#!/usr/web/bin/luie.wordpress

First embryonic stem cell therapy

luie — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 11:55:41 +0000

Our surfer guy Hans Keirstead.
Zot Zot!

LA Times:
Stem cell therapy to be tested on spinal cord injuries

OC Register:
UCI produces first embryonic stem cell therapy for humans

Reprogramming of murine and human somatic cells using a single polycistronic vector

luie — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 01:49:11 +0000

* 1 virus instead of 4 as previously done.
* polycistronic DNA; 4 genes separated by “2A peptide” codings
* 100x less efficient; reason unknown, under investigation.

http://www.wi.mit.edu/news/archives/2008/rj_1215.html

Python 3.0

luie — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 10:20:05 +0000

Intentionally non-backward compatible.
http://docs.python.org/3.0/whatsnew/3.0.html
More verbose?
Standardize programming with Python.

Tracking Flu Outbreaks

luie — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:48:16 +0000

People probably would be looking up their symptoms when they are sick.
The idea is to use this assumption to track flu outbreaks.

Result.
The correlation is very high:

CDC comparison

http://www.google.org/flutrends/
An article about it:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/tracking-flu-trends.html

An spinoff of INSTEDD started at the TED conference:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/pages/view/id/153

Quest

luie — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:13:55 +0000

Had a tour in cytogenetics, endocine peptides, metabolism and toxicology departments.

It was fascinating to see the facility and the things that they are doing.

Some things that I saw and caught my attention today:

Comparative genome hybridization.
Vitamin D.
LC-MSMS.

Robert Lanza: Fighting for the Right to Clone

luie — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 05:59:12 +0000

Discover Interview:
Fighting for the Right to Clone

Extraordinary.

mod_deflate to increase bandwidth

luie — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 14:33:02 +0000

After enabling mod_deflate in Apache2,
data saving = 66%

remote test result from:
http://www.whatsmyip.org/mod_gzip_test/

Videos

luie — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:10:27 +0000

What must happen in Biotech before it takes off:

Freeman Dyson: Let’s look for life in the outer solar system
Craig Mello’s RNAi talk @ Google:
RNAi

Solving Intractable Problems

luie — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:13:15 +0000

http://www.questioningsoftware.com/2007/12/solving-intractable-problems.html
Solving Intractable Problems
“A solution to a given problem is called optimal if one can prove that no better solution exists. Some skeptics might ask, Why should intuition rely on a rule of thumb instead of the optimal strategy? To solve a problem by optimization — rather than by a rule of thumb — implies both that an optimal solution exists and that a strategy exists to find it. Computers would seem to be the ideal tool for finding the best solution to a problem. Yet paradoxically, the advent of high-speed computers has opened our eyes to the fact that the best strategy often cannot be found.” – Gerd Gigerenzer, Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious

To graduates,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxT5NwQUtVM
@ 1:57
Best wishes,
Your Mom.

Heath care debate

luie — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 11:01:43 +0000

Heathcare issue between Clinton and Obama’s:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8aRMD8GaAA

Other Issues about Universal Health Care:

http://www.balancedpolitics.org/universal_health_care.htm

http://cthealth.server101.com/the_case_for_universal_health_care_in_the_united_states.htm

For those with UCI email:
ChemDraw

http://scistore.cambridgesoft.com/sitelicense.cfm?sid=1084

Once there, simply enter a valid UC-Irvine email address (e.g.: name@uci.edu.) and you will be able to download fully functional chemistry or biology software, and have access to online databases. Also, please feel free to forward this message to anyone else at your institution who might be interested, as the program is open to everyone with a valid institutional email address.