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Garage Biotech
Freeman Dyson has written about his belief that molecular biology is becoming a field where even basement tinkerers can accomplish things.
Nonsense About LSD
The Daily Telegraph in the UK has a story today claiming that a 1951 outbreak of hallucinations and dementia in the French village of Pont-Saint-Esprit was not (as everyone thought ) an example of ergot poisoning.
Intermune’s Rise
If you want to know why people continue to speculate in biotech stocks, just take a look at the stairsteppy last few days of trading in Intermune (ITMN). Last Thursday it was at $15; now it’s at $38. And all you have to do to cash in on these moves is read the FDA’s mind! That’s not a money-making proposition, in case anyone thinks I’m advocating it
Vaccines in the Court
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a vaccine-liability case, in an attempt to untangle conflicting lower court rulings. This all turns on the 1986 act that shields manufacturers from liability suits and a followup law that establishes a separate compensation system for injuries
How Not to Do It: Liquid Oxygen Cylinders
We haven’t had a How Not to Do It around here in a while, so here’s a companion piece to the famous Sealed-Up Liquid Nitrogen Tank . This incident happened (as far as I can tell) about ten years ago. It’s been used in a number of safety presentations then, thanks to the Airgas Corp., whose safety officer assembled a number of photos (and this is the time to emphasize that they had nothing to do with the accident itself, because people who work for a pressurized-gas company actually know how to handle pressure vessels
A GSK/Sirtris Wrap-Up
Nature Biotechnology weighs in on the GSK/Sirtris controversy.
Bad News at Exelixis
I’m hearing from more than one source that Exelixis has laid off about 40% of their work force, which is somewhere around 250 people (the numbers I get don’t all agree).
Not Gonna Make That One
A discussion at work the other day got me to thinking: what structures do you medicinal chemists out there just refuse to work on?
Merck/Schering-Plough People?
Kim Girard, a reporter from CBS Interactive is doing a story on how people are coping with the merger – if you’d like to speak with her, she’s at (de-spammified): kim.berg30-at-gmail.com. I didn’t have any direct knowledge to help her, so I offered to post this to see if she gets something useful. .
Friday Book Recommendation
Here’s another outside the field – in fact, it’s outside of a lot of people’s fields. Where Is Everybody?










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