- June 6, 2013
- 08:04 AM
- 63 views
Bede, Burials, and Bamburgh: Testing Anglo-Saxon Migration
by Katy Meyers in Bones Don't Lie
The traditional story of the settlement of England by the Anglo-Saxons is based on the writing of the Venerable Bede from 731 CE. He wrote: “These new-comers were from the three most formidable races of Germany, the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes… these heathen conquerors devastated the surrounding cities and countryside, extended the conflagration from the … Continue reading »... Read more »
Groves SE, Roberts CA, Lucy S, Pearson G, Gröcke DR, Nowell G, Macpherson CG, & Young G. (2013) Mobility histories of 7th-9th century AD people buried at early medieval Bamburgh, Northumberland, England. American journal of physical anthropology. PMID: 23737109
- June 6, 2013
- 07:33 AM
- 64 views
Decoding Space and Time in the Brain
by Perikis Livas in Tracing Knowledge
“…henceforth, space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only a kind of union between the two will preserve an independent reality.”... Read more »
Aiden Arnold. (2013) Decoding Space and Time in the Brain. Scientific American. info:/
- June 6, 2013
- 07:31 AM
- 44 views
New type of stem cells discovered, Muse-AT stem cells
by beredim in Stem Cells Freak
Researchers from the UCLA Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology announced today that they have discovered a new type type of stem cell in human adipose (fat) tissue. These primitive, stress-resistant stem cells, called Multi-lineage Stress-Enduring (Muse-AT), are pluripotent and have the capacity to differentiate into virtually all kinds of adult cells, without any prior genetic modification, including muscle, bone, fat, cardiac, neuronal and liver cells.Read More... Read more »
Heneidi, S., Simerman, A., Keller, E., Singh, P., Li, X., Dumesic, D., & Chazenbalk, G. (2013) Awakened by Cellular Stress: Isolation and Characterization of a Novel Population of Pluripotent Stem Cells Derived from Human Adipose Tissue. PLoS ONE, 8(6). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0064752
- June 6, 2013
- 07:27 AM
- 41 views
2D to 3D, not just a revolution on our TV screens
by Professor Shuichi Takayama in NC3Rs Blog
Growing cells in flat, 2D layers for research has been the norm for around 40 years and is a method with many limitations. Culturing living human cells in 3D spheres has been recently found to be more physiologically relevant to humans. NC3Rs 3Rs Prize runner-up, Professor Shuichi Takayama, University of Michigan USA, describes how this novel method can be applied to metastatic cancer research, screening out drugs that do not work much earlier in the drug discovery process to reduce the number o........ Read more »
Tung, Y., Hsiao, A., Allen, S., Torisawa, Y., Ho, M., & Takayama, S. (2011) High-throughput 3D spheroid culture and drug testing using a 384 hanging drop array. The Analyst, 136(3), 473. DOI: 10.1039/c0an00609b
- June 6, 2013
- 07:16 AM
- 57 views
Did genes shape my mother tongue?
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
Intuitively, one is inclined to answer with a resounding ‘no’. Of course not, had I been adopted by Thai parents, I would speak Thai. But I was not. My parents and my mother tongue are German. Still, there is a growing opinion that genes do nonetheless play a role. Before looking at this opinion, it […]... Read more »
Baronchelli A, Chater N, Pastor-Satorras R, & Christiansen MH. (2012) The biological origin of linguistic diversity. PloS one, 7(10). PMID: 23118922
Pagel M, Atkinson QD, & Meade A. (2007) Frequency of word-use predicts rates of lexical evolution throughout Indo-European history. Nature, 449(7163), 717-20. PMID: 17928860
Dediu D. (2011) Are languages really independent from genes? If not, what would a genetic bias affecting language diversity look like?. Human biology, 83(2), 279-96. PMID: 21615290
- June 6, 2013
- 06:18 AM
- 33 views
TERF1 is crucial for the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells
by beredim in Stem Cells Freak
In a recent study, a team of researchers at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), led by Ralph Schneider, and the Telomeres and Telomerase Group, headed by María Blasco, discovered that the TERF1 gene is both essential for the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells and can be used as a marker for pluripotenty.Read More... Read more »
Schneider, R., Garrobo, I., Foronda, M., Palacios, J., Marión, R., Flores, I., Ortega, S., & Blasco, M. (2013) TRF1 is a stem cell marker and is essential for the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells. Nature Communications. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2946
- June 6, 2013
- 04:30 AM
- 49 views
Reading comprehension just as good using a Kindle compared with paper
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
A significant milestone was passed last August when Amazon announced that sales of books on its Kindle e-reader platform outstripped print sales for the first time. There's no question that e-readers are convenient - you can load a single device with thousands of titles. But some commentators have started to question whether digital reading has adverse effects on memory and comprehension compared with reading from print.
In 2010, a reassuring study in fact found no difference in recall a........ Read more »
Margolin, S., Driscoll, C., Toland, M., & Kegler, J. (2013) E-readers, Computer Screens, or Paper: Does Reading Comprehension Change Across Media Platforms?. Applied Cognitive Psychology. DOI: 10.1002/acp.2930
- June 6, 2013
- 04:24 AM
- 66 views
More Money makes you Bad at Work: The Myth of Performance-Related Pay.
by Stuart Farrimond in Dr Stu's Science Blog
Motivated by money? I confess I am. Well ok, not always: there are plenty of things that will trump a stack of greenbacks. However, few of us would object to a kindly benefactor plopping a million quid into our current account. Even for the least materially-minded, it would be difficult to ignore such an offer: … Continue reading »... Read more »
ARIELY, D., GNEEZY, U., LOEWENSTEIN, G., & MAZAR, N. (2009) Large Stakes and Big Mistakes. Review of Economic Studies, 76(2), 451-469. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-937X.2009.00534.x
- June 5, 2013
- 11:09 PM
- 34 views
Bmal1 and Body Composition
by Allison in Dormivigilia
Researchers investigated the effects of a null Bmal1 deletion on glucose and fat metabolism. The results are consistent with previous studies, providing more clarity that Bmal1 regulates metabolism. ... Read more »
Kennaway, D., Varcoe, T., Voultsios, A., & Boden, M. (2013) Global Loss of Bmal1 Expression Alters Adipose Tissue Hormones, Gene Expression and Glucose Metabolism. PLoS ONE, 8(6). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0065255
- June 5, 2013
- 08:30 PM
- 50 views
Machine learning and prediction without understanding
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
Big data is the buzzword du jour, permuting from machine learning to hadoop powered distributed computing, from giant scientific projects to individual social science studies, and from careful statistics to the witchcraft of web-analytics. As we are overcome by petabytes of data and as more of it becomes public, it is tempting for a would-be […]... Read more »
Chattopadhyay, Ishanu, Wen, Yicheng, & Ray, Asok. (2010) Pattern Classification In Symbolic Streams via Semantic Annihilation of Information. American Control Conference. arXiv: 1008.3667v1
- June 5, 2013
- 05:02 PM
- 56 views
Why So Serious?* An Insider’s Guide to the Study of Smiling and Dominance
by Psych Your Mind in Psych Your Mind
The toughest grad students at the University of Illinois
(J. Hepler & N. Segal)
Over the years, one of my favorite things to hear about
in research is the initial personal events that inspired researchers to conduct
their investigations into human behavior (e.g., Did your neglectful mother lead
you to a study of anxious attachment?). In today’s blog post I would like to
talk about the inspiration for a study I conducted last year, with my my
colleague David Chen, examining what happen........ Read more »
Kraus, M., & Chen, T. (2013) A winning smile? Smile intensity, physical dominance, and fighter performance. Emotion, 13(2), 270-279. DOI: 10.1037/a0030745
- June 5, 2013
- 02:47 PM
- 36 views
Telling stories about Irish Geology
by Metageologist in Metageologist
I clearly remember the most important moment of my geological career. I was resting my back on a glacially-polished wall of gabbro, my feet in an Irish bog, talking to myself in the sunshine. As a young man with bushy hair … Continue reading →... Read more »
ROGERS, G., DEMPSTER, T., BLUCK, B., & TANNER, P. (1989) A high precision U-Pb age for the Ben Vuirich granite: implications for the evolution of the Scottish Dalradian Supergroup. Journal of the Geological Society, 146(5), 789-798. DOI: 10.1144/gsjgs.146.5.0789
TANNER, P., & LESLIE, A. (1994) A pre-D2 age for the 590 Ma Ben Vuirich Granite in the Dalradian of Scotland. Journal of the Geological Society, 151(2), 209-212. DOI: 10.1144/gsjgs.151.2.0209
WELLINGS, S. (1998) Timing of deformation associated with the syn-tectonic Dawros Currywongaun Doughruagh Complex, NW Connemara, western Ireland. Journal of the Geological Society, 155(1), 25-37. DOI: 10.1144/gsjgs.155.1.0025
Friedrich, A., Bowring, S., Martin, M., & Hodges, K. (1999) Short-lived continental magmatic arc at Connemara, western Irish Caledonides: Implications for the age of the Grampian orogeny. Geology, 27(1), 27. DOI: 10.1130/0091-7613(1999)0272.3.CO;2
- June 5, 2013
- 01:19 PM
- 48 views
It Depends on Your Point of View: “A Water Moccasin Tried to Get in My Boat” (Guest Post)
by David Steen in Living Alongside Wildlife
Besides
the myth that Cottonmouths (Agkistrodon piscivorus, on right) bask in trees along waterways and plop into boats and the unfounded legend that Cottonmouths are aggressive and attack people, the next most common misconception about the Cottonmouth is that
they try to “get into” boats. At first glance this may appear to be a variant
of the “falling into boats” ... Read more »
S.P. Graham. (2013) How frequently do Cottonmouths bask in Trees?. Journal of Herpetology. info:/
- June 5, 2013
- 01:06 PM
- 41 views
Using Existing Data to Assess Tidal Power Potential
by dailyfusion in The Daily Fusion
In a new thesis on marine current power at Uppsala University, Emilia Lalander shows that currently available water data are valuable for estimating the movement speed of water and thereby the potential energy resource available in a particular area.... Read more »
Lalander, E., Grabbe, M., & Leijon, M. (2013) On the velocity distribution for hydro-kinetic energy conversion from tidal currents and rivers. Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, 5(2), 23115. DOI: 10.1063/1.4795398
- June 5, 2013
- 12:38 PM
- 28 views
Apoptosis, not so quiet after all
by Kasra Hassani in The Parasite Diary
Posted by Kasra Apoptosis has been conventionally regarded as a quiet and non-inflammatory event, compared to necrosis which results in release of alarmins and other danger signals inducing inflammation and immune cell recruitment. However, a recent report by Cullen et al. published in Molecular Cell suggests otherwise. They suggest that at least in one form […]... Read more »
Cullen SP, Henry CM, Kearney CJ, Logue SE, Feoktistova M, Tynan GA, Lavelle EC, Leverkus M, & Martin SJ. (2013) Fas/CD95-induced chemokines can serve as "find-me" signals for apoptotic cells. Molecular cell, 49(6), 1034-48. PMID: 23434371
- June 5, 2013
- 11:31 AM
- 33 views
“The Lizard King” named after “The Doors” Singer Jim Morrison
by Usman Paracha in SayPeople
Main Point:
Barbaturex morrisoni is the name of the extinct 6-foot long lizard thought to be present about 36-40 million years ago in South East Asia and this name has been taken from the name of “The Doors” rock singer Jim Morrison.
Published in:
Proceedings of the Royal Society B
Study Further:
"I was listening to The Doors quite a bit during the research," Jason Head of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said in a statement. "Some of their musical im........ Read more »
Head, J., Gunnell, G., Holroyd, P., Hutchison, J., & Ciochon, R. (2013) Giant lizards occupied herbivorous mammalian ecospace during the Paleogene greenhouse in Southeast Asia. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 280(1763), 20130665-20130665. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.0665
- June 5, 2013
- 10:25 AM
- 40 views
Better IQ Testing for Animals: There's an App for That
by Elizabeth Preston in Inkfish
It's 2013, and laboratory pigeons are demanding an upgrade. Well, maybe they aren't demanding so much as continuing to do whatever tasks get them their pigeon pellets. Nevertheless, switching from analog to digital testing could mean more rigorous studies, better statistics, and a chance for previously ignored animals to try their paws at cognition research.
One of the classic cognitive tests that psychologists like to give animals involves two or more strings. At the far end of one string, ........ Read more »
Wasserman, E., Nagasaka, Y., Castro, L., & Brzykcy, S. (2013) Pigeons learn virtual patterned-string problems in a computerized touch screen environment. Animal Cognition. DOI: 10.1007/s10071-013-0608-0
- June 5, 2013
- 10:24 AM
- 41 views
New biomarker helps scientists choose the right stem cells
by beredim in Stem Cells Freak
According to a new study by researchers at the Boston Children's Hospital and the Duke University, stem cells expressing a gene called WNT3, are more prone to differentiate into cells of the endoderm lineage, like the ones of the pancreas, liver and bladder. This strongly suggests that other genes could be used as biomarkers, capable of predicting the differentiation potential of stem cell lines. If such markers do exist, stem cell research would become both easier and cheaper.Read More... Read more »
Jiang, W., Zhang, D., Bursac, N., & Zhang, Y. (2013) WNT3 Is a Biomarker Capable of Predicting the Definitive Endoderm Differentiation Potential of hESCs. Stem Cell Reports, 1(1), 46-52. DOI: 10.1016/j.stemcr.2013.03.003
- June 5, 2013
- 10:09 AM
- 40 views
Cicadian Rhythms: Why Does The 17-Year Cicada Emerge Like Clockwork?
by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog
Does your back yard look like this? This swarm of periodical cicadas was photographed by Greg Hume at Wikimedia. The 2013 Swarmageddon is here! After years of their absence, cicadas are overrunning parks, forests and communities all across the central-eastern United States. Periodical cicadas (from the genus Magicicada) are known for their synchronized emergence at 13- and 17-year intervals. Simply the fact that they can live this long is extraordinary: periodical cicadas have the longest life s........ Read more »
Koenig, W., & Liebhold, A. (2013) Avian Predation Pressure as a Potential Driver of Periodical Cicada Cycle Length. The American Naturalist, 181(1), 145-149. DOI: 10.1086/668596
Koenig WD, Ries L, Olsen VB, & Liebhold AM. (2011) Avian predators are less abundant during periodical cicada emergences, but why?. Ecology, 92(3), 784-90. PMID: 21608486
- June 5, 2013
- 09:22 AM
- 52 views
Darwin’s Theory Inadequate? Evolution by Subtraction
by Simone Munao in United Academics
So far we have always thought that evolution proceeds by addition, but nobody has ever proven that, at least in some cases, it may evolve by subtraction. In nature, in determinate phases of evolution, complicated organs may be formed, due to certain genetic assets. Sometimes the complexity of the formed tissue can be so high that prevents it from working in an optimal way. Evolution then would do its course by eliminating what is superfluous.
This is the content of the research conducted by t........ Read more »
McShea, D., & Hordijk, W. (2013) Complexity by Subtraction. Evolutionary Biology. DOI: 10.1007/s11692-013-9227-6
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