News Guy on NPR referring to Pakistan refugees that fled Iraq: “Four years is a long time to spend in the desert.�

Me: “I don’t know. Didn’t the Jews spend something like 40 years wandering the desert?�

Chris: “Yeah, but that’s only because they let your Mother read the map.�

Me: “You’re probably right.�

I think we’ve all had that one professor in our lives that played an intricate part in how we turned out in life. My professor was Dr. Larry Magrath. Chris and I attended a wonderful liberal arts college that stressed interdisciplinary study (IDS). Dr. Magrath is the embodiment of (IDS). He is the type of man who teaches everything from Intro Biology to World Thought Philosophy.

It was not uncommon to see Dr. Magrath wearing the same clothing three days in a row. It took us a week to figure out that he wore the same things everyday, not because he didn’t do laundry, but because he just didn’t sleep for three days at a time. The man was like a bee, constantly buzzing around campus to various projects. This makes sense because Dr. Magrath’s biggest passion was Botany. I’ve never seen anyone so enraptured by the inner working of a common weed as Dr. Magrath could get while dissecting plants in Botany class. Dr. Magrath is the reason why I’m in research science today. His enthusiasm for all things science was contagious. He showed me that there was more to science then the possibilities of med-school.

Chris and I went to visit Dr. Magrath last night in the hospital. He’s very sick, so sick that he’s no longer lucid or responding to treatment. To say that the both of us are a little heartbroken over this is to put it mildly. He is greatly respected and loved and its just such a shame that this man who I always thought of as a giant perpetual motion machine has been reduced to a shell. He will never be forgotten.

Update - Saturday, February 24, 2007:
Dr. Magrath passed away this morning.

There’s no excuse for my bloggy absence other than I’ve just had other things to do. I’ve had ample material like the latest Ikea trip and our impromptu Valentines Day. Its just that by the time I get around to typing these things up, its old news all ready.

I blame TV and knitting. I started on these really neat mittens a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been slow getting them finished. I’ll have them done just in time for Spring. Actually, I’m not that far from finishing the last one. I promise to post pictures when I finish them ‘cause they are really cute. I promised my sister I would make her a pair when I finished mine. She’ll get her mittens by July 4th.

I’ll make up for missing my Friday Science entry by posting extra science stuff this week, unless I get distracted by my Soduko book. Then all bets are off.

I know I saw an episode of the X-files that sounded very much like this story. A parasite called Toxoplasma gondii has the ability to control your brain and make you crazy. Though we’ve known for quite some time that different bacterial infections like syphilis can make people mentally unstable, T. gondii actually alters brain chemistry.

Five years ago, zoologists at Oxford University showed that T. gondii altered the brain chemistry of rats so that they were more likely to actually seek out cats. So the rat gets eaten by the cat and parasite moves on into the cat. The cat is the only host that T. gondii can use to complete the reproductive step of its life cycle.

Apparently the parasite resides in something like 60 million symptom-free Americans as well as in thousands of other species. Recently biologist Kevin Lafferty has linked T. gondii and toxoplasmosis infections with elevated incidences of neuroticism. Your neurotic behavior could very well be caused by a parasite and let me just spin this out of control for you. Your neurotic behavior is being caused by a parasite that drug companies put in the water so you would get infected and then have to buy their behavior modifying drugs. Not really, that’s just the parasite talking.

Parasitologist Jaroslav Flegr of the Charles University in Prague thinks that T. gondii is even skewing our sex ratios. He looked at the clinical records for more than 1,800 babies born between 1996 and 2004 and found that the normal sex ratio was 104 boys born for every 100 girls. Flegr discovered that for women with high levels of antibodies against T. gondii, the ratio was 260 boys for every 100 girls. His study has been rejected by eight journals without any formal review. He had the same problem publishing an earlier study showing that toxoplasmosis infections increase the odds of someone having a traffic accident. Flegr says “People don’t like the possibility that their behavior and life are manipulated by a parasite�.

But Judge, I didn’t mean to stab my husband 48 times. The parasite made me do it.

Today is Chris’s birthday. Everyone needs to go on over to his blog and leave Happy Birthday wishes. I’m not saying how old he is, but I will say that he has acquired a few more white hairs over the years.

I love you Chris and I hope you have a wonderful day!

Whew! I got a ton of stuff accomplished this weekend. I cleaned the living room and opened the space up some by getting rid of a clutter-catching cart. Mom and Dad came for a visit on Saturday and took away a dresser that I had planned on just tossing onto the lawn for someone to take. Since the dresser was finally out of the bedroom, I decided that I should clean and move furniture around in there. I plan on painting that room sometime soon and I want to move the furniture around to see what the best layout is going to be. I’m not sold on the current furniture layout, but since our bed weighs fifty thousand pounds, I think it will do for now.

I also did some much needed home secretarial work. My computer address book was in dire need of updating. I still had Stephanie’s address in Stillwater and they haven’t lived there for about four years. Now, my handwritten address book matches my computer address book. I’ve also been complaining for months about how I really need to update and restructure my iTunes/iPod playlists and add some new music. I got that done too.

The best thing by far that I accomplished this weekend was my terrarium. I bought this aquarium at the flea-market because of its stand. I thought it would make a great terrarium, but it didn’t have a lid. I put off making it until I could figure out what to do about a lid, until I read Mighty Girl’s entry about her terrariums. She used succulents and desert plants so you don’t need a glass top.

This is my desert terrarium.

All that’s missing are some miniature dinosaurs. I’m quite pleased with myself.

Condoms have been around for quite awhile. They used to be made from linen or even animal intestine (gross). Then technology came along and made more effective versions from polyurethane and latex. But biomedical engineers David Katz and Patrick Kiser have developed an even better version of the condom.

It’s called the “smart, molecular condom� and is a polymer that is sensitive to heat and sperm. It also is supposed to prevent HIV. The condom is a liquid at room temperature that then solidifies into a gel. The gel can stay in place for up to 24hrs when warmed by the body. When the gel comes in contact with semen there’s a change in pH which causes the gel to re-liquefy and release an HIV-killing microbicide.

The only problem I have with it is the HIV-killing microbicide part. Trials for an HIV-microbicide have come to a stand still this week when researchers testing cellulose sulphate found that women who used the gel ran a higher risk of HIV infection than women who used a placebo. The cellulose sulphate known also as Ushercell was in its final trial period. That means, if no one had spotted a problem, this stuff would be out on the market. The closure of this trial is a big set back. Currently there are three other microbicides in Phase III trial that use a different molecule, but block HIV entry. These trial results won’t be ready until 2008 or 2009.

The benefit of the “smart condom� is that it will be easier to put on then regular condoms. No more futzing around with getting the wrapper open and then making sure it goes on right. Men will be more inclined to use something that they just smear on like a lotion.

Today is a cranky day. Even though I’m trying to have a good attitude, it just keeps eluding me. First of all it’s snowing. AGAIN! I know its winter, but this is Oklahoma. It doesn’t snow in Oklahoma.

Secondly, we got pulled over on the way to work this morning because our tag has expired. The good thing is the police man didn’t give us a ticket. He just wanted to let us know it had expired (no shit). This bothers me on sooooo many levels. When our home was burglarized a few years ago, the police did nothing. Chris wrote the police report and I found the point of entry. The only thing the policeman did was come over and say “yup, you was robbed�. I find it amazing that since then, the police have managed to pull Chris over and ticket him for maybe possibly crossing the center line and also find time to pull us over in a blizzard to tell us our tag has expired. Thanks police department for being there for us hard working tax payers. We appreciate it.

When we finally made it to work, I found that one of our microscopes had been left on all night. The bulb had burned out. At least it was an easy fix. It’s a bitch and an hour long process to change the bulb on our fluorescent microscope.

And, it’s still snowing. Am I on Candid Camera?