All posts by medical

Anatomy

Scoop: GREY’S ANATOMY on ABC – Thursday, May 18, 2017 – Broadway World

On the episode Ring of Fire, the doctors lives are at risk after a dangerous patient escapes the hospital room. Alex must make a hard choice in his relationship with Jo while Meredith has some big news for Nathan that brings things to a turning point, on the season finale of Greys Anatomy, THURSDAY, MAY 18 (8:00-9:01 p.m. EDT), on The ABC Television Network.

Greys Anatomy stars Ellen Pompeo as Meredith Grey, Justin Chambers as Alex Karev, Chandra Wilson as Miranda Bailey, James Pickens Jr. as Richard Webber, Kevin McKidd as Owen Hunt, Jessica Capshaw as Arizona Robbins, Jesse Williams as Jackson Avery, Sarah Drew as April Kepner, Caterina Scorsone as Amelia Shepherd, Camilla Luddington as Jo Wilson, Jerrika Hinton as Stephanie Edwards, Kelly McCreary as Maggie Pierce, Jason George as Ben Warren, Martin Henderson as Nathan Riggs and Giacomo Gianniotti as Andrew DeLuca.

Greys Anatomy was created and is executive produced by Shonda Rhimes (Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder), Betsy Beers (Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder) and Mark Gordon (Saving Private Ryan). William Harper, Stacy McKee, Zoanne Clack and Debbie Allen are executive producers. Greys Anatomy is produced by ABC Studios.

Guest Starring are Debbie Allen as Catherine Avery and Marika Dominczyk as Eliza Minnick.

Ring of Fire was written by Stacy McKee and directed by Debbie Allen.

Greys Anatomy is broadcasted in 720 Progressive (720P), ABCs selected HTV format, with 5.1-channel surround sound.

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Scoop: GREY'S ANATOMY on ABC - Thursday, May 18, 2017 - Broadway World

Anatomy

‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Season 13 Finale Synopsis Revealed – Wetpaint – Wetpaint

Credit: Richard Cartwright/ABC 2017 Disney | ABC Television Group. All rights reserved.

With only three installments left in Greys Anatomy Season 13, were already getting jittery thinking of all the drama the season finale will unleash.

And a new synopsis from ABC only ups the anxiety!

Per Screener, heres ABCs first synopsis for the May 18 season-capper:

A dangerous patient escapes the hospital room, putting the doctors lives at risk; Alex faces a difficult decision in his relationship with Jo; Meredith has big news for Nathan.

Lets break down that tease clause by clause. First up: A dangerous patient escapes the hospital room, putting the doctors lives at risk.

If a fire does indeed break out at Grey Sloan Memorial, we imagine its this patient who starts it. Perhaps dangerous is code for pyromaniac here.

(The synopsis for the preceding episode also mentions a dangerous patient, whom we imagine is the same person.)

Next, Alex faces a difficult decision in his relationship with Jo.

One week earlier, hell attend a medical conference after making a shocking discovery, that episodes synopsis reveals.

Were guessing that shocking discovery will be the identity of Jos abusive husband, maybe the character Glee star Matthew Morrison is playing, as fans are conjecturing. (Matthews character is another guest at that conference, after all.)

So perhaps Alex will be dealing with the fallout of his encounter with Jos ex when the finale rolls around.

Then again, Shonda Rhimes always subverts our expectations, and wed bet good money she wants us to think big news will mean big baby bump just so well be caught off-guard by a season finale curveball.

But how does she expect us to sleep between now and May 18?!

Greys Anatomy Season 13 airs on Thursdays at 8 p.m ET on ABC.

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'Grey's Anatomy' Season 13 Finale Synopsis Revealed - Wetpaint - Wetpaint

Immunology

Lab test could change immunology – Post-Bulletin

Imagine using a hand-drawn sketch to identify a person in a crowd.

Now imagine switching to a high-resolution photo to make a match.

That's the shift some researchers at Mayo Clinic and the England-based The Binding Site firm are hoping to make in diagnosing and tracking the progression of multiple myeloma cancer in patients.

"It's night and day difference in terms of the resolution," Dr. David Murray said of using a mass spectrometer versus the decades-old process of gel electrophoresis.

Murray and David Barnidge, Ph.D, have invented a new testing process that uses the mass spectrometer to look for the build up of monoclonal immunoglobulin or "M-Proteins," which can signal the development of the currently incurable cancer in a patient.

They created it in Mayo Clinic's labs in the Hilton Building. Mayo Clinic patented the process, and now it's working with its longtime collaborator The Binding Site to fine-tune the test and eventually work toward having it approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Mayo Clinic has financial investment in the project. The collaboration uses patents owned by Mayo Clinic and The Binding Site, plus several patents jointly held by both organizations.

The collaboration has spurred The Binding Site to establish a research laboratory in northwest Rochester to focus on the project. In May, a 5,200-square-foot lab was built out in the first level of the Wideth Smith Nolting Building, formerly the Home Design Center, along West Circle Drive.

"It all just came together," said Barnidge, standing in blindingly white new laboratory space. Barnidge, who now works for The Binding Site as laboratory director, is outfitting the lab with the necessary equipment and hiring seven researchers to staff it.

Brian DuChateau, the vice president of development for The Binding Site, explains the progression of the collaboration as going through three phases.

"First, it was negotiating terms with Mayo. The next phase is to locate, build and establish the Rochester lab," DuChateau said. "The third phase is development and validation of the test. That's the fun part we're looking forward to getting to."

However, he cautions it probably will take years before the test is considered by the FDA for approval.

Meanwhile, Mayo Clinic is working on a parallel to gain approval to use the test just for its patients. Murray said that separate process could wrap up by the end of 2017.

"We're leading the charge. We want to eventually get this thing out in the hands of the other institutions," Murray said.

This approach stems from when a medical resident with an unusual background arrived at Mayo Clinic's Protein Immunology Lab and saw they were using the gel electrophoresis that dates back to the late 1950s.

Long before becoming a physician, Murray earned a doctorate in chemistry, and he worked as a research chemist for Eastman in Tennessee. After 10 years in that job, he "got the crazy idea to go to medical school." That led him to see how the immunology lab was doing its testing.

"As an industrial chemist, it was like, I knew there were much better ways to do this," he said.

He soon joined forces with Barnidge, as well as Mayo Clinic's Dr. John Mills and others. They soon started doing things with a mass spectrometer that had never been done before. By 2014, they had worked out a new test.

Overall, Barnidge and Murray say their patented test is more efficient, faster and less expensive than the ones in use now. Plus, there is detail that is just not possible with the gels.

"We're seeing details that we've never see before about the antibody repertoire. There are things that I think eventually will change how we think about immunology," said Murray.

DuChateau said this process could open the door for many new tests.

"It's the ultimate diagnostic. If you can ionize it, in theory, you can use this for a lot of different things. Ultimately, this is not just one single project for our Rochester lab," he said.

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Lab test could change immunology - Post-Bulletin

Immunology

Ex-Merck R&D exec Robert Plenge jumps ship to Celgene – FierceBiotech

Robert Plenge is to take the plunge and leave his role at Merck as VP and head of translational medicine to take up a new position at Celgene to run its immunology R&D.

The news has not however come from an official PR from either Merck or Celgene, but rather from Bio-Twitter. Last night Bruce Booth, a partner at Atlas Venture, and David Shaywitz at Forbes, helped break the news.

Exciting (if buried) news from @rplenge hes heading to @Celgene, great get for them, and congratulations, Robert!, Shaywitz said, with Booth adding: The news is out! @rplenge is newest member of R&D leadership team CELG, running immunology research. Great for Robert and for CELG!

The news only came out when it was noticed under Plenges latest blog post that he added: [Disclaimer: I am an employee of Merck, although will soon transition to a new role at Celgene.] His Twitter bio, from which he re-tweeted Shaywitz and Booth this weekend, also now says: soon at Celgene, ex-Merck.

Despite the bulk of its sales coming from several cancer meds, and although it is currently only headed up in the market by its psoriasis drug Otezla (apremilast), immunology and inflammation is a core research area for Celgene.

On the horizon for this unit is ozanimod, which could yield blockbuster sales in multiple sclerosis if approved (filing is expected in that indication by years end at the FDA), with it also in testing for GI disorders including Crohns disease.

And back in January, Celgene spent $300 million upfront with $475 million in biobucks for Delinia, boosting its inflammation and immunology pipeline, as it nabbed the upstarts lead program DEL106, a new IL-2 mutein Fc fusion protein designed to preferentially upregulate regulatory T cells.

It also got its hands on related second generation programs, with its newly acquired early pipeline potentially targeting against a variety of autoimmune diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis.

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Ex-Merck R&D exec Robert Plenge jumps ship to Celgene - FierceBiotech

Genetics

NIMH awards CMU team $7 mil for autism genetics research – CMU The Tartan Online

A team of researchers from various institutions, including some from Carnegie Mellon, working on the Autism Sequencing Consortium (ASC) project has been awarded funding from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to continue their work through 2022. The grant totals seven million dollars and will allow ASC to expand their work even further in its search for genetic markers of autism. Autism is a spectrum of mental disorders ranging from mild forms that have little to no impact on peoples lives to severe forms that prevent patients from communicating properly, getting regular jobs, or going to regular schools.

ASC was established in 2010 in order to collect, share, and analyze genetic markers from autistic patients, with the ultimate goal of finding genetic signatures correlated with autism.

In our latest project we analyze the entire genomes of 500 autism families. Thats a tremendous amount of data 3 billion base pairs per genome, says Kathryn Roeder, a professor of statistics and computational biology at Carnegie Mellon and a principal investigator of the ASC project, in a university press release.

The grant from NIMH will allow ASC to expand the sample a hundred times larger, to over 50,000 families. So far, around 29,000 individual genomes have been sequenced as part of the project, which is the largest autism sequencing study to date.

According to Bernie Devlin, another principal investigator on the project and a professor of psychiatry and genetics at the University of Pittsburghs School of Medicine, increasing the sample size is necessary to make important discoveries about autism in the long term. Another professor on the team of collaborators, Joseph D. Buxbaum, who is the G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Research Professor of Psychiatry, Neuroscience and Genetics and Genomic Sciences at Mount Sinai, summed up the importance of being able to increase the sample size: Historically, the number of risk genes found has steadily increased with the number of patients studied, so its important that we continue to add patients to the data set. He described the team as being thrilled to receive this grant, which he said would accelerate crucial research work.

The research work by the ASC has already produced tangible results on the path to ASCs ultimate goal of determining genetic associations for autism. It has, among other things, developed statistical tools that identified 65 different genes associated with autism risk and predicted the existence of several hundred more such markers, provided information about the possible genetic makeup of autism, and found that although some rare genetic markers can dramatically heighten the risk for autism, most genetic risks for the disorder are carried in common gene variants.

The awarding of this grant means that these findings may well be the roadmap toward finding a more comprehensive set of genetic data for autism and paving the way toward novel methods for helping autistic patients.

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NIMH awards CMU team $7 mil for autism genetics research - CMU The Tartan Online

Embryology

MATC continuing effort to prepare professionals for biotech industry – Wisbusiness.com

Madison Area Technical College is continuing a decades-old effort to churn out workplace-ready professionals to impact the ever-changing field of biotechnology.

Also known as Madison College, MATC offers a certificate in stem cell technologies that was created for working professionals. The 32-week nighttime program was developed in 2011 to help people enter the fields of stem cells and regenerative medicine. Since then, more than 70 people have graduated. But MATC initially launched a biotech training program in 1987.

The school receives major funding from the National Science Foundation for Academic Programs Advanced Technology Education program. Between ATE and other government grants, the school has received about $4.5 million dollars over the last 14 years to develop workforce programs.

Its stem cell program alone has netted $1.6 million, and has a placement rate in the industry of over 90 percent, says Thomas Tubon, project director for the stem cell program at MATC and member of the board of directors for BioForward, a state biotech advocacy group.

The program is split into two semesters; the first focuses on the core lab components of culturing these cells, managing media, and all the fundamentals of stem cells, according to Tubon.

The second semester involves working with industry-based advanced technology like 3D culturing, CRISPR-Cas9 genomic editing, and gene modification.

You name it -- if its on the cutting edge of our emerging industries here in Wisconsin, were trying to move it into the classroom, he said. And were trying to do that with support from our industries, and our academic folks as well.

CRISPR-Cas9 is a relatively new method. It lets scientists accurately cut and paste parts of DNA, giving them the power to determine which genes are expressed in a particular organism, and which are not. They can even introduce unique qualities from other living things.

With the advent of CRISPR/Cas9 for gene editing, this has been fairly easy to do, relatively -- to introduce mutations of interest, said Christine L. Mummery, professor of developmental biology and chair of the department of anatomy and embryology at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands.

This method is already being used to mitigate genetic disorders in animals, and two clinical trials using CRISPR-Cas9 for targeted cancer therapies have been approved in China and the United States, according to a 2016 article in Nature.

Mummery spoke April 19 at the 12th annual Wisconsin Stem Cell Symposium in Madison on the subject of induced pluripotent stem cells. These iPSC are derived from adult cells found in skin, blood or other parts of the body, which are reprogrammed to return to an embryonic-like state. This means they can be developed into any type of human cell, which can then be used for testing.

The sort of low-hanging fruit, and the most exciting area in my opinion, is to do disease modeling, Mummery said. We can look at the underlying mechanisms of disease in humans that weve not been able to do previously as well with mice.

Mummery pointed to drug rehabilitation as another exciting avenue to pursue.

So basically, you find a drug which actually works really well that has nasty side effects, and what a chemist can do is cut off the bits of the molecule and check whether the side effects disappear or not, she said.

The iPSC models can be used to test the effectiveness of these modified drugs, but also for toxicity testing and regenerative medicine, to treat things like Parkinsons, kidney disease and diabetes.

Parkinsons disease looks to be very promising, she added.

MATC was one of the first programs in the United States doing workforce training in biotech, according to Tubon. Its initial biotech program launched in 1987, and the college has been pushing to stay on the frontline of innovation ever since.

As one of the lead programs, weve maintained that status moving forward with developing workforce programs for biotech, for bioinformatics, for stem cells -- for whatever we can project into the future, Tubon said. My assumption is its probably going to be something in the space of tissue engineering. I think thats a pretty safe bet, and well see how far we can push that envelope.

The next MATC effort funded by the NSF will be to get what weve done here, distribute it, and start it at as many colleges as we can across the United States, Tubon says.

About 137 targeted colleges are part of the schools immediate network, and Tubon estimates up to 350 colleges nationwide have the capacity to start their own stem cell workforce development program.

Were reaching out to our first level of partners to get this going, and Im doing that this summer and next summer to help them generate capacity, and then well expand out from there, he said.

--By Alex Moe WisBusiness.com

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MATC continuing effort to prepare professionals for biotech industry - Wisbusiness.com

Anatomy

Grey’s Anatomy Recap: A Can of Worms – Vulture

Ellen Pompeo as Meredith, Martin Henderson as Riggs. Photo: Mitch Haaseth/ABC

Dont Stop Me Now Season 13 Episode 21

Editor's Rating 3 stars

Worms, you guys. So many worms. Yes, much more emotional stuff went down in Dont Stop Me Now, but attention must be paid to those worms.

You know what? If a gut full of worms puts gross-out aficionado Richard Webber in his happy place, we should allow it. That guy needs to spend a little time in his happy place!

The worms arrive at Grey Sloan Memorial via a very unsuspecting and very lovestruck young lady named Mary. She and her boyfriend, Dennis, are in lurve. Like, barf-inducing love. Stephanies eye rolls are all of our eye rolls. Dennis promises to be there through anything. Well, except for that time when April rushes into the room, having just pulled a worm out of the puke Mary spat all over Aprils hair, and they all realize Mary has a big ol belly full of worms. Dennis wont be there through that. He is disgusted. We all are.

Bailey, however, thinks that since Richard is in a lovely worm-induced happiness, it would be the perfect time for her to attempt to fix his and Catherines relationship. She feels guilty, you see. So, she decides to take on Catherine even if she is the one human whom Bailey fears and enlists April to work on Webber while theyre deworming their patient. Of course, the fact that Dennis possibly bailed on Mary once he heard about the worms makes it easy for April to work in some pointed thoughts about people not being perfect and giving the person you love a second chance. (Dont worry, lovers of love Dennis sheepishly returns to Mary.) It also very easily allows Webber to talk about how sometimes when you find ugliness inside a person, you have the right to walk away.

As you can surmise, April gets nowhere with Webber. After April reminds Bailey that she and Catherine are basically the same person, Bailey casts her Catherine fears aside and goes to talk some sense into the woman. Look at April giving pep talks! In other news, remember when April and Jackson hooked up a few weeks ago? Are we just never going to talk about that again? What happens near a Montana bar owned by Eric Roberts stays near a Montana bar owned by Eric Roberts?

Back to the Bailey at hand. She marches in to see Catherine, and though it starts off rocky, she launches into a Very Bailey Speech about Catherine setting her ego aside so that she can be with a man who loves and respects her. Since Bailey Speeches always work, its enough to convince Catherine to find her man and apologize for the Minnick situation. Honestly, we all deserve an apology for that, but beggars cant be choosers, I guess.

Instead, were given a very cute scene in which Catherine simply says shes sorry and Webber invites her into his on-call room to look at pictures of him removing worms out of a human persons body. Okay, now Webber is truly in his happy place.

There are some figurative worms in Dont Stop Me Now, too. By which I mean the whole can of worms that gets cracked open by a press conference for our airplane heroes, Meredith and Riggs. As the two docs recount what happened on their flight (they couldnt bring the pediatric dentist in for an interview or something? Come on!), Maggie, standing in the crowd like the proud little sister she is, notices Riggs rubbing Merediths shoulder in a more-than-just-friends kind of way. When Meredith catches Maggies eye, its clear that Maggie knows.

She was planning on telling Maggie that day, too! Instead of having a sisterly heart-to-heart, as Meredith had hoped and rehearsed for, Maggie wavers between avoiding Meredith completely and making snide comments about her new relationship all day. The real crux of the episode is their eventual blowout argument. Mer has had enough of Maggies jerk attitude. She is sorry that she didnt tell her, sorry that she hurt her, and she wants them to talk about it. When Maggie finds out that Meredith and Riggs have been, well, Meredith and Riggs since before Amelia and Owens wedding, she really lets her sister have it. Maggies own mother lied to her, and she thought Meredith never would. She trusted Meredith to be honest. Meredith was all she had left. It makes the whole Meredith-Riggs-Maggie shenanigans much more than two girls fighting over a boy. Its really about trust between (new-ish) sisters. Its a great moment.

Back at the homestead, Meredith and Amelia head out for a sister unwinding, but Meredith finds Maggie drinking wine alone on the couch. Maggie wants nothing to do with her, but Meredith wont stand for it. Shes not losing Maggie over some guy. Shes going out whether she likes it or not. Theyre sisters! Maggie gets that she might be mad at Meredith, but she still loves her, too. A girls night it is.

Praise be, you guys! I thought wed be dragging the Meredith and Maggie fight out for several episodes. Perhaps its a reward for sitting through episode after episode of Meredith going back-and-forth on her feelings for Riggs. Man, that was brutal.

Speaking of brutal, Veronica and Jeremy are back. You remember them, right? The pair of best friends who tore our hearts out when they revealed they were having a baby together and that Veronica has aggressive pancreatic cancer and will pretty much only live long enough to give birth? You know, the Veronica who talked about seeing Jeremy watch Star Wars with their child, and the Jeremy who wept when he learned his best friend was dying? THOSE TWO.

Theyre back, and Veronica isnt doing well. Her cancer has spread and Amelia thinks she only has two or three months to live. Arizona and Alex want to deliver the baby now, even if shes only at 34 weeks. Its risky, especially with all the stress Veronicas body is under, but its the best option for the baby. Its a no-brainer for Veronica and Jeremy. Theyre having their baby today.

When Veronica has Amelia and Arizona alone, she asks to fill out a DNR. Shes already dying, and if something should go wrong in surgery, she doesnt want to leave Jeremy with the burden of making that decision. Obviously, something is going to go wrong in surgery. Oh, Greys, you evil bitch.

Before the C-section begins, Veronica makes Jeremy promise that their baby is his priority, not her. So, after their son is safely delivered and the three of them get some short time together, Veronica pushes Jeremy to go to the NICU once things start going downhill and he dutifully does.

Veronica has thrown a blood clot and its in her lungs. They need to remove it immediately or shell die. But Amelia cant guarantee that opening her up to remove the clot will save her life, and so Veronica refuses the surgery. As Veronicas stats drop and she reminds the helpless doctors that she signed a DNR, Amelia sits down next to her patient. She doesnt want her to be alone. Veronica tells Amelia about how shes always loved Jeremy, and how hes loved her for her entire life, and that hell keep on loving her after her death. She wants Amelia to tell him not to look back. To be fearless, for their son. And then Amelia holds Veronica until she passes.

We all knew this is where wed end up. We are all suckers.

Mercifully, we dont have to hear Alex give Jeremy the news. We just watch as he hands Jeremy his son and tells him that his best friend is gone.

Dear lord, can we bring back the worms?

Maam. Doctor. Avery. Good night. Okay, so Baileys speech to Catherine isnt 100 percent like her other speeches. But Catherines not a peasant, so

What was funnier: Baileys disgust when she realizes April had a worm in her hair, or Aprils stink-eye when she realizes Bailey doesnt want to be around her for that very reason?

Webbers disbelief that Catherine would even have to ask if he took pictures with the gut worms makes me extra thankful that they finally make amends.

Perhaps the best reaction to the worms comes from Ben Are Those Worms? Warren. That dude has had some solid O.R. gallery moments this season.

Alex telling Meredith to use the plane as an excuse for how she and Riggs got together because planes have taken so much from them is the truest thing uttered on this show.

Just because you know its coming doesnt make it hurt any less. R.I.P., Veronica, you will be missed.

Samantha Bee Cements Her Place in Comedy History With Not the White House Correspondents Dinner

The Best Jokes From Samantha Bees Not the White House Correspondents Dinner

Val Kilmer Has an Extremely Shady Summation of Johnny Depps Career, and Other Bright Moments From His AMA

Tom Hanks Remains Extremely Bitter About One Aspect of His Polynesian Vacation With the Obamas, Oprah, and Bruce Springsteen

Allison Janney Reprises Her West Wing Role as Press Secretary C. J. Cregg to Take on the 2017 Press

Parks and Recreation star Jim OHeir took home an award for his role on The Bold and The Beautiful.

The fallout from Chucks big move in Golden Frog Time will be catastrophic.

I will destroy you in ways that are so creative they will honor me for it at the Kennedy Center.

This show is proof that rich storytelling is still possible on network TV.

Its not easy being the CEO of PiperChat.

The series fourth season is scheduled to premiere in June.

Crazy Whitefella Thinking is a wall-to-wall showcase for Scott Glenn.

The pragmatic reality was that there was no money to do a new opening title sequence.

The Bone Orchard is an ambitious, messy introduction.

I was overjoyed, I called Damon up and I said, thank you thank you thank you.

The latest comic ambassador for New York neuroses is from a red state, too.

Our long, national daymare is almost over.

Behold the pre-summer box-office doldrums.

The whole gang was there. (Even Marlon Brando, in a sense.)

Robs secret drinking finally catches up to him.

As soon as you double down on your blackness, they will double down on their bull.

She shouldve just stayed at the beach. Honestly.

Alas, well always have Robby Ray Stewart.

Its hard to get a bead on what Catastrophe is doing this season.

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Grey's Anatomy Recap: A Can of Worms - Vulture

Anatomy

Greys Anatomy star Jesse Williams is still focused on his family … – Rare.us

Jesse Williams and Aryn Drake-Lee are keeping things civil at least for the kids.

According to TMZ, Williams and Drake-Lee are focused on learning to co-parent their kids and have been since before announcing their separation.

Williams has reportedly moved out of the family home but still maintains constant contact with his young son and daughter. He reportedly sees his children a few times a week, and Drake-Lee has been accommodating when it comes to his filming schedule at Greys Anatomy.

RELATED: Chip Gaines has responded to the $1 million lawsuit brought forward by his former friends

Sources close to Drake-Lee claim that Williams still has some of his belongings in the house they shared and has been coming and going as he pleases.

Williams is reportedly asking for joint custody of the 1-year-old and 3-year-old. Drake-Lee has not yet responded to the divorce filing.

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Greys Anatomy star Jesse Williams is still focused on his family ... - Rare.us

Genetics

The genetics of photosensitive sneezing, explained / Boing Boing – Boing Boing

If you're among the one in four people who sneeze when you move from a dark place into the sunlight, this nifty little explainer from a fellow traveler gives a great overview of causation theories over the millennia. Turns out it is just one transposed letter in the second chromosome that causes the effect.

The dominant photic sneeze reflex trait gets passed on if one of your parents gives it to you. He clarifies his "sneeze gene" video title:

The Sun Sneeze Gene (YouTube / Veritasium)

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Flashlight fish, also called lanterneye fish and scientifically photoblepharon (light-eye), are strange and wondrous creatures best viewed during a night dive in the Pacific.

Nuno Dias shot this absolutely insane surfing footage that looks more like a snowboarder out in front of an avalanche than a surfer on a wave.

Poliahu, the Hawaiian snow goddess who lives atop Mauna Kea, is the namesake for this stunning and inspiring footage from Sunchaser Pictures.

Bamboo has lots of uses beyond just being panda food. Things like bikes, roads, scaffolding, and musical instruments are made from the fast-growing grass. But unless you are participating in a tropical-themed LARP, you probably wouldnt want a shirt made from bamboo stalks. So why dobamboo bed sheets make any sense? Because yarn extracted from []

If you want to work in tech, but dont have any desire to code web apps to help businesses sell things to other business, you might want to consider a career in cybersecurity. Judging from the apparent complete infiltration of Russian hackers in American cyberspace,it seems fair to speculate that theres a major shortage of []

All moms are different. But all moms like getting flowers on Mothers Day, and thats a fact (not, however a fact we can document in any fashion.) Instead of getting chewed out for forgetting to call her on the second Sunday of May, you can take care of it ahead of time with Telefloras flower []

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The genetics of photosensitive sneezing, explained / Boing Boing - Boing Boing

Genetics

Recommended Reading: The genetics of better beer – Engadget

You Want Better Beer? Good. Here's a Better Barley Genome Adam Rogers, Wired

The beer industry certainly isn't hurting for money these days, but a group of scientists are trying to figure out how to make the beverage even better. They're doing so by breaking down the genome of barley, a key ingredient in the brewing process that that turns starch into sugar for yeast to transform into alcohol during fermentation. Wired has the story of how the geneticists could be on the way to improving suds for all of us to enjoy.

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Recommended Reading: The genetics of better beer - Engadget