I'm on Facebook because I no longer live in the same country as my family and many other loved ones. It's really the best way for me to keep in touch with them given the enormous time difference. I also travel a lot and it lets my family and friends see my photography all in one place. It's not ideal, but it's been…

Oh please. There's a distinct difference between being a stupid asshole and taking risks as a scientist or thinker. Most men are never going to win a Nobel prize, but many many of them will die from stupidity, whether it's drinking themselves into oblivion or hugging a tree with dad's car. You only need a handful…

Hey, it sounds like you're a great parent, and I don't want to bring you down here, but I think it's really worth pointing this out. You talk about getting your daughter to "avoid the girly girls who only define themselves by what the boys like." And you go on a lot about exploration and risk and STEM-type stuff.

If you're such a brilliant STEM manly man, you should be aware that your anecdote about your kids is not data. You should also realize that studying mechanical engineering does not confer any expertise in the social sciences on you. Being good at math does not mean you're right about everything else.

Diana was a princess because she married the Prince Of Wales, Kate is a Duchess because she married the Duke of Cambridge which was one of the additional titles awarded to William on his marriage. When William is made Prince of Wales as is customary after Charles dies, Kate will become Princess of Wales, the fact that…

That's not karma so much as it would be irony.

I'll just copy and paste what I wrote on Gawker:

Are you serious? I'd love being a celebrity nowadays. Better a line of endless selfies, than blocking the crazies trying to rip off your clothes and hair (what was it with white people and snatching celebrity hair, btw?).

As a scientist, I can assure you that all of the mice at our institution are treated with a higher standard of care than our graduate students. Guaranteed housing, free food, and defined experimental endpoint.

Agreed, I was juts thinking this and going to write, but I see you've beat me to it. I write both Human Ethics Approvals (IRB) AND IACUC and IACUC boards are pretty stringent. Doesn't mean we can't do better, especially round the three Rs, but asking PETA to speak on this is equivalent to the [perceived] institutional…

Unfortunately, cell lines and tissues (two separate units of experimentation, BTW) often lack the complexity to give good answers. They are a great place to start, but they cannot provide enough safety data before heading straight into human trials.

If the messenger is unreliable, that's important to note in any discussion of an issue. PETA has a well-documented history of lying, radicalization, and publicity stunts. The NRP has their radical position clearly stated on their webpage.

As a scientist, in fact someone who conducts animal research, I am appalled at this article. The language Chandna is using is completely inflammatory. To suggest that "anything goes in American laboratories" is to be completely ignorant of how IACUC review is actually conducted. It is true that rodent work is not…

Yet lab animal use continues to skyrocket, with the United States leading the charge; the best estimates suggest that there are anywhere between 17 to 25 million lab animals in use in the United States, followed by Japan's 11 million and the U.K.'s four million (total global figures are hard to come by owing to…

Usually I enjoy these articles, they are very well researched and informative.

"There's no prohibition on any kind of experimentation no matter how cruel, painful, redundant, frivolous, or pointless."

As someone who has worked with mice in order to justify clinical treatment for patients, this is completely false! I cannot stress how hard it is to get protocols approved for grants and new…

Eh, maybe, but I would prefer quotes and hard facts from, say, the ASPCA, than a couple of members of radical groups and an anonymous commenter on the internet.

So, do you have a slightly more impartial source than PETA?

No commentary from somewhat more respectable and mainstream animal rights groups? While there may be a problem with animal testing in the U.S., it's hard to take the word of a PETA representative, aka the Westboro Baptist Church of animal rights, and someone from the Nonhuman Rights Project, whose views are also…

you think Ariana Grande's sexy image is indicative of her "owning" her sexuality? Lol. You're cute, Mark.