National Bicycling Month

From: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/05/140503-bicycles-commuters-amsterdam-netherlands/

As an American with a Dutch Heritage. I found the idea of bicycle infantry a little silly and quite possibly why the Dutch put up little to no defense (invaded May 10, 1940 and surrendered May 15, 1940) of Germany in WWII.

It is National Bicycling Month and in honor of that I'm linking to this article from National Geographic.

Death by Diarrhea

Dysentery is a topic that is covered in several of my classes. We discuss it from a historical perspective (many students know it from playing Oregon Trail), but rarely from a pathological perspective.
This article is a brief overview of how it affects the intestines (abstract from Nature).

From: http://www.e-cleansing.com/parasites/dysyntery-entamoeba-histolytica.html

White fat begone!!

This is an interesting bit of research that shows why exercise is good for organisms. The scientists in this article identified that a gene was turned on that allowed for white fat cells to differentiate into brown fat cells. This hits so many of the areas that we discuss in class: differentiation of cells, metabolism of fats, gene regulation, and epigenetics. Read the article to find out more!!