Molecularist

"The Coventry resident carries a 3.9 grade-point average, is excelling in a double major, and is described in superlatives by his professors and academic advisers. He also is 13 years old."

"Growing evidence suggests that we are born with different vulnerabilities to pain — and that early painful experiences and other matters shape us in ways that can profoundly affect our responses."

"But in the end, most employees discovered that they could and should work out of the office more often — though they did not want to eliminate the office entirely."

[via @sciencegodess]

"It boils down to a simple question, "how much is enough?" She knows that one iPod is all she needs, but she wonders how much philanthropy is enough? And this is a key marketing question for anyone seeking donors." [via @carolineRcook]

"A Princeton University research team has demonstrated that all sweeteners are not equal when it comes to weight gain: Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same."

Fits my bias. I've always said it was the bio availability of fructose that caused this issue. I've been trying to avoid HFCS and get sucrose-sweetened products, especially soda. Indeed, I can't seem to enjoy HFCS-sweetened soda anymore. Doesn't taste the same.

"Ray was just a few days younger than the oldest person in the world, Kama Chinen of Japan, who is 114 years and 303 days. There are now 75 people aged 110 or older in the world (known as supercentenarians), according to the Gerontology Research Group in Los Angeles. All but three are women."

"Young scientists at a Chinese genomics institute are foregoing conventional postgraduate training for the chance to be part of major scientific initiatives. Is this the way of the future?"

Maybe it's just time to re-evaluate our structure and flow of academic apprenticeship. I keep comparing the impact DIYBio can have to mainstream science akin to the impact blogs and the like had on mainstream media.

Time for a new type of science guild?

Interesting background into academic degrees

“Making media now is a powerful way of participating in all kinds of life, including civic and political life,’’ said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. “These people are now deeply connected to the political process in a way that their parents, at their age, could never be.’’