Brain & Behavior
Neurotopia
Friday Weird Science: Duck, duck, penis. Sci is going to so some selfish Friday Weird Science today. Selfish, because this article isn't new, and was reported on by one of the GREATS. This guy. He (of course) did a completely brilliant job, and when he talked...
January 21, 2010
A Blog Around The Clock
New and Exciting in PLoS this week Busy with ScienceOnline2010 I did not have time to check out the new articles in PLoS ONE and other PLoS titles. Finally I found some time today, and here are my picks from the past few days. As always, you...
Neurophilosophy
Single cells in the monkey brain encode abstract mathematical concepts OUR ability to use and manipulate numbers is integral to everyday life - we use them to label, rank, count and measure almost everything we encounter. It was long thought that numerical competence is dependent on language and, therefore, that...
Uncertain Principles
Au Revoir, Cognitive Daily Set the bloggy flags at half-mast, for Dave and Greta are shutting down Cognitive Daily. OK, maybe three-quarter-mast, because they're doing it of their own free will, but still, they'll be missed. And now I need to find a new...
Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)
TEDTalks: James Geary Metaphorically Speaking Aphorism enthusiast and author James Geary waxes on a fascinating fixture of human language: the metaphor. Friend of scribes from Aristotle to Elvis, metaphor can subtly influence the decisions we make, Geary says. This talk is interesting for many reasons, not the least of which is because the speaker uses an extended metaphor to describe metaphors.
DrugMonkey
Marijuana use and perception of harm A recent alert from the Center for Substance Abuse Research (CESAR) presents an interesting juxtaposition of data from the Monitoring the Future study. It pits the rates of past-30-day marijuana smoking against the perception of harm with regular use in...
January 20, 2010
Greg Laden's Blog
OMG, Cognitive Daily is No More! Cognitive Daily, the blog, is one of the blogs that made science blogs (both in general and at scienceblogs.com) a legitimate, valid enterprise instead of a bunch of random jackasses screwing around on the Internet. Like a nice hat on a man who could be...
The Frontal Cortex
Musical Predictions There's an interesting new paper on how the brain makes sense of music by constructing detailed models in real time. The act of listening, it turns out, is really an act of neural prediction. Here are the scientists, from the...
Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)
TEDTalks: VS Ramachandran Talks About The Neurons that Shaped Civilization Was Lamark's view of evolution wrong? Maybe not, according to VS Ramachandran, who argues that mirror neurons ("Ghandi neurons") provide the neural mechanism for rapid horizontal transmission of information, forming the basis of society and culture as we know it
Gene Expression
Face recognition not correlated with IQ Heritability of the Specific Cognitive Ability of Face Perception: What makes one person socially insightful but mathematically challenged, and another musically gifted yet devoid of a sense of direction? Individual differences in general cognitive ability are thought to be mediated...
Neurotopia
Attractiveness, anger, and warrior princess blondes Suffice it to say that (X + Y+ Z) * (A*B)= This Where X = Sci Y = Cold Z = Migrain and A = cold medication B = Migraine medication This = Annnnnnd WHEEEEEEE!!!!!! And you know, that's...
January 19, 2010
Neurotopia
Research Blogging Awards! As I find out through Nerdy Christie (who appears to know this stuff always before I do), Research Blogging, the website that aggregates posts which blog on peer-reviewed research, is giving out AWARDS! Awards for SCIENCE! They will be giving...
January 18, 2010
The Corpus Callosum
Comments on the Morphine-for-PTSD Article I've been mulling this over for a few days, finally deciding to write about it. There was an article in the NYT on 13 January 2010 about an NEJM article: Morphine May Help Traumatic Stress By BENEDICT CAREY Published: January...
January 15, 2010
DrugMonkey
Is it a substance use disorder or is he a substance abuser? This is awesome. I've been waiting for the paper to show up ever since I saw the poster presentation at a meeting last year. Or maybe I just saw a related type of poster because I seem to recall the...
January 14, 2010
The Frontal Cortex
Charity is Social There's a new and very timely paper out this week that looks at the cortical mechanics of charitable giving. While it's been known for a few years that giving away money activates the dopamine reward pathway - that's why doing...
Terra Sigillata
NIDA researchers Hinds (Kentucky) and Torres (Pittsburgh) given Presidential Early Career Award The Presidential Award for Early Career Scientists and Engineers was established in 1996 and is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers.
Neuron Culture
NEJM study finds post-event morphine cuts combat PTSD rates in half This is a pretty big deal if it holds up in future trials.
January 13, 2010
The Quantum Pontiff
Entangled in the Membrane, Entangled in the Brain? Bad New Scientist has an article up today entitled Brain 'entanglement' could explain memories, which certainly must have sent Roger Penrose's brain into a state of multiple correlated back-flips (twistor flips?) However, from the article:Subatomic particles do it. Now the...
The Frontal Cortex
Haiti The news out of Haiti this morning is hellish; the Earth slips and thousands die. The early reports have the same feel as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, in that every bulletin brings more awful news. I already find myself...
Neurophilosophy
Viewing headless bodies causes face adaptation VIEWING a stimulus for a prolonged period of time results in a bias in the perception of a stimulus viewed afterwards. For example, after looking at a moving stimulus for some time, a stationary stimulus that is viewed subsequently appears...
A Blog Around The Clock
New and Exciting in PLoS ONE There are 42 new articles in PLoS ONE today. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services...
January 12, 2010
On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess
Fairness, Reward, Mark McGwire, and the Game... Dr. and Mr. Isis discusses Mark McGwire's steroid use and qualification for the Hall of Fame over dinner tonight. I didn't really feel like blogging, since we've all been a little under the weather, so I recorded the end of...
Not Exactly Rocket Science
How objectification silences women - the male glance as a psychological muzzle Women (but not men) spend less time describing themselves to a male stranger (but not a female one) if they think that their bodies (but not their faces) are being checked out.
Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)
King Bird of Paradise -vs- Red-Capped Manakin I recently showed you the oddly shaped iridescent tail plume from a King Bird of Paradise as the daily mystery bird, now watch this video to see how the birds use these plumes in courtship displays
January 11, 2010
The Frontal Cortex
How We Decide (Paperback Remix) The paperback of How We Decide is now shipping from your favorite online retailers and should be in local bookstores. To celebrate the occasion, I thought I'd repost an interview I conducted with myself when the hardcover was published last...
Readers' Reactions
“The cartoonist and writer James Thurber said the hardest part of his job was convincing his wife that when he was standing and staring out the window he was actually hard at work.” Kris Jackson on Intelligence and the Idle Mind
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SB Basics
Synthetic Biology
Some engineers use cranes and steel to make their designs reality, but synthetic biologists engineer using tools on a different scale: DNA and the other molecular components of living cells. Synthetic biology uses cellular systems and structures to produce artificial models based on natural order. Read these posts from the ScienceBlogs archives for more:
Pharyngula May 30, 2007
“Playing God”
The Loom January 31, 2008
"Frankenstein Was Here": Synthetic Biology as Graffiti
Discovering Biology in a Digital World July 2, 2006
Build your own virus
