Fears of public speaking?

I saw this great article today about how sex calms nerves before public speaking. I love this, I'm a scientist so I do a lot of public speaking. Just another excuse to get it on! If it improves my talks, can I use grant money to buy condoms? I love seeing articles like this in the journals. I just can't believe scientists get paid to do the weirdest research.

Dance Dance Revolution

OMG, I love DDR! It is so fun! It is such a great workout! I can go 20-30 minutes before I HAVE to sit down, but that's a workout right? Anyway, I was surfing the web for exercise tips on the DDR when I came across this site about a kid who juggles while doing really hard levels of the DDR. You MUST see to believe - it's amazing!




Juggling DDR expert

Genes, Genesis and God

I just started a class today and I had to vent a bit. I'm have to take a bioethics course this semester to satisfy a requirement of my fellowship (I'm a grad student). The only course offered this term was Genetic Bioethics. Sounds harmless, right? When I got to the class and looked at the syllabus I was a bit frightened. The full title of the course is 'Genetic Bioethics: Scientific and Religious Perspectives'. Still, this didn't completely scare me off. But then I looked down to the reading requirements. The textbook is called 'Genes, Genesis and God' and it's written by the professor. Ahhhh!

The reason I'm having such a reaction is because, well, I'm a scientist. You don't see many Bible thumping molecular biologists! Anyway, the class got started and it seemed pretty benign. He talked about the basics. What is a gene? Where is a gene? Blah blah blah. But then we started talking about if science affected survival of the species. And then if religion can help a species survive. All valid questions, but it was VERY clear that the prof was VERY religious. He's also about 80 years old and appears to have some clear opinions. I'm a little scared. Will I be able to do well in this class? I'm pretty much an agnostic, I don't have a clue about God. I don't know if I should fly under the radar on this class. Or as my mom put it, maybe I should be the class antichrist. Evolution - duh!