Things to Think About, Or Not

I'm leaving town for a few days, so I doubt that I will be able to do any blogging until the middle of next week. So here are a couple of interesting links to check out in the meantime.

First up is a post at Pharyngula on placentas and preeclampsia in women. The processes of pregnancy can also be viewed as a struggle between a parasite and its host. Taking evolution into account can help illuminate these processes. The post also links to this article by Carl Zimmer which uses preeclampsia (scroll about half way down) as an example of how evolution could provide insights into medicine.

Then (via Pharyngula) there is this post which tears into a recent article on Salon.com about vaccines and autism.

And then there is, um....this photo of the week from National Geographic News.