RIP Bell Labs Physics Research Lab

Like so many people, I was saddened and shocked to read on Wired.com that Bell Labs is shuttering its fundamental physics research lab. As a little kid, I learned the name "Shockley" before I'd heard of Abe Lincoln. (This is what happens when you're raised by an IBM Fellow.) It's just weird to think that the place that yielded the transistor and six Nobel prize-winning innovations could roll over and die. Yet, for all the uproar over it, I wonder if anyone has considered that perhaps it's time to pass the torch. Maybe this country needs to become a follower in the global race for innovation, instead of the leader as it once was. Patriotism aside, it seems to me that it's too late to bemoan the fact that the U.S. has fallen behind. Take our automobile industry. Other than the strange and elitist Tesla Motors, when was the last time we heard that anyone from our shores had made a leap forward in that arena? So there you go. And if you're not quite ready to dry your eyes, check out this multimedia presentation, also on Wired.

Statins for 8-year-olds: can it get any worse?

I haven't been posting much lately, but today's news story that the world has gone mad ... I mean, that the American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending statins for children as young as eight with high LDL cholesterol spurred me to action. This is truly a chilling story, worth of the most terrifying of Stephen King horror novels. Why? Because of the way that statins work on the body. In adults, they can wreak quite a bit of havoc (see Space Doc for lots of stories on this), but in developing bodies, we're talking about a whole 'nother level. Statins, derived from poisonous mushrooms, do a whole lot more than just lower cholesterol. They act on what is known as the mevalonate pathway, which is key in the development of the basic building blocks of the body, such as proteins and hormone regulators. The idea of inhibiting this pathway in a person who is still growing goes so completely against anything resembling the Hippocratic oath that I am frankly shocked and appalled that any pediatrician, much less the national representative body of these physicians, could possibly advocate this, especially in children who are largely healthy except for their cholesterol and weight levels. It's as if they're suggesting cutting out a child's eyes in case they may some day go blind in old age. Usually I try to put a note dry humor into my blog posts, but today I can't even bring myself to do that. This is just too depressing for words, witty or otherwise.

Twitter--the "huh?"-mobile

I like Twitter. I love that there is a now a place where I can "follow" someone I once met at a party or saw on a webcast from some random social networking conference. It all taps into the deepest, darkest part of my psyche. To whit, my inner stalker is sooo excited about this site. And yet, I must ask this question: what the heck is everyone talking about? A few random examples of Twitter tweets I've seen recently are....

LuisRivera all the geeks were inside the cafeteria. Free food too at WhereCamp. (Robert Scoble).

at dan huards bday party dinner, dan just ordered the 05 stags leap artemis cab, soo good (Kevin Rose),

and finally the most eloquently indecipherable of all:

I never listen to branding police. :-) But Bwana points out it's Blu-ray. Heheh. (Two-time winner Robert Scoble)

Gary Gygax - A true aptonym

In all the writing about this week's sad passing of the great Gary Gygax, inventor of Dungeons and Dragons, no one seems to have mentioned the eeriness of his name. If I was ever to come up with a name for a dragon--or even, for that matter, a dungeon master--I couldn't have invented a better one than "Gygax." In other words, Gary Gygax was a perfect example of the syndrome known as "nominative determinism." Another term for this effect, which makes men named Postman become postal carriers and people named Teeth become dentists--coined by the New Scientist--is aptonym, a very apt descriptor, I'd say. I have posted on this before. In honor of Mr. Gygax, savior of many a geek over the past two-and-a-half-or-so decades, I offer a special salute. You couldn't have been better named, and your name will live on. Keep on rolling those 8-sided dice, wherever you are.

M&A Law Humor (yes, really)

I didn't think there would be such thing as this, but that was before a friend sent me this link: http://poison-pill.blogspot.com/. This is a humor blog about Marty Lipton, inventor of the famous "poison pill." All you corporate M&A fanboys and girls out there, knock yourselves out.

Forget Microhoo merger: sneaky squirrels!

At the risk of turning this blog into a Boing Boing imitator, this piece of science news just can't be ignored. Turns out that squirrels are even smarter than anyone believed. They stage fake burials of nuts in order to fool thieves. This incredible piece of news was picked up by one of my favorite blogs, 60 Second Science. Those rascally critters!

According to a study conducted by Dr. Michael Steele of Wilkes University in Pennsylvania, a fifth of all nut burials by gray squirrels were fakes. And if their store of nuts and acorns is under threat, they'll do even more faux burying to put their adversaries off the scent. But anyone who's ever tried to put up a bird feeder will find this evidence of squirrel intelligence unsurprising.

Microhoo merger: what's it all about Stevie?

Microsoft's $44B bid for Yahoo is a recipe intended to put a dent in Google's armor, right? That's what all the headlines are about. But what doesn't sell papers is this: there's enough business out there to build ten Google-sized companies over the next decade or so. The potential in pay per click advertising is that huge. So, why do we need a merger between these two behemoths? Because Microsoft doesn't have Yahoo's search and ad capabilities. As my wise business professor Bruce Greenwald once explained it to me, the smartest companies are the ones that take their attention away from hammering away at their competitors in head-to-head combat, and instead figure out how to grow and keep their customer base. And this is exactly what Microsoft and Yahoo are doing. By joining forces, they can carve out a large and profitable swath for themselves in the space that has made Google wealthy: online advertising.