BioScans

Magnet Therapy - Still Doesn't Work

2005-09-23T15:33:00.000-07:00

The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, did a double-blinded study of Active Comfort magnetic insoles and found, to no thinking human being's surprise, that they don't do a damned thing a regular insole doesn't do. Not that any of the fools that buy into magnet therapy will listen - magnet treatments are a $500 million dollar industry in the US, $5 BILLION worldwide, so there're a good number of people invested in keeping this magnet canard going as long as possible. The only effect above the basic alleviative one of wearing an insole was a placebo noted in people professing a belief in magnet therapy before the beginning of the study.

So stop with the magnets already. When I see someone with a magnet bracelet on, it only functions as an external announcement of their scientific illiteracy. It shouldn't take a double-blinded study by Mayo Fucking Clinic to point out how moronic magnet therapy is yet, sadly, it does.

Last and especially, thanks to the people at Spenco Medical Corp, makers of the insoles in question, for funding the study and providing both the magnetized and false magnet insoles for it. It's great to see a company honestly interested in the function of its products and willing to let facts be known no matter what. Next time I need an insole, it's a Spenco.

H3N2 Flu Strain is Becoming Resistant to Antiviral Medications

2005-09-22T14:43:00.000-07:00

As if the impending bird flu isn't forecast to be bad enough, there's evidence coming up that H3N2 strains are becoming resistant to the common antiviral medications amantadine and rimantadine, most likely due to over-the-counter availability in Asia and Russia.

At some point soon we're going to have to collaborate with Asian governments to bring influenza under control worldwide. In an era of increased global transit their policies are having a direct and deleterious effect on public health in the western world.

BIO504 - Molecular and Cell Biology, First Lecture

2005-09-22T11:43:00.000-07:00

The first class was last night. We got the basics in order, sorted out the usual planning and program nonsense, discussed the syllabus, and got started.

I guess Dr. Bournias, the program head and teacher of the class, really wants to create a "we're all in this together" atmosphere, which explains the mostly-idiotic "bonding" exercise a group of 2-dozen adults had to go through next, determining which of a list of things we'd need most to survive a short trek from a wrecked lander to a mother ship on the moon. First we figured it out ourselves, then we did it in small groups, then she told us what NASA had come up with. Complete waste of time. Can't stand the cutesy group shit.

The next segment was a talk on a local biotechnology company given by Dr. Tim Osslund, an early and longtime employee of the company. It was entertaining, but very light and fluffy. For a first class that's ostensibly the first week of school for us all the entire 6pm-9pm period was remarkably devoid of meaningful scientific fact, with nothing I'd call grad-level work discussed. Hate to be cruel about it, but there it is.

Nevertheless, I'm sanguine that later discussions will be more substantive though this "molecular biology" course, with its surplus of guest lecturers, seems most likely to take the form of a survey of the biotechnology industry with only partial emphasis on science itself. Taken as it is it should be interesting, but having expected something along the line of my rather rigorous undergrad molbio class a decade ago it feels a little hollow.I want things to get much more serious than this, and quickly. But I remain upbeat - next week is the first project management class, so a new thing.

"Say goodbye to your social life."

2005-09-15T15:53:00.000-07:00

That's what my coworkers, friends, parents, etc are all saying. I don't doubt it. Just hope I have enough time to stay with the important things, wife and kid and all. Cornball, I know, but the biggest worry on my mind about starting grad school has been giving my family the short shrift. There'll inevitably be more time away, I can't help that, but I do want to be there as much as I can.

CSUCI on Flickr

2005-09-13T08:40:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd link in photos coming up on a search of "CSUCI" from Flickr, to give you-all a look at the campus. It looks nice in these photos, but the infrastructure needs a ton of work. Lots of it is run-down, dilapidated and in serious need of revitalization. Maybe I can get some more photos on my own at a later date.

National Preparedness Month

2005-09-13T08:23:00.000-07:00

Almost mockingly for Katrina victims, September is National Preparedness Month. In light of the anniversary of 9/11, the global security situation regarding terrorism, etc, and recent events on the gulf coast, put together a preparedness kit. Just do it. Don't think that some similar version of Katrina can't happen to you. If it's not a hurricane it's an earthquake, tornado, fire or (God forbid) another attack. Responsible parents and families make some provision for the worst and, as Katrina demonstrated, even the Federal government may not be there or be there in sufficient force to provide for or protect you.

Dumb and Dumber

2005-09-12T12:50:00.000-07:00

That's largely the state of science reporting in the popular press. The UK Guardian's Ben Goldacre examines why science journalism sucks so much, and the journalistic motivations for portraying science poorly in the press.

This misrepresentation of science is a direct descendant of the reaction, in the Romantic movement, against the birth of science and empiricism more than 200 years ago; it's exactly the same paranoid fantasy as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, only not as well written. We say descendant, but of course, the humanities haven't really moved forward at all, except to invent cultural relativism, which exists largely as a pooh-pooh reaction against science. And humanities graduates in the media, who suspect themselves to be intellectuals, desperately need to reinforce the idea that science is nonsense: because they've denied themselves access to the most significant developments in the history of western thought for 200 years, and secretly, deep down, they're angry with themselves over that.

Read it, it's good.

Look, Ma! I'm Orientated!

2005-09-12T12:17:00.000-07:00

Orientation was on Saturday the 10th - met Dr. Berg, CSUCI's Dean of Extended Education and all-around nice guy, Dr.s Bournias and Wang of the Master's program and Biology dep't respectively, and one Dr. Ken Feldmann of Ceres, a local company that produces hybrid plants through genetic engineering.

We got through the basics - cost ($4.7K this semester), parking ($135 per semester - Jesus!) and registration, and each of them talked to the class about the program and the biotech industry. They seemed as excited and hopeful for it as I was, and fully professional. One of the things I was worried about with a new program was that it'd be run in a half-assed manner. This is clearly not the case here. Also, luckily, there's a transit pass that lets me do park & ride to the campus for only $25/semester. I know I'll be doing that rather than shucking that ridiculous bill for on-campus parking.

I'm working on clearing up some technicalities with tuition deferrment for my job's reimbursement program, so I ought to get paid up soon. Class begins on the 21st.

Waiting Waiting Waiting

2005-08-17T14:48:00.000-07:00

Things are moving like molasses, and I'm eager to start school. The program's got an orientation session scheduled for September 10th, with classes starting the week of the 19th. Project Management on Tuesdays, Molecular Cell Biology on Wednesdays.

Got my Molecular Cell Bio book.

2005-07-27T14:43:00.000-07:00

I received Alberts et.al.'s Molecular Biology of the Cell yesterday. Jammed through the first chapter but I still need to install the software. Want to get a jump on reading through the book before classes in September.

Your Cell Phone's Trying to Kill You! (Part III)

2005-07-27T14:41:00.000-07:00

High-frequency radio scrambling your brain? Eh. Hearling loss due to over-loud speakers? Bah. The latest vogue in cell phone threats is that they'll boil your eyes.

Sigh.

Got the courses.

2005-07-25T13:55:00.001-07:00

So I heard back from the program head / my advisor with the 2 courses we'll be starting up with in the Fall.

The first is Molecular Cell Biology. Cell signalling, membrane trafficking, cell cycle control, biochemical conditions in the cell, protein synthesis, compartmentalization and movement, etc. For this we'll be using the canonical book by Alberts et.al., Molecular Biology of the Cell, a massive tome at 1,600+ pages plus CD materials. The professor told me "It's an excellent reference", which is professorspeak for "I know this book costs more than your mortgage payment but I know the guy who wrote it." I'm most excited about this course, because I'm about 10 years from when last I seriously studied molecular biology and think a brush-up will do me good.

The other course is Project Management. It's a business course focused on teaching principles involved in acheiving a one-time objective. This'd come in handy in biopharma research more than you might think, as the lab work tends to be episodic in nature. You work on one project, try to deliver the needed innovation or assay or product or analysis, and move on to the next. Personally I'd prefer an all-science, all-the-time focus but I suppose I must wade through the "business" end of this MS program. I just have issues with meaningless buzzwords and complicated explanations of obvious corporate phenomena. If it helps me with improving the results in my own project work I'll appreciate it though. No word on the course materials yet.

Acceptance

2005-07-20T08:13:00.000-07:00

My acceptance letter arrived at last yesterday. Two pages of "Congratulations, you're in!" That's it. No first semester class schedule, no detailed information of any sort on where to proceed from here. It does tell me classes start on August 29th, but what classes? As usual, I'm also desperate for a book list for my classes so I can get a good rate on them and read ahead a bit. Suppose I'll have to wait and see.

I'M IN.

2005-07-06T12:49:00.000-07:00

Just this afternoon I received notification over the phone that I've been accepted to Cal State Channel Islands's Masters in Biotechnology Program. Ought to have my acceptance packet within a week and the person I spoke to said to expect an invitation to tour the campus soon thereafter.

This two-year course of study - the first year implemented at this, the newest CSU campus - provides experienced adults working in the biotechnology industry the opportunity to further their educations through graduate study. The curriculum takes place over two years as a cohort program, with each initiating class taking the same classes together. The program is also run during evenings so that these working professionals can engage in coursework without leaving or curtailing their regular work commitments. In other words, it's ideal for someone in my situation and I'm happy to be a part of it. I don't think I've been this excited over school since before I graduated from BU.

Begining now I'm also going to be blogging the entire experience from begining to end and including my class notes, the material I learn, and any other information relevant to the experience. Hopefully, people reading can learn a little science while listening to me cry like a little baby about how hard it is to juggle home, work and school.

Better Dead Than Fed

2005-06-23T20:33:00.000-07:00

PETA's kills animals. Lots of them. Mainly because it's easier than finding them homes or, you know, feeding and watering and housing them. Read the whole thing, as they say.

This is not the first report that PETA killed animals it claimed to protect. In 1991, PETA killed 18 rabbits and 14 roosters it had previously "rescued" from a research facility. "We just don't have the money" to care for them, then PETA-Chairman Alex Pacheco told the Washington Times. The PETA animal shelter had run out of room.

The Center for Consumer Freedom, which represents the food industry, a frequent target of PETA campaigns, released data filed by PETA with the state of Virginia that shows PETA has killed more than 10,000 animals from 1998 to 2003. "In 2003, PETA euthanized over 85 percent of the animals it took in," said a press release from the lobby, "finding adoptive homes for just 14 percent. By comparison, the Norfolk (Va.) SPCA found adoptive homes for 73 percent of its animals and Virginia Beach SPCA adopted out 66 percent."

Fuck PETA. Fuck them right in the ear. What do they really exist for except as an outlet for monied morons and rabble rousers? And yet it stumbles onward, an overfunded international object of ridicule by anyone with a functioning cerebellum.

Moorpark Mammoth Possibly a Rare Find

2005-04-13T08:57:00.000-07:00

Recent excavation for a new home site in Moorpark, CA (very near my own digs of Simi Valley) have turned up what might be a rare find - a half-million year-old mammoth.

Kudos to the developers, who stopped digging right away to bring in paleontologists, who'll quickly catalog and remove the remains so construction can continue. This nearly complete specimen will be removed to the LA county Natural History Museum for preparation and study.

Cloned Beef, Milk Basically the Same as Normal

2005-04-12T11:21:00.000-07:00

I don't have a cow thing, I promise.

UConn's Center for Regenerative Biology has a paper in today's PNAS where they note that 10 clones from one cow produced milk and beef similar to the original animal. Kind of expected since, you know, it is a clone.

It's not really worth noting too much, except that I noticed that John Aravosis's Americablog called it "pure PR bullshit," saying that "the AP ought to be ashamed of themselves for churning out something so dishonest."

In truth, it wasn't the AP. It was Dr. Xiangzhong Yang at the University of Connecticut. AP's just reporting on the journal article. As for it being "PR bullshit", well, that's just one of the wonders of the scientific process. Because he described his methods fully in the paper, available at any decent university science library, anyone could go and attempt to replicate his results.

As for Americablog's allegation that it's not a "serious study", my response would be that it's a good deal more serious than the groundless appeal to emotionality that constitutes their response to the research.

Nobody's contending that cloned beef is A-OK nor that it should be rushed to market. All the study notes is that in this analysis the products of the cloned cattle met all the FDA requirements for such foodstuffs and were largely indistinguishable from their ancestor.

Genetic Engineering Saves Cow Boobies

2005-04-06T14:06:00.000-07:00

Mastitis, an infection of the mammary gland, usually causes dairy cows to have to be put down. Nature Biotechnology this week has an article from the Dep't of Agriculture describing how scientists created genetically engineered cows with with a gene for a protein, lysostaphin, that specifically kills Staphylococcus Aureas, the source of about 30% of mastitis cases yet does not kill other bacteria so that the milk can be used for cheese.

No, nobody's tasted the milk yet or made anything from it yet - use and sale of this milk will require rigorous safety testing and is a long, long ways away. But this is where research and the future of agriculture are taking us. Anything that causes less cows to die means that milk is cheaper and thus means more people can buy milk.

Scientific Travesty at Yucca Mountain

2005-04-06T11:05:00.000-07:00

The Department of Energy has spent over two decades studying Yucca Mountain as a possible repository for hazardous radioactive waste from nuclear power plants. In a stunning turn of events though, emails were made public last week showing what looks like a concerted effort on the part of USGS scientists, contracted to the DoE, to fabricate data and manipulate records to produce the results needed to move the project forward. Falsified results involve, among other subjects, analyses of the movement of underground water at the facility and determinations of a radiation leak's propensity to enter drinking water supplies.

Quotes from the emails are explicit and damning. Bolding is my own.

"Science by peer pressure is dangerous but sometime (sic) it is necessary." - Writer identified by committee staffers as "U.S. Geological Survey employee 2."

"I don't have a clue when these programs were installed. So I've made up the dates and names. ... This is as good as it's going to get. If they need more proof, I will be happy to make up more stuff, as long as it's not a video recording of the software being installed." - Writer identified as USGS employee 1.

"This is now CYA and we had better be good at it. I seem to have let this one slip a little too much in an attempt to cover all our work (and get us the hell out of the long-term problem of Yucca Mountain) but now it's clear that we have a little to no choice. In all honesty I've never felt well-managed or helped by the USGS (Yucca Mountain Project) folks. In fact, as you know, I've often felt abandoned. This time it's no different, or worse, and we have to work together to get out of this one." - USGS employee 2.

"Some nights I have a hard time going to sleep because I realize the importance of trying to get the right answer, and I know how many serious unknowns are still out there, and how many quick fixes are still holding things together." - Unidentified worker.

Congress and the FBI are investigating. I shudder to think at what else might turn up, if this is any indication of how the USGS has been running things. If problems are bad enough decades of time and hundreds of millions of dollars may all have been for naught.

Roundup® Kills Frogs

2005-04-01T12:24:00.000-08:00

Dr. Rick Relyea of the University of Pittsburgh has found that Roundup^® kills frogs. Seeing how the insecticide is used by home gardeners nationwide for weed abatement it's a good fact to spread to friends and neighbors, especially if you live near streams, ponds and other amphibian breeding grounds.

No "Evidence of Harm"

2005-04-01T10:13:00.000-08:00

Journalist David Kirby's about to release a book, Evidence of Harm, that's going to scare a lot of people into thinking that preservatives in children's vaccines, thimerosal specifically, cause autism.

The problem? The possibility of a link has been thoroughly investigated(.pdf), with no link seen or suggested. Kirby, essentially, is stating something he's unable to prove scientifically and suggesting that a massive conspiracy is covering up the truth. As if we haven't heard that one before.

The National Network for Immunization Information has a press release out and there's also a thoughtful article from Modern Mom magazine. As always, people should ask for hard data instead of innuendo, allegations of conspiracy, and emotional appeals.

Scientific American Gives Up

2005-04-01T09:44:00.000-08:00

Finally, the wall between religion and science is beginning to crumble as the editors of Scientific American capitulate to what Creationists have insisted all along is the truth.

True, the theory of common descent through natural selection has been called the unifying concept for all of biology and one of the greatest scientific ideas of all time, but that was no excuse to be fanatics about it. Where were the answering articles presenting the powerful case for scientific creationism? Why were we so unwilling to suggest that dinosaurs lived 6,000 years ago or that a cataclysmic flood carved the Grand Canyon? Blame the scientists. They dazzled us with their fancy fossils, their radiocarbon dating and their tens of thousands of peer-reviewed journal articles. As editors, we had no business being persuaded by mountains of evidence...

Ah, sweet consilience.

Goodbye, Oxy. HELLO, Gaba/Morphine!

2005-03-31T21:04:00.000-08:00

The good people at Queen's University in Ontario are reporting in today's NEJM that they were able to demonstrate a synergistic effect on pain relief if they combined the opioid morphine with gabapentin, an antiseizure medication. This allowed them to provide lower doses of both than they would have had to administer if they used one or the other.

The upside for us? Well, if you can get ahold of some gabapentin that morphine supply could last you a long, long time.

The Bible vs. The Volcano

2005-03-31T16:23:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to link in what I thought was a very nicely-written, even kind, letter by American Association for the Advancement of Science CEO Alan Leshner about IMAX theaters' decisions not to air a documentary on volcanos for fear that a section on the development of organisms near thermal vents would anger creationists.

Schizophrenia - A Genetic Disease?

2005-03-31T16:04:00.000-08:00

Science reports this week the finding of yet another gene on choromosome 5 implicated in schizophrenia. Specific SNPs (single-nucleotide polymorphisms, or point mutations) of theneurotransmitter handling gene Epsin 4 are more common in people whose families have a history of the disease than those who lack a history of it.

Lance Armstrong, Dope Fiend

2005-03-31T15:19:00.000-08:00

Lance's former personal assistant, Mike Anderson, is claiming he found a container for the banned substance androstenine (aka Andro) in Lance's bathroom while working for him. This is the same steroid Mark McGwire used to break the home run record. We also have news today that the Italians are investigating whether Lance intimidated a witness in the trial of a sports doctor.

My own purely gut feeling, based partly on news and partly on what I know of the human body, is that Lance is a doper and has been for years. The consistently borderline hematocrits (his % RBCs in blood has, since the "comeback" been far higher than cyclists tringing at altitude achieve, yet always just below the disqualification point - a sign he may be on EPO), the "miraculous comeback", and the continued success far past any other cycler's prime demonstrate that Lance has taken what could have been a successful comeback driven by steroids and EPO and pushed it far past the boundaries of credibility that he might be drug-free. When he goes down, if he goes down before his suspected retirement, he's sure to disappoint many in the cancer community who see him as an important symbol of a successful recovery and taint a long career of acheivement.

This Tour de France, I'm sure to find myself hoping he'll overreach, hoping he'll push it just far enough that he gets caught. It'd be a fitting end to his career, the cheater.

Idiot Damages H. floresiensis Fossils

2005-03-29T11:47:00.000-08:00

It appears the Indonesian anthropologist Teuku "Butterfingers" Jacob caused significant damage to a number of the H. floresiensis specimens discovered by Morwood et.al. Below you see one of the more interesting pieces, the pelvic fragment, before and after. As noted in the article, "[It] should never have left Jakarta", so I'd say Morwood himself is slightly to blame, but I doubt Jacob is going to live this down anytime soon.

"Vroom-Vroom?"

2005-03-29T11:36:00.000-08:00

A female elephant at a reserve in Tsavo, Kenya apparently is imitating car sounds in the first recorded instance of auditory learning in a land mammal species that isn't a primate.

The Chemical Warfare in your Yard

2005-03-28T20:36:00.000-08:00

Every now and then you come across the sort of interesting scientific discovery that makes you think it should have been found out decades ago. So it is with an NSF-funded study at Colorado State that found that plant roots, previously thought to mainly be a water and nutrient conducting, ground anchoring aparatus for the "real", interesting parts of the plant, are actually battling it out with various bacteria for the plant's very survival. Roots of the common model plant organism Arabadopsis thaliana were found to secrete antimicrobial agents into the surrounding soil that ward off soil pathogens.
As shown in this picture, two similar plants were exposed to two different varieties of the bacterium P.syringae. The one on the left got a variety sensitive to the plant's antimicrobial exudates while the one on the right got a more lethal variety resistant to the plant's defenses.

The prospect of creating GM crops with strong resistances to soil pathogens is very enticing.

The Three Kakapos!

2005-03-28T20:22:00.000-08:00

The kakapo (Strigops habroptilus) is a flightless parrot native to southern New Zealand. Their numbers dropped to a mere 51 in the mid-90's due to non-native predators (mostly escaped housecats), but breeding programs have been successful in bringing up their numbers. Three eggs have hatched recently and five are expected to, which'll bring their numbers up even further.

A Golden Opportunity

2005-03-28T15:31:00.000-08:00

The BBC reports on the promise of GM "golden" rice for preventing half a million kids from going blind each year due to a lack of vitamin A. Syngenta, a UK biotech, has produced GM rice that produces sufficient vitamin A for kids to get their daily allowance through the rice alone.

Environmental groups are carping that they'd rather have kids eating a balanced diet instead of introducing a GM crop to Asia. I'd agree that theoretically it's preferable, but it's not my kid going blind today. I'll take half a loaf if I can get it and not curse failing to get the whole thing.

Plants Picking their Genes?

2005-03-28T15:01:00.000-08:00

CNN has the AP reporting that molecular biologists at Purdue have found that a certain species of watercress can correct the genes it inherited from its parents in order to grow normally. This raises the possibility of other species correcting their genes in a similar fashion. Is a small caveat to Mendelian genetics in the works?

The Imagi Nation

2005-03-28T14:36:00.000-08:00

Science Online's got a great piece on how psychologists are finding the imagination to be an important tool in rationalizing and categorizing the real world through various interesting psychology experiments on kids.

The Enormous Omelet Sandwich

2005-03-28T13:42:00.000-08:00

In case anyone was confused on the subject, fast food is really bad for you. It has loads of fat and salt and if you eat nothing but fast food you'll get very sick very quickly. I only state this because apparently, for some people, it takes a documentary.

Burger King, in retaliation for the FDA releasing the new food pyramid(.pdf), has come out with the Enormous Omelet Sandwich, a breakfast item boasting a whopping 730 calories, 57% of them from fat.

Now, I'm not necessarily against the occasional fat bomb. If your diet is otherwise healthy the very occasional indulgence isn't the end of the world, no matter what Supersize-Me boy says. Julia Child cooked and ate the worst, most fatty and indulgent food for decades and was quite healthy. The trick? Moderation. Control. Setting limits for yourself and sticking to them. By her own admission she strictly controlled her portions, never snacked, and maintained control over her own diet. Not ideas with much traction these days.

It is though not the most health-conscious decision to make a foodstuff with the word "Enormous" in its name a regular part of your breakfast melange. Personally I'm more of a coffee/fruit/muffin kind of guy.

Dinosaur Jerky

2005-03-28T13:15:00.000-08:00

The discovery of dinosaur soft tissue(Science, sub req'd) in a Tyrannosaurus rex bone is fascinating and potentially informative. Dr. Mary Schweitzer's team at NCSU Raleigh found, by dissolving bone in weak acid, soft tissue, red blood cells looking very much like bird RBCs, and osteocytes.

As a molecular biologist I find the prospect of DNA snippets from a T. rex enticing, but unlikely. 68 million years is a long time to ask DNA to stick around intact, and the odds unfortunately are against there being sequenceable material present. That said, best of luck and I do fervently hope they're successful. But DNA's not the only possible treasure to be found. Determination of the tissue's relatedness to other organisms via something like antibody isotyping would allow us to use the proteins in the soft tissue to lok at evolutionary relationships between dinosaurs, modern reptiles, birds, and possibly other species.

As Science notes, Schweitzer et.al. are looking for funding for mass spectrophotometry, high-performance liquid chromatography, and other tests that would allow them to assay these samples and look for more. I can only hope they get in touch with the NSF before any mysterious multibillionaires seeking to alter the natural balance of the global environment give them a call.

Media, Medicine, and Terri Schiavo

2005-03-28T11:18:00.000-08:00

Mainstream media is naturally inclined to be even-handed, usually presenting two sides to most stories in an attempt to allow the reader or viewer at least two options to choose from or side with. This is often a very good way of approaching stories, but it positively screws science reporting. "Facts are stubborn things," as John Adams noted, "and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."

He was speaking in regard to the Boston Massacre but it's no less true today, and the tragic facts of Ms. Schiavo's condition force some to face a cruel reality. Dr. Timothy Quill's recent editorial for the NEJM(.pdf) makes short work of the notion that any improvement is likely or even possible.

On February 25, 1990, Terri Schiavo had a cardiac arrest, triggered by extreme hypokalemia brought on by an eating disorder. As a result, severe hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy developed, and during the subsequent months, she exhibited no evidence of higher cortical function. Computed tomographic (CAT) scans of her brain eventually showed severe atrophy of her cerebral hemispheres, and her electroencephalograms have been flat, indicating no functional activity of the cerebral cortex. Her neurological examinations have been indicative of a persistent vegetative state, which includes periods of wakefulness alternating with sleep, some reflexive responses to light and noise, and some basic gag and swallowing responses, but no signs of emotion, willful activity, or cognition. There is no evidence that Ms. Schiavo is suffering, since the usual definition of this term requires conscious awareness that is impossible in the absence of cortical activity. There have been only a few reported cases in which minimal cognitive and motor functions were restored three months or more after the diagnosis of a persistent vegetative state due to hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy; in none of these cases was there the sort of objective evidence of severe cortical damage that is present in this case, nor was the period of disability so long.

We also have this horrific image of Ms. Schiavo's brain, showing the gaping void where a healthy person's cerebral cortex would be.

From a medical standpoint it's a cerebrospinal fluid-filled wasteland. Large central ventricles with subsidiaries spread through a minor framework of what're most likely bits of brain disconnected from one another. Massive loss of grey matter with little more than a disconnected floating substructure of white matter underneath. It's irrevocable, and any neurologist who tells you she has any chance of getting better or improving is a cruel liar.

The media's "equal time" take of opinions on both sides with regard to Schiavo's condition belies the facts of her actual state. Claiming that her condition is "in dispute" amounts to a lie.

PS -- Football Fans for Truth has an extremely good rundown on the less science-oriented facts of the case for those who'd like a look past the hyperventilating rhetoric on both sides.