- January 8, 2009
- 01:05 PM
- 957 views
Resisting cancer: an evolutionary approach
by moneduloides in Moneduloides
Every now and again I enjoy a nice lump of cancer with my evolution coffee in the morning, and today happened to be one of those mornings. A paper published in PNAS appeared in my aggregator that I just couldn’t keep from devouring. Entitled Toward a genetics of cancer resistance, George Klein of the Karolinska Institute takes us on a brief tour of what we currently know about our susceptibility to cancer, and what it is evolution is telling us.
Klein introduces the topic of cancer resist........ Read more »
G. Klein. (2009) Toward a genetics of cancer resistance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0811616106
- January 8, 2009
- 12:50 PM
- 1,182 views
Functional organization of the planum temporale
by Greg Hickok in Talking Brains
This is the title of a talk I'm giving at the Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience Society meeting tomorrow in Tucson. What I'm going to argue is that there is no such thing. Let me explain...The planum temporale is a gross anatomical feature. Although it is often referred to and studied as a functional region -- e.g., The Planum Temporale as a Computational Hub (Griffiths and Warren, 2002) among many other papers -- there is no evidence to support this view. Cytoarchitectonic data indicate at le........ Read more »
T Griffiths, & J Warren. (2002) The planum temporale as a computational hub. Trends in Neurosciences, 25(7), 348-353. DOI: 10.1016/S0166-2236(02)02191-4
- January 8, 2009
- 10:11 AM
- 1,003 views
Paraphyly Watch 2009
by Malte Ebach in Systematics and Biogeography
Welcome to the New Year and the start of a new campaign: Paraphyly Watch 2009The aim is to document, as comprehensively as possible, all the misuses and abuses of paraphyly in the scientific and popular literature for 2009. By paraphyly we mean non-monophyletic groups or taxa (e.g., grades).By misuse, we mean accepting paraphyletic groups* as informative (e.g., using them in analysis).By abuse we mean treating paraphyly as being evolutionary or evidence for evolution (e.g., accepting non-monophy........ Read more »
Brummitt, R.K. (2008) Evolution in taxonomic perspective . Taxon.
Zander, R.H. (2008) Evolutionary inferences from non-monophyly on molecular trees . Taxon.
- January 7, 2009
- 11:15 PM
- 2,475 views
Chocolate as Make-Up
by Dr Shock in Dr Shock MD PhD
This model is right, use chocolate as make-up. Cocoa polyphenols such as flavanols have a positive effect on skin structure when applied for at least 5 days. Cocoa butter also has an activity, but its onset of action takes longer (12 days). Cocoa butter doesn’t contain polyphenolen. The dose at which cocoa polyphenols – when [...]... Read more »
P. Gasser, E. Lati, L. Peno-Mazzarino, D. Bouzoud, L. Allegaert, & H. Bernaert. (2008) Cocoa polyphenols and their influence on parameters involved in skin restructuring . International Journal of Cosmetic Science, 30(5), 339-345. DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2494.2008.00457.x
- January 7, 2009
- 05:10 PM
- 1,637 views
Are funny ads worth the money? What makes ads memorable, and why
by Dave Munger in Cognitive Daily
Every year about this time, we start thinking about an exciting television event: the Super Bowl. I'm excited because it's the biggest football game of the year. The rest of the family just likes to watch the commercials. No doubt, some of those commercials are hilarious, and there's often more conversation about the commercials than the game itself. Companies spend millions buying advertising time, and millions more developing commercials that will stand out from the pack on Super Bowl Sunday. ........ Read more »
James J. Kellaris, & Thomas W. Cline. (2007) Humor and ad memorability: On the contributions of humor expectancy, relevancy, and need for humor. Psychology and Marketing, 24(6), 497-509. DOI: 10.1002/mar.20170
- January 7, 2009
- 01:11 PM
- 1,024 views
Sowing the Seeds of Lexapro
by CL Psych in Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry
I'm reading an article with my jaw completely agape and I thought I'd share the pain. The good people at Forest Pharmaceuticals have put together a tragic waste of journal space. The editorial board at the journal Depression and Anxiety should call an emergency meeting to see how this thing got published. Any peer reviewer who put a stamp of approval on this should be forced to listen to Michael Bolton's Greatest Hits at maximum volume for 12 hours straight.OK, so what am I having a fit about?........ Read more »
Pratap Chokka, & Mark Legault. (2008) Escitalopram in the treatment of major depressive disorder in primary-care settings: an open-label trial. Depression and Anxiety, 25(12). DOI: 10.1002/da.20458
- January 7, 2009
- 12:15 PM
- 1,532 views
Aging brains lose their connections
by Mo in Neurophilosophy
Healthy aging is characterized by a gradual decline in cognitive function. Mental processes such as attention, memory and the ability to process information are at their peak when people are in their 30s and 40s, but as we get older, we find it increasingly difficult to focus on relevant information and to recall the names of familiar objects or people, and it takes us longer to perform mental tasks.
This age-related cognitive decline varies greatly between individuals. Some people experience l........ Read more »
D ZIEGLER, O PIGUET, D SALAT, K PRINCE, E CONNALLY, & S CORKIN. (2008) Cognition in healthy aging is related to regional white matter integrity, but not cortical thickness. Neurobiology of Aging. DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2008.10.015
- January 7, 2009
- 09:23 AM
- 1,400 views
Sanger sequencing is not dead?
by dgmacarthur in Genetic Future
Daniel G. Hert, Christopher P. Fredlake, Annelise E. Barron (2008). Advantages and limitations of next-generation sequencing technologies: A comparison of electrophoresis and non-electrophoresis methods Electrophoresis, 29 (23), 4618-4626 DOI: 10.1002/elps.200800456
The dideoxy termination method of DNA sequencing (often called Sanger sequencing after the technique's inventor, Fred Sanger) has been the workhorse of pretty much every molecular biology lab for the last 30 years. However, over the........ Read more »
Daniel G. Hert, Christopher P. Fredlake, & Annelise E. Barron. (2008) Advantages and limitations of next-generation sequencing technologies: A comparison of electrophoresis and non-electrophoresis methods. ELECTROPHORESIS, 29(23), 4618-4626. DOI: 10.1002/elps.200800456
- January 7, 2009
- 09:06 AM
- 1,607 views
Tetris good for more than wasting time
by Christie Wilcox in Observations of a Nerd
Ok, I simply had to post about this new study from PLoS ONE because my boyfriend, Barry, absolutely loves the game Tetris. Anyhow, new research has found that Tetris can help treat PTSD flashbacks, which is pretty cool for a really old, really simple video game.Read the rest of this post!Here's how it works. Your brain has limited resources and capacity. In other words, your brain can only process, remember and manage so much input at a time. When you see an image or perform a mental task, you h........ Read more »
Emily A. Holmes, Ella L. James, Thomas Coode-Bate, & Catherine Deeprose. (2009) Can Playing the Computer Game “Tetris” Reduce the Build-Up of Flashbacks for Trauma? A Proposal from Cognitive Science. PLoS ONE, 4(1). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0004153
- January 7, 2009
- 07:00 AM
- 1,753 views
Orangutans - probably more interesting than you
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo
In the past few years there has been a recent spate of articles concerning orangutan intelligence. So, as I’m fairly bored, and in need of a break from university work, I’ve decided to write a bit of an essay on some of these finds.
Orangutans… They’re orange, right?
Correct; but Pongo pygmaeus abelii are so much more [...]... Read more »
M Nakamichi. (2004) Tool-use and tool-making by captive, group-living orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus abelii) at an artificial termite mound. Behavioural Processes, 65(1), 87-93. DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2003.07.002
V. Dufour, M. Pelé, M. Neumann, B. Thierry, & J. Call. (2009) Calculated reciprocity after all: computation behind token transfers in orang-utans. Biology Letters, -1(-1), -1--1. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2008.0644
Serge A. Wich, Karyl B. Swartz, Madeleine E. Hardus, Adriano R. Lameira, Erin Stromberg, & Robert W. Shumaker. (2008) A case of spontaneous acquisition of a human sound by an orangutan. Primates. DOI: 10.1007/s10329-008-0117-y
- January 7, 2009
- 05:46 AM
- 1,186 views
Computer game could help prevent traumatic flashbacks
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
The idea of fire-fighters, rape victims and car crash survivors being led away from their trauma to play the jigsaw-style video-game Tetris is surreal, but could soon become a reality. That's because Emily Holmes and colleagues have shown that playing the game half an hour after watching traumatic scenes on video, led people to experience fewer flashbacks of those scenes.We already have relatively effective treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), such as eye-movement desensitisatio........ Read more »
Emily A. Holmes, Ella L. James, Thomas Coode-Bate, & Catherine Deeprose. (2009) Can Playing the Computer Game “Tetris” Reduce the Build-Up of Flashbacks for Trauma? A Proposal from Cognitive Science. PLoS ONE, 4(1). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0004153
- January 7, 2009
- 05:10 AM
- 1,095 views
Tip of the Week: BioData Mining OpenAccess Journal
by Jennifer in OpenHelix
First off, Happy New Year!
For the first tip of 2009, I am going to feature a ‘where to’ tip, as opposed to our normal ‘how to’ style tip. In our persuit of great tutorials to train on, we are hunting for and learning various data mining tools and software. My where to tip is that [...]... Read more »
Georgios A. Pavlopoulos, Anna-Lynn Wegener, & Reinhard Schneider. (2008) A survey of visualization tools for biological network analysis. BioData Mining, 1(1), 12. DOI: 10.1186/1756-0381-1-12
- January 7, 2009
- 01:08 AM
- 1,349 views
Pregnant? Still drinking that pot of coffee?
by Evil Monkey in Neurotopia
As all y'all know by now, I'm an experienced caffeine junkie. Currently, I'm trying to forgo it again (this Diet Coke right here is merely an aberration, do not look at the caffeine behind the curtain...). But really, it's everywhere around us. Somehow I don't think it was QUITE so prevalent until the age of Starbucks. but it seems like now you can't go anywhere without running into a coffee shop or three. In some cities there is literally one on every street corner. And with the crazy live........ Read more »
Olga Björklund, Johan Kahlström, Peter Salmi, & Bertil B. Fredholm. (2008) Perinatal Caffeine, Acting on Maternal Adenosine A1 Receptors, Causes Long-Lasting Behavioral Changes in Mouse Offspring. PLoS ONE, 3(12). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0003977
- January 7, 2009
- 12:00 AM
- 1,536 views
A simple description of the eye: structure and optical function
by Pablo Artal in Optics confidential
An easy description of the human eye: structure and optical functioning... Read more »
P. Artal, A. Benito, J. Tabernero. (2006) The human eye is an example of robust optical design. Journal of Vision, 1-7.
- January 7, 2009
- 12:00 AM
- 1,783 views
Schizophrenia and brain evolution (plus bold adjectives)
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo
When exploring the etiology of schizophrenia, a feat that has mostly eluded understanding for over 100 years, a common denominator emerges in that associated deficiencies are rooted in cognitively demanding tasks. One suggestion is that, where schizophrenic individuals are involved, disorganised thoughts, abnormal speech, auditory hallucinations and paranoid delusions are symptomatic consequences of [...]... Read more »
Philipp Khaitovich, Helen E Lockstone, Matthew T Wayland, Tsz M Tsang, Samantha D Jayatilaka, Arfu J Guo, Jie Zhou, Mehmet Somel, Laura W Harris, Elaine Holmes.... (2008) Metabolic changes in schizophrenia and human brain evolution. Genome Biology, 9(8). DOI: 10.1186/gb-2008-9-8-r124
- January 6, 2009
- 11:11 PM
- 1,735 views
Were does Humor and Laughter Reside in the Brain?
by Dr Shock in Dr Shock MD PhD
That is a difficult question for two reasons:
The exact meaning of the terms `laughter,’ `humour’ and `funny’ have been formulated for individual studies, a broad consensus on their exact meanings has yet to be reached. Are tickling and contagious laughter one and the same or manifestations of particular kinds of humour? Is humour a kind [...]... Read more »
B. Wild. (2003) Neural correlates of laughter and humour. Brain, 126(10), 2121-2138. DOI: 10.1093/brain/awg226
G Berns. (2004) Something funny happened to reward. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8(5), 193-194. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2004.03.007
E. Azim. (2005) Sex differences in brain activation elicited by humor. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102(45), 16496-16501. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0408456102
- January 6, 2009
- 11:00 PM
- 700 views
Long-range effects in the ribosome
by Michael Clarkson in Conformational Flux
Antibiotics such as chloramphenicol suppress infections by inhibiting bacteria from making proteins. They achieve this by binding to and blocking the peptidyl transferase center (PTC) of the ribosome, a large complex of RNA and protein that performs nearly polypeptide synthesis in living cells. Although PTC-binding antibiotics comprise several different families of compounds, mutations in the ribosome that confer resistance to one family often produce cross-resistance to other families. This is ........ Read more »
C. Davidovich, A. Bashan, & A. Yonath. (2008) Structural basis for cross-resistance to ribosomal PTC antibiotics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(52), 20665-20670. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0810826105
- January 6, 2009
- 05:52 PM
- 1,428 views
Critiquing a Classic: "The Seductive Allure of Neuroscience Explanations"
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
One of the most blogged-about psychology papers of 2008 was Weisberg et. al.'s The Seductive Allure of Neuroscience Explanations.As most of you probably already know, Weisberg et. al. set out to test whether adding an impressive-sounding, but completely irrelevant, sentence about neuroscience to explanations for common aspects of human behaviour made people more likely to accept those explanations as good ones. As they noted in their Introduction:Although it is hardly mysterious that members of ........ Read more »
Deena Skolnick Weisberg, Frank C. Keil, Joshua Goodstein, Elizabeth Rawson, & Jeremy R. Gray. (2008) The Seductive Allure of Neuroscience Explanations. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 20(3), 470-477. DOI: 10.1162/jocn.2008.20040
- January 6, 2009
- 05:40 PM
- 862 views
Why Darwin is a poster child for atheism
Madeleine Bunting, writing in The Guardian, can't understand why atheists have the hots for Darwin:The fear is that the anniversary will be hijacked by the New Atheism as the perfect battleground for another round of jousting over the absurdity of belief (a position that Darwin pointedly never took up). A poll for the BBC in 2006 found that less than half the British population accepted the theory of evolution as the best description for the development of life. Comparable figures in the US are ........ Read more »
Jon D. Miller, Eugenie C. Scott, & Shinji Okamoto. (2006) SCIENCE COMMUNICATION: Public Acceptance of Evolution. Science, 313(5788), 765-766. DOI: 10.1126/science.1126746
Tania Lombrozo, Anastasia Thanukos, & Michael Weisberg. (2008) The Importance of Understanding the Nature of Science for Accepting Evolution. Evolution: Education and Outreach, 1(3), 290-298. DOI: 10.1007/s12052-008-0061-8
- January 6, 2009
- 02:05 PM
- 1,721 views
Another reason why science education sucks
by Sandra Porter in Discovering Biology in a Digital World
Science education faculty don't get no respect
At least that's a strong conclusion from a paper in the December 19th issue of Science (1). According to the article almost 40% of the 59 science education specialists, surveyed in the California University system, were "seriously considering leaving" their current jobs and some (20%) were considering leaving the field entirely.
Why?
Figure 1. Are science education specialists the Rodney Dangerfields of academics?
Read the rest of this post........ Read more »
S. D. Bush, N. J. Pelaez, J. A. Rudd, M. T. Stevens, K. D. Tanner, & K. S. Williams. (2008) THE PIPELINE: Science Faculty with Education Specialties. Science, 322(5909), 1795-1796. DOI: 10.1126/science.1162072
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