Shelley Batts is a Neuroscience PhD candidate at the University of Michigan. She studies hair cell regeneration in the cochlea, and is trying to finish that quixotic quest called 'thesis.' She lies awake at night pondering how science intersects with politics, culture, policy, money, medicine, and religion in an attempt to be more than just a niche scientist sitting in the oh-so-lovely ivory tower. Follow me and my parrot, Pepper, on our quest to finish my PhD, land a post-doc, and stay sane.
Steve Higgins is a psychology graduate student at an online university. He hopes that the three weeks and $29.95 that he is spending on his Ph.D. will get him a job at a Tier 1 research university. Do online universities have postdocs? Ok...just kidding, Steve is really a Ph.D. Candidate in Psychology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign studying high level vision. You know... stuff like scene & object perception.
While not an official contributer to 'Of Two Minds,' Shelley's sidekick is an African Grey parrot named Pepper. His heros are Irene Pepperberg, Alex, and Rachel Carson. He spends his time learning Mandarin and writing the Great American novel.
"Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth, are never alone or weary of life." ~Rachel Carson
We love constructive comments! However, we reserve the right to delete comments that abuse this forum. Voicing your opinions is great, just be respectful.
Thanks to a reader, Daniel Keogh, we have a wonderful video detailing what the Imperial March from Star Wars would taste like to one particular synaesthete who has some particularly odd sensation pairings.
Check it out:
The Professor Funk also has a whole bunch of other entertaining looking videos about other aspects of science. We give them 4 thumbs up. I never did understand why Ebert, et. al. could only ever give a single thumbs up. After all there were two people with four total thumbs. Meh whatever, not everyone can be as awesome as Shelley and I.
So... my girlfriend studies categories and concepts and her adviser wanted her to show a video for her first year project. Of course I went out to youtube and tried to find something sensible since I'm procrastinating right now on my psych 100 syllabus - and of course I found something absolutely ridiculous (hey... it IS youtube). Here is how to categorize all the Alien Species that have been wandering around the earth since our first contact with our galactic overlords at Roswell:
ScienceBlogs wants your help... and is willing to pay. Well sorta... they're giving away some ipod type goodies to some people who complete a short survey. Here's the schtick:
Dear Reader,
We launched Seed and ScienceBlogs because we believe that science can change the world and science literacy is how we get there. In the pages of our magazine we've tried to capture the ideas and issues fueling this cultural shift. Online we've aimed to foster a lively and spirited conversation about where it's all heading.
Now, we invite you to share with us directly your perspective on the state of science, and your opinion on how we can improve our own efforts to raise science literacy. The survey should take about 20 minutes to complete.
As a special "thank you" for participating you will be eligible to enter for a chance to win a suite of Apple products: an iPhone 3G, a MacBook Air and a 40GB Apple TV.
On behalf of our writers, bloggers, correspondents, designers, photographers, producers, and editors around the world, thank you for your impassioned support and for making the time to complete this survey.
Please press the "Start Survey" button to begin the survey.
Oh you crazy non-English speaking people... please please please take the extra effort and get someone like me with a dirty mind to proofread your papers. And Editors... get your mind INTO the gutter and things like this won't happen.
It all starts innocently with this perfectly normal sounding setup:
Chem. Commun., 2007, 1733 - 1735, DOI: 10.1039/b614147a
Electrochemical synthesis of metal and semimetal nanotube-nanowire heterojunctions and their electronic transport properties
Dachi Yang, Guowen Meng, Shuyuan Zhang, Yufeng Hao, Xiaohong An, Qing Wei, Min Ye and Lide Zhang
Metal and semimetal nanotube-nanowire heterojunction arrays have been achieved by sequential electrochemical-deposition inside the nanochannels of anodic aluminium oxide template with a layer of Au thin enough to leave the pores open.
Neato, Eh?! This is where it all goes horribly wrong:
Uh oh... cunt. uhhh huh huuuh heh huh huh.... I think I'm going to start a Beavis and Butthead knockoff where we read science papers. Maybe Mystery Science Theater 3000 would be a better show to knock off. meh... hehe... cunt.
Sizzle follows Randy Olson as he tries to make a movie about global warming. The main characters are an outrageously stereotypical new age gay couple and the thug life camera crew who are there to supply a comic foil to both Olson and the pretty boring scientists who get interviewed about global warming. It's a very strange contrast between the fake characters (who are REALLY fake) and the scientists trying to sound professional and only talk about global warming.
The movie is billed as a mockumentary but it doesn't quite fit the bill of a mockumentary since it's about a serious topic they are trying to support yet making fun of themselves at the same time. Usually a mockumentary is making fun of the people AND the topic. The movie itself relies on cheap stereotypes and lame jokes and situations where Olson throws temper tantrums to get a laugh.
My overall impression of the movie wasn't great, but there were a number of entertaining or thought provoking scenes. I very much enjoyed the global warming denialist scientist from Honduras (I think) whose name is very long and I can't remember. He was so outrageous and ridiculous that it was hard to believe that he wasn't one of the silly characters that played the comic foil. But he was real. He was crazy looking, crazy acting, just nuts! He bragged about his publications, cigars, his ambasadorship (or something like that), and was just a riot.
Another set of scenes I enjoyed were the New Orleans clips where they talked to the common person about the effect of global warming in the wake of the horrible flooding. The people were honest and pulled at your emotions. While I enjoyed this bit of the movie it made me realize I was ultimately unsatisfied with the earlier part of the movie where the scientists gave their little schticks. I didn't really get enough data from them to know what to think about global warming. I was told what to believe and that global warming delialists are silly people so I should believe the Olson crew. But I was never convinced of what I should believe. Then again, I'm a scientist and I want data... lots and lots of data.
Anyway, Sizzle might be worth a viewing when it comes out. There are a number of interesting viewpoints and stories - even if most aspects of the movie don't ultimately work.
President Bush on Sunday defended his decision to attend next month's Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing, saying that to boycott "would be an affront to the Chinese people."
Uhh yeah, wouldn't that be the point of a boycott?
It seems that vegetarians are screwed on multiple levels, they get called hippies by me AND they might be at an increased risk of dementia in old age. The study recently published in the journal Dementias and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders focused on a number of elderly Indonesians who live across a wide range of areas in Java. They discovered that people who ate tofu at least once a day (which is classified as high consumption) had a statistically higher chance of showing dementia. So what could be causing this higher rate? According to BBC News:
Soy products are rich in micronutrients called phytoestrogens, which mimic the impact of the female sex hormone oestrogen.
There is some evidence that they may protect the brains of younger and middle-aged people from damage - but their effect on the ageing brain is less clear.
The latest study suggests phytoestrogens - in high quantity - may actually heighten the risk of dementia.
Lead researcher Professor Eef Hogervorst said previous research had linked oestrogen therapy to a doubling of dementia risk in the over-65s.
She said oestrogens - and probably phytoestrogens - tended to promote growth among cells, not necessarily a good thing in the ageing brain.
Alternatively, high doses of oestrogens might promote the damage caused to cells by particles known as free radicals.
Then again all this might be wrong and you damn hippies have nothing at all to worry about, evidently formaldehyde is used in Indonesia as a preservative. Wow.. getting high while eating tofu - who woulda thunk it!
Hitachi recently announced that they would be producing a 5 TB drive in the near future (2010?). This is totally unexciting to me but what Hitchachi's Yoshiro Shiroishi said was. According to Techradar:
As for what can be stored on such disks, Hitachi's Yoshihiro Shiroishi explains, "By 2010, just two disks will suffice to provide the same storage capacity as the human brain."
In other words, a next-generation hard drive will be able to recall that trip to the seaside in 1976, but never where it left the car keys last night.
Ignoring the faulty memory comment for a moment - Where in the world did Yoshihiro come up with that capacity? How does one calculate what the human brain can store?
Several approximations to this number have already appeared in the literature based on "hardware" considerations (though in the case of the human brain perhaps the term "wetware" is more appropriate). One estimate of 10^20 bits is actually an early estimate (by Von Neumann in The Computer and the Brain) of all the neural impulses conducted in the brain during a lifetime. This number is almost certainly larger than the true answer. Another method is to estimate the total number of synapses, and then presume that each synapse can hold a few bits. Estimates of the number of synapses have been made in the range from 10^13 to 10^15, with corresponding estimates of memory capacity
This gives us an estimate much higher than Yoshihiro's... so what about estimates from traditional psychology without this neuron counting? After all having a certain number of synapses does not mean that they are even being used for 'memory' ... hell we're not even sure all the areas involved in memory. We're pretty sure about some, like the hippocampal cortex, but whether areas involved in processing physical stimuli - like motor areas for tool use, are used as part of the memory representation is up for debate (not for me... I know what I think - and gosh darnit I'm right!)
So here's the psychological estimate from the same source:
Landauer reviewed and quantitatively analyzed experiments by himself and others in which people were asked to read text, look at pictures, and hear words, short passages of music, sentences, and nonsense syllables. After delays ranging from minutes to days the subjects were tested to determine how much they had retained. The tests were quite sensitive--they did not merely ask "What do you remember?" but often used true/false or multiple choice questions, in which even a vague memory of the material would allow selection of the correct choice. Often, the differential abilities of a group that had been exposed to the material and another group that had not been exposed to the material were used. The difference in the scores between the two groups was used to estimate the amount actually remembered (to control for the number of correct answers an intelligent human could guess without ever having seen the material). Because experiments by many different experimenters were summarized and analyzed, the results of the analysis are fairly robust; they are insensitive to fine details or specific conditions of one or another experiment. Finally, the amount remembered was divided by the time allotted to memorization to determine the number of bits remembered per second.
The remarkable result of this work was that human beings remembered very nearly two bits per second under all the experimental conditions. Visual, verbal, musical, or whatever--two bits per second. Continued over a lifetime, this rate of memorization would produce somewhat over 10^9 bits, or a few hundred megabytes.
Hmm... that only comes out to: (10^9) bits = 119.20929 megabytes. We've had that for decades... So where's this number coming from. I know! I'll go to Yahoo Answers maybe they'll have the answer for me there.
I have not heard what science believes the human brain maximum capacity would be in those terms.
I do know they say (barring any cranial/brain trauma) that the brain retains pretty much all information of what it sees and hears.., storing up huge libraries of information. The problem with the majority of peoples is the recall ability. If we based this on our recall ability then computers would have us beat hands down!
Which brings me to this conclusion (although drifting from the primary subject a bit)..., whether a person believes in a God creator or just nature at work.., it would seem to suggest the information is in the old cranial system for a reason. I choose to believe for purposes after this life.
Memory is a very complex system. Its even being considered that some element of memory is stored in the body. Just one point in case among many others is the woman who received a heart transplant.., who never smoked in her life and led an otherwise very conservative life..., had urges to smoke, knew how to ride a motorcycle (something she never did before) and wanted to hang around Biker Bars... and some other quite strange changes in her character.
Eventually they found out the heart donor was a biker. This is a true story.., so whether science acknowledges it or not - I say proof of body-memory is in the pudding.., err..., well.., the heart anyway.
=^)
Ugh... clearly not.
Can someone direct me to something closer to what the hell Yoshi is talking about?
And you know... it's about the software anyway (for creating AI) - not the hardware. The hardware is the easy part.
My Conclusion: Yoshi needs to clarify what he's talking about because I think he's blatantly wrong and the idea of capacity as a meaningful thing when talking about the brain is a mistake.
According to a new survey the USA has highest level of illegal cocaine and cannabis use in the world. Thank goodness the War for Drugs is working so well! Ohh... wait... that's the war ON drugs and it's supposed to protect us from ourselves and our nasty drug habits. Well anyway.. here's the details on the study:
A survey of 17 countries has found that despite its punitive drug policies the United States has the highest levels of illegal cocaine and cannabis use. The study, by Louisa Degenhardt (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia) and colleagues, is based on the World Health Organization's Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) and is published in this week's PLoS Medicine.
The authors found that 16.2% of people in the United States had used cocaine in their lifetime, a level much higher than any other country surveyed (the second highest level of cocaine use was in New Zealand, where 4.3% of people reported having used cocaine). Cannabis use was
highest in the US (42.4%), followed by New Zealand (41.9%).
In the Americas, Europe, Japan, and New Zealand, alcohol had been used by the vast majority of survey participants, compared to smaller proportions in the Middle East, Africa, and China.
The survey found differences in both legal and illegal drug use among different socioeconomic groups. For example, males were more likely than females to have used all drug types; younger adults were more likely than older adults to have used all drugs examined; and higher income was related to drug use of all kinds. Marital status was found to be related to tobacco, cannabis, and cocaine use, but not alcohol use (the never married and previously married having higher odds of lifetime cocaine and cannabis use than the currently married; tobacco use is more likely in people who have been previously married while less likely among the never married).
Drug use "does not appear to be simply related to drug policy," say the authors, "since countries with more stringent policies towards illegal drug use did not have lower levels of such drug use than countries with more liberal policies." In the Netherlands, for example, which has more liberal policies than the US, 1.9% of people reported cocaine use and 19.8% reported cannabis use.
Data on drug use were available from 54,068 survey participants in 17 countries. The 17 countries were determined by the availability of research collaborators and on funding for the survey. Trained lay interviewers carried out face-to-face interviews (except in France where the interviews were done over the telephone) using a standardized, structured diagnostic interview for psychiatric conditions and drug use. Participants were asked if they had ever used alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, or cocaine.
The study's main limitations are that only 17 countries were surveyed, within these countries there were different rates of participation, and it is unclear whether people accurately report
their drug use when interviewed. Nevertheless, the findings present comprehensive data on the patterns of drug use from national samples representing all regions of the world.
So the take home messages... people in the U.S. have a bunch of disposable income for drugs and we really f'n love cocaine! Although (I should really look at the article directly), it doesn't look like they check out the countries in which the cocaine was produced. I'd be curious to see a survey on a wider variety of countries.
And finally... the most important take home message: Drug Policy has NOTHING to do with drug use. We can put users, dealers, producers, cousins of uncles of friends of users, their dogs, cats, guinea pigs, or the lint under their couches in jail or to death and it will have no effect on whether people use drugs or not. Education however... just maybe that will help. Oh.. that and taxation - Heavy heavy taxation. After all tobacco use has gone drastically down in the last decade with more education and higher drug prices.
This is seriously the worst press release I've ever read. It doesn't say how the research was done, it doesn't have the results from the research, it is poorly written (run on sentences?!), and it is pointless. Why was this even released? Does EurekAlerts even have any criteria for releasing press releases? I do know they have criteria for who counts as a journalist - and it certainly isn't bloggers (we can't get embargoed articles from them - but we can from PLOS)
Hi everyone, thought I'd drop by and say hello and remind ScienceBlogs (as well as myself) that I do still exist beyond the lab, and have not yet degenerated into a shadowy specter capable only of writing up data in the bowels of the University of Michigan. I have gotten very pale though, so that may be debatable. Anyway, the thesis work is chugging along and I now have a defense planned for December (of 2008!!!!). I'm currently looking around at post doc positions for after that, but not before I take a good long breather to the tune of 4-5 months playing Wii. Oh, and I'm getting married next May. ;) Oh, but the time does fly!
What pulled me out of my academic stupor long enough to blog was a kind note from Cristiana Senni over at World Parrot Trust, who asked if I would bring some well-deserved attention to their "Save the Greys" initiative. In a nutshell, World Parrot Trust is aiding the rehabilitation of confiscated African Grey parrots in Cameroon, taken from poachers who illegally trap the parrots for sale and export. Wild caught parrots suffer horrible mortality rates from improper handling and shipping (about 50% die in transit). Add to this the fact that wild trapping of parrots contributes to the decline of endangered or protected species.
If you love parrots as I do, please take a moment to visit World Parrot Trust, and if you are feeling generous, give a buck or two towards conservation.
Ok, back to learning style sheets for Word 2007, so I can fit my thesis into UM's odd formatting guidelines....
Grad students do all sorts of funny things on the side to make money. There are the mandatory grad school bands, the bartenders, the tutors, proctor exams, house sit, and a few of us blog ... but this guy really takes the cake:
In the 90s, a typical night for Craig Seymour included G-strings, elbow grease, and dollar bills in his socks.
waiiiiiiit a minute... who shoves dollar bills in socks?! was this a foot fetish club?
Dollar bills go in the G-String!
ok ok... back to the quote:
Between sets at Washington, D.C.'s gay strip clubs - unique institutions while they lasted, where hands-on experiences were encouraged -- he graded papers, "red pen in hand."
"The truth was that stripping had long called out to me. It offered something different from my grad school grind of dealing with students, grading papers, and sitting through seemingly endless seminars."
So Seymour writes in his new memoir, All I Could Bare: My Life in the Strip Clubs of Gay Washington, D.C. (Atria, 2008),
One would think that Craig would have issues getting a job after all that grinding and gyrating, but evidently (especially since he published a book and he's an journalism prof) his job prospects are pretty damn good. He's starting a new job at Northern Illinois University as an associate professor of journalism. Hey if Craig can get a tenured job after swinging his pecker around the stage it makes me feel a bit better about blogging and getting a job later ;)
I wonder if Craig keeps in stripper shape? It seems like it would be good exercise!
I haven't been blogging much lately... here's why:
There are some dirty pictures in this set (safe for work...don't worry) - can you spot the theme?
If you don't want to futz with this little widget feel free to check out the park pictures on my flickr site or some of the other great ones like Big Bend National Park, Russia, or Nepal.
Seriously.... wow.....I'd totally forgotten about the brain from the cartoons.
and....
Ohh... Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. How I used to love thee. I actually watched the most recent movie a few weeks ago. Do they really suck that much? I remember them being pretty kick ass. This is why growing up sucks - all your favorite cartoons from childhood blow now. Did you hear they are coming out with a Smurfs movie?
This is seriously the biggest most obnoxious cross I've ever seen. It is on (If I remember correctly) route 70 in Illinois about halfway between St. Louis and Champaign. Praiiiiiiiizzzzze Jeeeezus!!!!
If I like what I see, I'll receive 5 more issues (6 in all) for just $14.95. That's 50% off the cover price! If I'm not completely satisfied, I'll simply write "cancel" on the invoice and owe nothing. The free issue is mine to keep.
While not an official contributer to 'Of Two Minds,' Shelley's sidekick is an African Grey parrot named Pepper. His heros are Irene Pepperberg, Alex, and Rachel Carson. He spends his time learning Mandarin and writing the Great American novel.
Thanks to a reader, Daniel Keogh, we have a wonderful video detailing what the Imperial March from Star Wars would taste like to one particular synaesthete who has some particularly odd sensation pairings.
