A verified virgin birth happening around this time of the year? Oy!

And a little child lizard shall lead them.

As reptiles have been known to do, a female Komodo Dragon who was lacking male companionship has self-fertilized several eggs and will be a mommy soon. This is the second zoo-kept Komodo who has done that recently, but there's an interesting twist this time. The first Komodo self-fertilized and then later managed a regular mating which resulted in offspring when a male was made available. In nature, self-fertilizing females have been unable to produce young the traditional way, it's been kind of an either/or situation.

This is the exact plot device exploited in Jurassic Park, and goes to show that Mother Nature is strange and wonderous, and she's always at her best.

Posted by: Ted at 05:43 AM | category: SciTech
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My uncle died much too young from diabetes. My mom lost her leg to complications from diabetes. Now Canadian researches have cured diabetes in the laboratory.

Diabetic mice became healthy virtually overnight after researchers injected a substance to counteract the effect of malfunctioning pain neurons in the pancreas.

The development of synthetic insulin was a huge breakthrough, but it pales in comparison to this. Test results from human trials are expected in a year.

Too late for Uncle Art and my mom, but incredibly exciting news nonetheless.

Thanks to Random Nuclear Strikes for the pointer.

Posted by: Ted at 09:05 PM | category: SciTech
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How to Calculate Pi by Throwing Frozen Hot Dogs. Really.

Thanks to my co-worker Alan for sending me the link. He says that when he saw it, he immediately thought of me.

Posted by: Ted at 05:29 AM | category: SciTech
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