Monthly Archives: February 2016

Given the absence of any “global warming” (in fact, a small, but not statistically significant, decrease in concomitant world-wide temperatures monitored by satellite) since 1997, Australian lawmakers recently also came to the same conclusions and have eliminated some ~350 positions/salaries … Continue reading →

This article from TV cable news yesterday shows just how absurd and extreme epidemiologists can sometime go, in linking “environment X” with “human complex disease Y”. And this is what confuses the lay public:  One study shows ‘coffee can cause … Continue reading →

I’m not sure what this has to do with “gene-environment interactions“, … except there would be no discussions and no emails to share this topic –– had it not been for the Big Bang followed by the onset of Gravity … Continue reading →

Today, most of us carry modest amounts of the Neaderthal genome. This is because modern humans interbred with Neaderthals between 50,000 and 28,000 years (after which the Neaderthal subline became extinct). In genetic terms, this is an example of admixture. … Continue reading →

Richard Lenski began passaging the bacteria in autumn of 1985. You can find experimental details online. His bacteria have now surpassed 50,000 generations during the past three decades.  We shared a recent study (by R.E.Lenski) who has shown that fitness … Continue reading →

This finding, being reported at a meeting this week, is of course VERY preliminary and needs to be corroborated by other research groups. And, if plasma levels are seen as a gradient, … where does one choose a “cut-off” between … Continue reading →

A growing number of scientists––including toxicologists, pharmacologists, biostatisticians, epidemiologists, occupational and environmental medical researchers and others––have begun to show considerable interest in the topic of hormesis, a dose–response phenomenon characterized by a low-dose stimulation and a high-dose inhibition. Whereas there … Continue reading →

Arsenic contamination of groundwater and soils threatens the health of tens of millions of people worldwide. Understanding the way in which arsenic is taken up by crops such as rice, which is known to serve as a significant source of … Continue reading →

This should be of interest to some of you, … and perhaps ‘too heavy’ for others. There are important differences between a substantial portion of single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) in coding vs the noncoding regions (cSNV vs ncSNV) of the genome.  … Continue reading →

As the number of individuals in genome-wide association (GWA) studies becomes larger and larger, some of the signals that emerge may turn out to reflect the action of modifiable (e.g. environmental or behavioral) exposures, rather than more direct biological effects. … Continue reading →