 23, 2006.

Diamond, J., Guns, Germs and Steel. 1999, New York: W.W. Norton and Company.

I’m pleased to say that my latest science piece is now available on Eclectica. It’s about lateral (or horizontal) gene transfer. I hope you will all read it.

Even better (actually much better) than my piece are the entries in The Wild Side, Olivia Judson’s short-lived New York Times blog. If you have access to TimesSelect (it’s not free), go read it. Better yet, go read it first.

This post refers to:

Judson, O. The Wild Side.

Kanumalla, A. When Genes Move Sideways. Eclectica. 2006, Jul; 10(3).

My apologies to those of you who’ve been wondering about me. I’ve been incredibly busy over in the non-virtual world. For those of you who’ve missed my writing, however, you can check out a piece that recently appeared in Eclectica. While you’re there, have a look at some of their other offerings.

The April 17th issue of the American Journal of Cardiology also contains a journal article to which I contributed.

This post refers to:

Davidson MH, Clark JA, Glass LM, Kanumalla A. Statin safety: an appraisal from the adverse event reporting system. Am J Cardiol. 2006 Apr 17;97(8A):S32-43.
(PMID: 16581327)

Kanumalla A. The Red Hair Gene. Eclectica. 2006 Apr; 10(2).

Many people, including perhaps some Two-Penny readers, know very little about what scientists do. Frankly, I’m not sure I can claim to know, and I used to be one. (Well, I was a science student and lab assistant. That counts, right?) Well, now there’s a website called LabLit.com that helps illuminate the mysterious lives of scientists. In addition to essays by and profiles of numerous working scientists, they also highlight realistic portrayals of scientists in the arts (novels, film, etc.).

I haven’t had a chance to explore much of this site yet, but I’ve liked what bits I’ve read so far. I’d particularly like to point out this profile/interview of a mathematician who offered some advice to the creators of Numb3rs, which is currently my favorite show on television. (I wish I’d watched the first half of the season, but I’m sure I can find a way to remedy that.)

I suspect, and this interview seems to confirm, that the math on Numb3rs is real math. It certainly helps that I’ve heard of at least a few of the types of analyses they talk about. Now if only I could figure out what they mean. The show definitely makes me wish I’d done more math (although perhaps at a slower pace than my college math classes).

Numb3rs airs Fridays at 10 pm Eastern on CBS. I encountered LabLit.com via Science Magazine‘s NetWatch.

Over the past week, I’ve found a fair number of resources on evolution that I want to look more closely at. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to evaluate them right now. I’m posting this partly so that I’ll be able to go back and find these things again, and partly because I know that some of you will be interested. These resources are:

• The Darwin Digital Library of Evolution, which contains all of Darwin’s writings as well as several works by his predecessors, those building upon his work, and people reacting to evolution. The library is hosted by the American Museum of Natural History, which also has an exhibit on Darwin’s work and Life. I got to see the exhibit in late November, and it’s really amazing. The admission is a little expensive, but I think it’s worth it.

• A New York Times article on research about recent (within the last 10,000) human evolution:

  Wade, Nicholas. “Still Evolving, Human Genes Tell New Story.” New York Times. March 7, 2006.

• An article in Science about a computer generated model for evolutionary trees.

  Francesca D. Ciccarelli, Tobias Doerks, Christian von Mering, Christopher J. Creevey, Berend Snel, and Peer Bork. Toward Automatic Reconstruction of a Highly Resolved Tree of Life. Science 3 March 2006: 1283-1287.