But let your communication be Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil

Ill will, good will – free will?

Neuroscientists largely see the “free will as an illusion” – according to a recent essay in Nature. As the author of this interesting essay, I have a major problem to give up the idea of a “free will” (mainly for theodicy reasons that needs a free will of humans). Maybe our will is being influenced by many factors, it is not always a conscious decision and it can of course be altered by chemicals or diseases. Nevertheless the subjective, sudden and not anticipated impetus to do something – for example writing a blog about free will – is a symptom of free will even with all existing antinomies, yea, yea.

Wednesday, May 27th

Surfer’s asthma

Here comes the link to a case report of surfer’s asthma (could not resist)

… We present the case of a 42-year-old man with a 2-year history of wheezing, chest tightness, and upper respiratory symptoms that were associated with surfing. (Show me more…)

Wednesday, May 27th

Forget about genes II

Blood pressure seems to have a complicated regulation according to a recent nature medicine editorial

If you ask a physiologist what organs are involved in blood pressure regulation, you will probably be told the kidney, the brain or the blood vessels. The kidney is responsible for handling sodium … The brain integrates afferent signals from peripheral sites such as the kidney … systemic vascular resistance is elevated in almost all adults with hypertension, suggesting that arteriolar vasoconstriction has an important role in this disease.

The editorial accompanies a new mechanistic report how a high-salt diet leads to interstitial hypertonic Na+ accumulation by activation of tonicity-responsive enhancer binding protein (TonEBP) binding the promoter of the gene encoding vascular endothelial growth factor-C (VEGF-C). As far, as good, (Show me more…)

Tuesday, May 26th

Forget about genes I

An AJHG paper that is already resting some longer time on my desk says that

Nonsense SNPs introduce premature termination codons into genes and can result in the absence of a gene product … (Show me more…)

Friday, May 22nd
Next Page »