Before May 14, 2020, Texas reporting of coronavirus test mixed results from two different kinds of tests: the PCR tests and the antibody tests. The PCR test looks for the presence of the genetic material of SARS-COV-2, it answers the question: “Is the patient infected and contagious?” The other kind, the antibody test, looks for […]
A Single Gene Causes Thelytokous Parthenogenesis, the Defining Feature of the Cape Honeybee Apis mellifera capensis, by Yagound et al, 2020 That means virgin birth. A single gene controls the switch from sexual to asexual modes of reproduction The scientists used an impressive combination of classical backcrossing and genomic data to pinpoint the gene, and […]
Remdesivir is an experimental antiviral drug made by the company Gilead. Designed to act against the RNA driven RNA polymerase enzyme in RNA viruses, it was initially tested on Ebola. Since coronaviruses are also RNA viruses, Remdesivir is expected to work on them, too. Published in The Lancet: Clinical trial of remdesivir in adults with […]
On 5 Sept 2018, the NCAA Research team tweeted out this chart : It reports the average core high school grade point averages (GPA) among NCAA Division I freshman student athletes. So, a bit of a background – the National Collegiate Athletics Association governs just about all collegiate athletic programs in America, and the Division […]
I ignited a fierce debate a few months back by simply asking: “the higher you jump, the more force you land with, right? (Yes, it’s a trick question)” I posed the question shortly after the McKibbin Brothers released their video on dealing with knee pain, and a trainer was explaining that you could land with […]
The website Beachvolleyballspace covered the recent FIVB Gstaad Major with an article celebrating the winners, the currently top ranked Canadian team of Paredes and Pavan claiming the gold. The article title (Canadian women dominate Gstaad Major – Japan challenges top teams) makes special mention of the fifth place Japanese team of Murakami and Ishii. Why? […]
In an earlier posting on detecting the signs of pseudoscience, I quoted an article which mentions unfalsifiability as a property. This is actually a pretty good early test for understanding if something is science-based, and attends to a common misunderstanding about the scientific process. Whenever the phrase “scientifically proven” is used, your critical thinking alarm […]
In a recent discussion with BJ Leroy of USA Volleyball, I encountered a paper by Bailey et al (2018) published in the open access journal Frontiers in Psychology, titled “The Prevalence of Pseudoscientific Ideas and Neuromyths Among Sports Coaches“. Since the journal is open access, the paper is readily available to download and read. The […]
It’s the day after the Texas Primary Elections, which serves to narrow the field for the two major American political parties heading into the midterm elections in the fall. Here in Houston, which sits in Harris County, the results are posted online for the Republican Primaries and the Democratic Primaries as PDF files. A peculiar […]
Today was one of the election days in Texas. As a primer for the reader who is unfamiliar with the political set up in America, the scene is dominated by two main political parties: the Republican and the Democratic parties. And before the main elections, each party holds primary elections to install the main candidate […]