purepedantry
Posts by this author
September 12, 2006
GNIF Brain Blogger has a good article describing the DSM -- Diagnostic and Statistcal Manual of Mental Disorders -- that is used by psychiatrists to diagnose mental health issues of all types. Drawbacks and benefits are discussed.
In spite of some rather notable problems with the DSM -- for…
September 11, 2006
Differing from the typical strategy of threatening potential suitors with castration, scientists speculate that phermones from fathers delay their daughters sexual development:
Chemical cues from fathers may be delaying the onset of sexual maturity in daughters, as part of an evolutionary strategy…
September 11, 2006
I talked earlier this year about a patient who recovered from a coma after 20 years. In that post, I discussed how -- with respect to the diagnostic criteria -- the difference between a persistent vegetative state and a minimally conscious state is the difference between someone who has only…
September 8, 2006
Remember to submit to Encephalon for Monday. Shelley is hosting it. Submission details here.
September 8, 2006
This is really cool. It is a video of a guy who took a picture of himself every day for 6 years.
September 7, 2006
The Union of Concerned Scientists is running a cartoon contest for the best global warming related cartoon. Check them out here. See, humor is cathartic.
Here is my feeble attempt at a global warming cartoon. Certainly not as witty as theirs, but I also can't draw so bear with me.
Hat-tip:…
September 6, 2006
Why we lay babies on their backs:
Research suggests that healthy newborn infants do not have what doctors call "nasoaxillary reflex" -- a protective reflex that helps keep their nasal passages open.
In adults lying on their side, the nasoaxillary reflex ensures that the uppermost nasal airway is…
September 6, 2006
I wrote earlier this week about evidence from electrode arrays that LTP occurs in vivo in behaving rats ("Rats, you behave!"). The paper showed that if you use an avoidance learning paradigm you can detect LTP in the hippocampus after one trial. The paper does not, however, necessarily prove that…
September 5, 2006
Rebecca Saxe of MIT reviews Encounters with Wild Children by Adriana Benzaquen about historical confrontations with so-called wild children -- children raised outside of society without supervision or what the author calls the forbidden experiment. The occurence of wild children has always been a…
September 5, 2006
My suspicion is that the people who know about neuroscience read the title of this and said: "Wow, Jake, there's a shocker. Tell us something we didn't know." Everyone else probably said: "Guh?" Therefore, I should probably explain why I think this finding is cool.
LTP or Long Term Potentiation…
September 4, 2006
Check out this awesome molecular biology animation by XVIVO. My favorite is the depiction of actin and microtubule assembly and the movement of a kinesin molecule tethered to a vesicle.
Apparently, Harvard has contracted out with this company to provide this animations to students. If that is…
September 4, 2006
Hey everyone. Check out the Synapse #6 on The Mouse Trap (now organized by category).
The next Synapse is on GNIF Brain Blogger on September 17th. Submission guidelines here.
September 3, 2006
No way:
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) - Steve Irwin, the Australian television personality and environmentalist known as the "Crocodile Hunter," was killed Monday by a stingray during a diving expedition, Australian media said. He was 44.
Irwin was filming an underwater documentary on the Great Barrier…
August 31, 2006
I don't even want to know how he got it:
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have yet to show their baby daughter off in public, but eager fans were given an unusual preview with the chance to see a bronze cast depicting her first solid stool.
The scatological sculpture -- more doodoo than Dada -- is…
August 31, 2006
I have posted before about how I think that the role of genetics, at least in popular culture, has been overemphasized. Rather, the really interesting and important parts of genetics are the ways in which your genes interact with environmental factors.
There is an excellent article in the NY…
August 30, 2006
Kyra, Kyra, Kyra...
Note to self: turn off mic in the john.
Kyra Phillips, anchor of CNN's "Live From...," unwittingly upstaged President Bush's speech in New Orleans with on-the-air analysis of her husband and the marriage of her brother -- all live from a CNN ladies room.
Unaware that her…
August 30, 2006
The Synapse #6 is being hosted on The Mouse Trap on Sunday, September 3rd. Submission guidelines here.
August 30, 2006
Those of you who read an earlier post here noted that I was somewhat skeptical of the technical aspects of the so-called ethical stem cells. I felt that there were several technical hurdles that had to be surmounted before this technology could be used reasonably.
It turns things were even worse…
August 29, 2006
The Neurophilosopher has a fabulous long post on the discovery of the neuron as the fundamental unit of the nervous system.
I would note when you get to the part about Ramon y Cajal that his picture of the neurons in a chick cerebellum formed the red banner for this site, and a picture of him is…
August 29, 2006
There is an excellent discussion on Prometheus about whether it is OK to distort the means of science to justify certain ends. Money quote:
This is of course an issue much broader than climate change, and at its core is about how science is to operate in a democracy. The practice of science,…
August 28, 2006
Wouldn't we all like to know how to control hairiness? Women complain that they have too much, and spend half their lives eradicating the little bastards. Men have too little on the tops of their heads, and, let us say, carpets in other places. Well the molecular pathway that regulates hair…
August 27, 2006
You be the judge?
Meanwhile, Cruise has been busier pushing Scientology than anyone knew. According to a just-declassified State Department schedule, Cruise visited then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage on June 13, 2003, just an hour after Armitage had met with Washington Post reporter…
August 27, 2006
So Pluto is no longer a planet (totally destroying everything I learned in elementary school), and I get the feeling the little guy is bummed out about it. I have a list of suggestions of things Pluto can do to raise it's self esteem:
1) Become a free agent and join another solar system
2) Crash…
August 27, 2006
First, I would note that I think Jared Diamond is a fabulous scientist, and a brilliant man. His work in Guns, Germs and Steel was genius, and well qualifies him in my book as someone we should all listen to.
However, Terry Hunt, writing in the American Scientist, questions one of the arguments he…
August 27, 2006
This is completely unacceptable:
The constant calls, the people frightening his children, and the demonstrations in front of his home apparently became a little too much.
Dario Ringach, an associate neurobiology professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, decided this month to give up…
August 27, 2006
I have talked before about evidence that there is no new neurogenesis in the adult cortex, but that paper used stereological techniques.
A new paper in PNAS shows a more direct method to demonstrate that there are no newly created neurons in the adult cortex -- and their technique for this is so…
August 23, 2006
The press is all in a tizzy about so-called ethical stem cells, but this still indicates a really limited understanding of how embryonic stem (ES) cells work. (Frankly, if I had a dollar for every time I read bad reporting on ES cells, you and I would not be talking. I would be Tahiti...with…
August 23, 2006
I don't really know why, but for some reason this Flickr page makes me want to buy an "I [Brain] Cognitive Science" T-shirt. Brainy women are hot.
Hat-tip: Mind Hacks.