omnibrain
Posts by this author
I'm excited to announce that I've been named an associate editor for a new high profile journal, Chocolate Pudding Letters Review. Read below for our first call for papers:
CALL FOR PAPERS!
We are now accepting papers for the 1st issue of CPLR! DO NOT MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY! Leading scientists…
Everyone thinks the printing press led to increased literacy among the average man in the middle ages, but that just might not be the case. Dr Marco Mostert a historian from Utrecht University is instead suggesting that the availability of cheap paper was the main reason more reading material…
Channel 4 in Britain has created a series documenting what goes on in Autopsies, but even more exciting is that they've made them available online for your viewing...pleasure?
I'm a pretty squeamish guy, which is one of the (many) reasons I didn't go to medical school. So if you're particularly…
My office mate claims this doesn't really look like me - but meh.. it's close enough. I've challenged her to do a better job.
There's a neat little program over at the Simpsons Movie website that allows you to create your own Simpsons Avatar. Check it out!
This weeks Pseudoscience of the past is brought to you once again by the New York Times from November 21, 1851. In this episode we demonstrate how you can tell nearly everything about a person from...wait for it.... wait..... yes! Their Hat!
Now this isn't something you can tell from how…
Check out the interview Bora scored over at A Blog Around The Clock. Of course it's an interview with a politician so it doesn't really say anything earth shattering ;) But it's well worth checking out.
So I noticed today that ScienceBlogs does not have a wikipedia entry! What's up with that? Ridiculous!
I felt it to be my solemn duty to start one for the world! But clearly I'm not really supposed to be creating it since I guess I sorta, kinda 'work' for Seed Media. But anyway! Please head…
Well I guess Boeing does a lot of government research so it really isn't surprising that they would be involved with some of the really stupid things the military has been involved in. Thankfully their research didn't focus on flying their planes psychically (well that we know of). From Danger…
It's kind of hard to imagine a child lying who barely understands language and is even less able to produce something understandable. And babies certainly don't have a very developed theory of mind! But like all areas of developmental psychology the trend is for people to be able to do things…
There is a great article today on Slate about why the pretty ridiculous idea that vaccinations containing trace amounts of mercury cause autism will never go away. Here's the first little part of the article:
At the recent 12-day hearing into theories that vaccines cause autism, the link between…
Check out the 1st Anniversary edition of the Encephalon Blog Carnival at the brand spanking new home of the great blog Neurophilosophy!
There has been a whole lot crap floating around the press in the last couple weeks since the trial started that is seeking to link vaccination with higher incidence of autism. Now a survey funded by one of these anti-vaccination groups is correlating, through a random telephone survey, more…
Have you ever wondered why your left hemisphere is better developed than your right? Are you worried about the negative impacts of hypnotism, crossed eyes and convulsions? The NY Times may have the answer for you!
It's all about how you sleep as a baby and what's in your cradle.
From Nov. 26 1880…
I always loved these homunculi drawings in intro psych and neuro books. These sculptures from the London Natural History Museum are even better!
click picture for much much larger image.
And finally if you have no idea what the heck is going on here. Wikipedia has a good description of the…
Today starts a new series that I perhaps blatantly stole from Shelley over at Retrospectacle, but it's such a darn great idea! From the mouth of Shelley:
Pretty much I'm just going to dig back into the forgotten and moldering annuls of scientific publications to find weird and interesting studies…
Thanks to Vaughan over at Mind Hacks we've discovered that the great movie The Brain That Wouldn't Die is now in the public domain :) You can watch it below the fold or even download it in full right here or here. This movie is a wonderful, wonderful movie! ... ok, really, I've never seen it nor…
Are you a politician or currently considering a run for office?
Do you agree with Richard Nixon that drugs are "public enemy number one in the United States"?
Are you worried that smoking marijuana makes you insane, turns you into a violent criminal or causes death?
Do you worry daily about why…
Well... I'm not sure if you all noticed... but my posting has been lacking lately. It's been for a great reason though. I'm on vacation in the Florida Keys. Beaches, boats, and leather skin ;)
We saw a great water spout the other day - of course my cell phone picture didn't turn out but this…
Seriously!
According to the BBC News:
Drinking coffee protects against an eyelid spasm that can lead to blindness, a study suggests.
Italian researchers looked at the coffee drinking and smoking habits of 166 people with blepharospasm.
Sufferers have uncontrollable twitching of the eyelid which, in…
Ahh... some great research from Spain. You know when you get home from vacation you really need another vacation to get ready to go back to work. Well... it's called Post-Holiday Syndrome.
Here's the whole mess from Eurekalerts:
Millions of people will leave their working places and start their…
I need a new phone and it just so happens that the new iPhone is coming out very soon. So the question is...
http://killersurvey.com/survey_code.php?sqs=1&id=677">
Here's some stats that might help you decide:
Feel free to leave comments telling me why not to buy it as well ;)
This is a wonderful idea!
Swizzle sticks and carbon nanotubes don't usually share the same room, but they're both on the menu for Eugene's first Science Pub.
Part of an international phenomenon that's been going on almost 10 years, Science Pub brings top researchers out of their labs and into bars…
"Pavlov's Cockroach: Classical Conditioning of Salivation in an Insect," sounds like a great paper and seriously...salivation in the cockroach! that's great stuff ;)
But this is certainly not the first time classical conditioning has been demonstrated in other animals. Heck, Eric Kandel (among…
Ever see a rat tickled? You can now - and evidently they laugh :)
[via scienceblog]
Here's another video of rats playing with their owner. I knew they could be friendly but this is something new to me. I didn't know that they could have so much personality - I was pretty sure they just crept…
We all know, thanks to Dan Simons and Chris Chabris (unless you've been living under a rock), that if we're really paying attention to something we can miss something else entirely... like a gorilla walking into the middle of a room and banging on its chest. Check out the video here. (Clearly this…
Yes yes... I know cancer isn't funny and I also seem to be obsessed with Family Guy in the last day or two. So without further ado.... Here's a Peter Tumor!