What’s on the web? (7 October 2007): The function of the appendix? October 7, 2007

• Purpose of appendix believed found (CNN)

The appendix “acts as a good safe house for bacteria,” said Duke surgery professor Bill Parker, a study co-author. Its location _ just below the normal one-way flow of food and germs in the large intestine in a sort of gut cul-de-sac — helps support the theory, he said.

Also, the worm-shaped organ outgrowth acts like a bacteria factory, cultivating the good germs, Parker said.

• Using the semantic web and social networks to track disease (bbgm)

Companies like Trusera are building social networks around disease information, but that’s targeted at a different goal. Perhaps there could be a way to add geolocation based early warning systems to Twitter, Facebook etc.

• Periodic Table in Second Life (Drexel CoAS E-Learning)

The 3D periodic table is available on the Chemistry Corner on Drexel Island (SLURL).

• How to Interpret Medical Studies (Everything Health): A must read!

• Craig Venter creates synthetic chromosome (Neurophilosophy)

• Nikon Small World 2007 (Medgadget)

Zebrafish embryo midbrain and diencephalon (Michael Hendricks)

And please welcome this free gallery of high-resolution, ultrasound, color doppler and 3D images.