Anhinga anhinga

I still remember time when great hopes in anti-cancer therapy were raised in connection with drugs blocking formation of new blood vessels. And (as it is often the case) the results in mice were great.Then the hopes dimmed, and the controversial approval of Avastin by FDA in 2008 against the recommendation of its advisory panel underscored the fact that the advances were quite marginal (the panel objected because for that class of tumors Avastin only slowed tumor growth but failed to extend survival):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bevacizumab

Here is an article which seems to shed some light on why the "magic bullet" does not quite work:

http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2009/03/22/anti-angiogenesis-drugs/

( summary )

John Baez talks about string theory and why more physicists should concentrate on the other approaches in his latest "This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics" (john_baez):

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week246.html

The last part where he talks about "hill climbing" vs. "valley crossing" approaches to physics is especially interesting.

He also runs a very cool group blog together with David Corfield and Urs Schreiber called The n-Category Café. The latest entry is about a new attempt to formulate a topos foundation for theories of physics by Andreas Döring and Chris Isham.

http://blog.sciam.com/index.php?title=stem_cell_meltdown&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

"If the Korean lab can't clone embryonic stem cells from adults, can anybody?"

More on the scandal:

http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2005/12/15/skorea_cell_scientist_faked_results_collaborator/

"Key parts of a landmark paper from South Korea's most renowned stem cell scientist were fabricated and the researcher is seeking to have the work withdrawn, a close collaborator told South Korean media on Thursday."

The above was the first paragraph of this Boston Globe article earlier today, it was rewritten quite a bit since...

not_even_wrong is a feed of the blog by Peter Woit of Columbia University.

Not Even Wrong is what he thinks about the string theory.

(via solomon2)

http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/diet.fitness/04/20/obesity.deaths.ap/index.html

"a new calculation from the CDC [...] found people who are modestly overweight actually have a lower risk of death than those of normal weight."( Read more... )