The thing that cracks me up about Cris Angel is that he's smooth and stylish, with a great stage show and magic tricks. Then he opens his mouth and sounds like Joey Ramone.

If the meds have any sedative effects, it may very well be that. Hopefully if you can explain that it's not under his control that will help him not feel bad about it.

From the "Science Says So" dept: Early Risers Are Mutants

Don't hate those people who are perky and efficient after only a few hours of sleep. They can't help it. New research suggests that a genetic mutation may explain why some people sleep less.

Researchers don't know exactly why some people do fine with as little as 4 hours of sleep a night, while others need 12. "We've believed for a long time that there's a genetic basis," says Paul Shaw, a neurobiologist at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. But scientists have only recently begun to ferret out which genes are responsible.

In 2001, geneticist Ying-Hui Fu and colleagues identified a mutation in a gene called Per2 that appeared to cause familial advanced sleep-phase syndrome (FASPS). People who have this condition sleep a normal 8 hours, but they go to bed earlier than most people, retiring at 6 or 7 in the evening and waking at 3 or 4 in the morning. "After that was published, a lot of these people [with unusual sleep schedules] came to us," says Fu, who is now at the University of California, San Francisco. "So we started to collect DNA samples." The team now has genetic information from more than 60 families.

Fu and her colleagues have spent the past several years mining this vast genetic storehouse for more mutations that might affect sleep patterns. In 2005, they uncovered another mutation associated with FASPS. And now they say they have found the first genetic mutation in humans that appears to affect sleep duration rather than sleep timing. The mutation lies in DEC2, a gene that codes for a protein that helps turn off expression of other genes, including some that control circadian rhythm, the internal clock that regulates a person's sleep-wake cycle. The mutation occurred in just two people, a mother and her daughter. The women sleep an average of only 6.25 hours, whereas the rest of the family members sleep a more typical 8 hours.

To confirm that this mutation shortens sleep, Fu and colleagues engineered mice to carry the mutant form of DEC2. The mutant mice slept about an hour less than normal mice, the team reports today in Science. The finding also held for fruit flies: Mutant flies slept about 2 hours less than normal flies.

Happy Birthday, bon bon!!!!

Happy birthday Bon bon!

Happy Birthday, bon bon!

Early Risers Are Mutants

I knew *something* had to explain The Girl. (She gets up at 5 or 6am. Every day. She's happiest when we're visiting the US and she can almost stay on UK time and find an early-opening Starbucks while I sleep until a more reasonable hour.)

happy birthday bon bon

Happy birthday, bon bon! Birthdays abound today. I hope yours is splendid.

Happy birthday, bon!!