Whining about Wine

It’s been a wonderful short and rather uneventful week. The highlight of the week had to be when one of my great readers, Nicole, told me she was a friend with someone who does l genetic work with cauliflower that I mentioned in my previous post. I also wanted to thank everyone for your wonderful tips on cube decoration. I can now proudly say that you’ve pimped my cube.

There are times I sometimes shake my head and think why the heck did I buy this or that. It was my latest wine purchase that had my noggin shaking. I went to the LCBO and was looking to try out a new and wonderful wine. With 10 bucks burning a hole in my pocket I scanned the isles for the next fruit of the vine that would be mine. I wanted to try something new, interesting and different. When I made my way to the South African section it caught my eye. Yes folks it was Frisky ZebraS. I’ve pictured it left so that all can avoid its siren call.

It was due to this purchase that I’ve vowed to avoid products that alude to animals with high libido’s or zebra coitus, which the wine was probably fermented from. I’ve also learned to pick up on subtle clues about quality. For example, random capitalized letters in the title (like the S) or pictures of animals sniffing each others bottoms. Another dead give away might have been that it was packaged much like the juice boxes from my youth. Also much like the juice boxes from my youth I tried to finish it in one sitting both hoping that it would get better in time and to prevent waste. Sadly I was wrong, very wrong and I will have to finish it off before I open my next bottle.

Now for the part of my blog where I ask for your help yet again. This week I’m asking for your views on wine love it? Hate it? Indifferent? If anyone out there has any suggestions please let me know. I’m not a wine connoisseur in the least, my only preference is that it doesn’t taste like fermented zebra coatis extract.

Biotech Beat

Healing in the womb: High levels of maternal stem cells have been found in new born children with type one diabetes. It has been know for quite some time that there was an exchange of stem cells better mother and child but why this occurs has been disputed. These cells seem to be able to avoid the child’s immune system and recently they have been found in the pancreas and were functioning as B cells. What this means is that they were secreting insulin which is needed to avoid diabetes. This finding raises hopes that perhaps maternal stem cells could be used to treat children and correct diseases such as diabetes. I’m still waiting for more information on this one. In my opinion I think that perhaps the reason why the mothers’ stem cells are capable of evading the child’s immune system is that it’s not developed and has little to do with a maternal bond. What this means is that anyone’s stem cells can serve.

Gene mutation and addiction: This week a mutation in a gene called abcb1 was discovered. Mutations in this gene seem to dictate success on methadone treatment for heroine addicts. Some individuals needs half the dose, while others need double in order to beat the effects of this gene mutation and overcome the addiction