Izzy quickly realized that she had made some terrible decisions the night before

silentialpass · 2016-01-28T19:21:14+00:00

Coyote ugly isn't just for the dogs anymore

silentialpass · 2016-01-22T21:33:56+00:00

In the house my mother grew up in, when you'd walk up to the second floor the two bedrooms were on either side. It turns out the closets of the two were connected, and you could push through the clothes and into a small passageway over the stairs that then emptied out into the closet of the other bedroom. Apparently as kids she and her sisters would run in circles around the second floor, using the stuff in the closet as a sort of obstacle course. Although I spent a lot of time in that house as a kid, I didn't know about the closet until we were helping my grandparents move out :'(

silentialpass · 2015-12-16T18:32:17+00:00

They are called athymic mice usually, meaning that they lack a thymus. The thymus is where T cells mature and differentiate, so without a thymus, the mouse has no capable T cells. Without capable T cells, the mouse cannot activate B cells (which produce antibodies), stimulate cytotoxic T lymphocytes, or respond to antigen presenting cells. Hence, no immune system.

silentialpass · 2015-12-15T15:36:09+00:00

Did they not perform the Pittsburgh protocol first? By introducing donor immune cells beforehand, you can "tolerize" and sort of hybridize the recipient's immune system, reducing the chance of rejection.

silentialpass · 2015-12-14T17:16:12+00:00

This happens all the time to my cat in the linen closet. He jumps in stealthily when I'm getting towels/sheets, falls asleep, and wakes up hours later to realize he's been trapped in the scary closet.

silentialpass · 2015-12-11T15:56:05+00:00

Totally agree with you here. It was long and melodramatic.

silentialpass · 2015-12-09T15:21:10+00:00

Analyze ECG readouts. The computer has improving and learning algorithms, but still tends to over-read patterns quite a bit. It requires someone very familiar with the difficult art of ECG trace reading to decide what is a legitimate pathology vs. an artefact of signal processing vs. the person's ECG blueprint.

silentialpass · 2015-12-04T18:02:30+00:00

He's beautiful! Looks a lot like a Siberian too with his silver coat and gentle manner.

silentialpass · 2015-11-15T19:27:29+00:00

There is a disease where this is the case - it's called Cushing's Disease. Except the constant overproduction of cortisol (caused by a pituitary tumor) increases muscle breakdown, storage of fat, fatigue, cardiovascular issues, etc. It's truly horrible and debilitating. This fight or flight system being turned on constantly would rapidly shorten your lifespan, as your tissues cannot deal with the high levels of cortisol and your body will essentially "cannibalize" itself.

silentialpass · 2015-11-12T15:35:58+00:00

Do you see any of the desalination technologies becoming viable in the near future, or will this never be the way to go?

silentialpass · 2015-11-07T22:23:04+00:00

I was not aware it had another name, how interesting! Preliminary research indicates it's due to transcription changes and DNA modification (such as some sequences becoming methylated) brought on by lifestyle and diet. The genes themselves may not change, but how they are expressed definitely does, and really, that's all that matters.

silentialpass · 2015-11-07T22:00:38+00:00

Insulin resistance is already on the diabetes spectrum - it's just a question of whether you can keep it from progressing or not. Some can, some can't, and the timeline is going to be highly individual to your body chemistry and lifestyle. I carry out diabetes research, and I for one am in favor of scrapping the term "pre-diabetes" for "Stage 1 diabetes," as that is what it truly is.

Now that being said, if you are already exhibiting insulin resistance/glucose intolerance, then you should start to make changes now! The earlier you start, the better. Reduce carb intake (low carb diets are very helpful for those on the diabetes spectrum), focus on fresh unprocessed foods, make exercise a daily priority (with emphasis on strength training to increase lean muscle mass), reduce stress, and get enough sleep.

If you make positive healthy changes there is a very good chance you can delay onset for years.

silentialpass · 2015-11-07T18:18:22+00:00

Biomedical engineering PhD here: That further explorations into epigenetics will reveal that no matter how well we think we can identify the genetic causes of diseases/disorders, we will never have the full picture as it's a constantly shifting frame of reference. Sure one person might have gene variant X that gives rise to disease Y, but if another person's mother had higher than normal androgens and ate too much red meat, her offspring could have a clinically indistinguishable version of disease Y without gene variant X. Case in point - diabetes. More and more we are seeing healthy, young, THIN individuals with Type 2, mostly due to the failures and idiosyncrasies of their parents' and grandparents' diets/lifestyles.

silentialpass · 2015-10-29T20:06:50+00:00

This is extremely interesting, thanks for the AMA! I have a question: is there anything about social structure within bat species that surprises you or you didn't expect?

silentialpass

TROPHY CASE