Archive for January, 2010
Contemporary Carrie Buck?
Jan 6th
Recently, a 35-year-old woman sued a Boston-area hospital for performing a tubal ligation, thus sterilizing her, after the birth of her 9th child. Tessa Savicki states that she requested an IUD, a reversible form of birth control. Because two of her children are on welfare and she is unemployed, Tessa’s case has sparked passionate reactions and brings to mind the case of Carrie Buck.
The similarities are numerous. A poor woman sterilized against her wishes, judged by others to be unfit (just read the public comments on the news sites featuring Tessa’s story), and having children out of wedlock. There is More >
Antibody Diversity
Jan 4th
There are many different types of proteins that get made inside of human cells, including structure proteins, such as keratin and collagen, enzymes, and messenger proteins such as hormones. One large group that I forgot to mention, and that intrigues me the most, is the wide variety of different antibodies that get made in our blood cells. There are over a billion different types of antibodies that get made over the course of a lifetime, and each is able to identify antigens from foreign objects, such as viruses or bacteria, and elicits an immune response.
The amazing part of antibody production is the More >
