KATY, TX–A man in danger of losing his home had his prayers coincidentally answered Tuesday by the haphazard machinations of an indifferent and entirely random universe. Marvin Pewter, 45, was able to refinance his house after a radio station in Sioux Falls, SD played the favorite song of a local data-entry worker who, quietly singing along to the tune in her office, became distracted and missed a keystroke that eventually resulted in Pewter’s credit rating increasing by 200 points.
Oh wait … it was just a story in The Onion.
Never mind….
I love the Onion.
Here’s a biology: FAIL
Katie Couric: “…where antibiotics help animals absorb and process food so they grow bigger, faster–a selling point pushed by the pharmaceutical industry.”
If I listened to mainstream news media, I’d seriously doubt I learned anything in biology….
Jared, I don’t know where you heard that report, but antibiotics in animal feed do make farm animals grow faster, grow larger, mature sooner and have higher efficiency in converting feed into biomass. The mechanism remains unknown, but antibiotics in animal feed is big business.
I think the mechanism is via NO, that the antibiotics inhibit the bacteria I am working with, that lowers the NO level, which increases androgens (the rate limiting step in androgen synthesis is inhibited by NO, low NO means more androgens).
I think this is the same mechanism that is increasing androgens in women, causing hyperandrogenic symptoms. High androgens increase growth of some types of hair, which expands the niche that my bacteria live in, which (in the wild) would increase NO/NOx levels and decrease androgen synthesis via feedback inhibition.
Don’t you think everything is related to NO?
Hehehe; similar things do happen in reality, but you find god gives then god snatches all back with a vengeance and shits all over you just for fun.