In the June Atlantic Monthly, Joshua Wolf Shenk has a long, moving article about what may be the longitudinal study of all longitudinal studies - the Harvard Study of Adult Development (Grant Study), begun in 1937. Its creator Arlie Beck planned to track 268 “healthy, well-adjusted” men from their sophomore year at Harvard through careers, […]

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One reason I (and most people involved in cancer research) don’t like the frequently used term “cure for cancer.” The reason is simple. Embedded within this term is the assumption that cancer is just one disease, when it is most definitely not. Rather, it is many diseases affecting many organs, each with its own mechanism […]

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I know I’ve mentioned this before but two of the substance-abuse type academic societies really annoy me for their habit of closely scheduling their annual meetings in late June. Typically the College on Problems of Drug Dependence and the Research Society on Alcoholism hold their meetings on sequential weeks. Which totally blows because it is […]

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Danny Hauser, 13 year old shaman with cancer, recently returned from foray from the courts with his mother, now in treatment, had a web site dedicated to raising money for his ‘treatment’ (seemingly for the CAM part of his treatment … he is otherwise covered by insurance). That site was taken down early today or […]

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“Do your practice and all is coming.” — Sri K. Pattabhi Jois
The death of Pattabhi Jois stunned and saddened the yoga world earlier this week. I found out on Monday afternoon and frankly, was caught speechless (it took a while for the news to sink in). I suppose that’s why I didn’t join on the […]

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For the first time in a veeeery long time I’m practicing the same yoga routine every day. I had tried this (what can feel like a superhuman feat for a lover of variety such as myself) a while back and only managed to be semi-successful. Of course while the asana is the same every day, […]

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As another week comes to an end, I find myself filled with happiness and gratitude for the opportunities, information, and people that I’ve been fortunate enough to be blessed with on a seemingly regular basis. As usual, I like to share the information I find to be helpful and/or inspiring with y’all, so here are […]

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“If I never explore my limits, my bodymind will gradually tighten and become unconscious. If I regularly explore my limits in a caring and adventuresome fashion, I will expand and grow in a vital fashion. But if I try to push myself past where I am honestly able to go, I will no longer be […]

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There’s an interesting piece in the Chicago Tribune on the “Oprah effect”. The upshot is that products or people who Oprah deigns to grace with airtime tend to find enormous public acceptance.
While this is well and good if the product is a novel or the person is a television chef, it’s less clear that the […]

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For a few weeks now, Sci’s been wanting to get away from the sex for a bit. Not that I mind having this reputation as being a sex blogger (or whatever), but there’s more out there to weird science than sex.
And so, the word of the day is: rhinotrichtillomania. Say that three times fast. […]

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