- June 18, 2013
- 06:25 PM
- 18 views
I WILL FEAR NO EVIL: the first head transplant on human
by Eugenio Maria Battaglia in Semanto.me
In 2008, doctor Sergio Canavero, an italian neurosurgeon based in Turin, IT, have awakened a 20 years old lady from a permanent post-traumatic vegetative state, by means of a bifocal extradural cortical electro-stimulation. Today, while Science still find it hard to explain consciousness and embodied cognition – the world-class neurosurgeon made a shock announcement: “I’m ready for the first head transplant on a man.”
In the manuscript published on Surgical Neurology I........ Read more »
Canavero, S. (2013) HEAVEN: The head anastomosis venture Project outline for the first human head transplantation with spinal linkage (GEMINI). Surgical Neurology International, 4(2), 335. DOI: 10.4103/2152-7806.113444
- June 18, 2013
- 06:11 PM
- 11 views
Quantum-Dot Microscopy Method Allows to Improve Solar Cells
by dailyfusion in The Daily Fusion
Researchers working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a new microscopy technique that uses a process similar to how an old tube television produces a picture—cathodoluminescence—to image nanoscale features. Combining the best features of optical and scanning electron microscopy, the fast, versatile, and high-resolution technique allows scientists to view surface and subsurface features potentially as small as 10 nanometers in size.... Read more »
Yoon, H., Lee, Y., Bohn, C., Ko, S., Gianfrancesco, A., Steckel, J., Coe-Sullivan, S., Talin, A., & Zhitenev, N. (2013) High-resolution photocurrent microscopy using near-field cathodoluminescence of quantum dots. AIP Advances, 3(6), 62112. DOI: 10.1063/1.4811275
- June 18, 2013
- 05:57 PM
- 16 views
Psychology At the Movies: Essentialist Musings in Man of Steel
by Psych Your Mind in Psych Your Mind
www.imdb.com
Yesterday, my spouse and I dropped our newborn daughter off with Grandma and then popped over to the local theater to see this summer's much anticipated comic-book blockbuster Man of Steel. By any standard, Man of Steel is exceptionally light when it comes to philosophical musings: The plot is predictably linear--good guys fight bad guys who are trying to kill them. At first glance, it may seem like a stretch to write an entire blog entry (for a psychology blog) about the fil........ Read more »
Kraus MW, & Keltner D. (2013) Social Class Rank, Essentialism, and Punitive Judgment. Journal of personality and social psychology. PMID: 23713698
- June 18, 2013
- 03:31 PM
- 14 views
June 18, 2013
by Erin Campbell in HighMag Blog
The study of how cells move in development is not just about development. Understanding cell migration can also help researchers understand how tumors spread and invade other tissues. So, the next time you see someone roll their eyes at your fruit fly egg chambers (or worm vulva, or culture dishes), take pity at their ignorance and explain to them how they should thank you instead.The movement of cells during development drives the shape changes and organization of an embryo. I........ Read more »
Lucas, E., Khanal, I., Gaspar, P., Fletcher, G., Polesello, C., Tapon, N., & Thompson, B. (2013) The Hippo pathway polarizes the actin cytoskeleton during collective migration of Drosophila border cells. originally published in the Journal of Cell Biology, 201(6), 875-885. DOI: 10.1083/jcb.201210073
- June 18, 2013
- 03:06 PM
- 11 views
Nanog protein promotes the growth of cancer stem cells in head and neck cancer
by beredim in Stem Cells Freak
A new study led by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center -- Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC-James) has identified a biochemical pathway in cancer stem cells that is essential for promoting head and neck cancer.The study shows that a protein called Nanog, which is normally active in embryonic stem cells, promotes the growth of cancer stem cells in head and neck cancer. The findings provide information essential for de........ Read more »
Xie, X., Piao, L., Cavey, G., Old, M., Teknos, T., Mapp, A., & Pan, Q. (2013) Phosphorylation of Nanog is essential to regulate Bmi1 and promote tumorigenesis. Oncogene. DOI: 10.1038/onc.2013.173
- June 18, 2013
- 03:05 PM
- 10 views
Life After Recovery for Men with Eating Disorders
by Andrea in Science of Eating Disorders
While there is growing recognition that (surprise, surprise!) men are not immune to eating disorders, men are still underrepresented in the literature about eating disorders. We know comparatively little about what it is like to be a man with an eating disorder, and less still about recovery and life after recovery for these individuals. Recently, Björk, Wallin, & Pettersen (2012) conducted a qualitative study that asked men who had been diagnosed with an eating disorder and completed........ Read more »
Björk T, Wallin K, & Pettersen G. (2012) Male experiences of life after recovery from an eating disorder. Eating Disorders, 20(5), 460-8. PMID: 22985242
- June 18, 2013
- 12:09 PM
- 12 views
Even ‘environmentally protective’ levels of pesticide devastate insect biodiversity
by Anouk Vleugels in United Academics
Pesticide levels considered environmentally friendly in Europe and Australia are, in fact, having a devastating effect on invertebrate insect biodiversity in nearby creeks and streams, a new study has found, showing the need for an urgent overhaul of the way pesticide risk is assessed. Water-dwelling invertebrates like worms, snails, crustaceans, mites and insects play a crucial role in regional ecosystems because they provide food for fish, birds and platypuses.... Read more »
Beketov, M., Kefford, B., Schafer, R., & Liess, M. (2013) Pesticides reduce regional biodiversity of stream invertebrates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1305618110
- June 18, 2013
- 08:00 AM
- 39 views
Bombs and Brains
by Caitlin Kirkwood in The Synaptic Scoop
Great minds met to conceive the first atomic bomb. Now the atomic bomb has helped researchers confirm some long-held suspicions about the human brain.... Read more »
Spalding Kirsty L., Bergmann Olaf, Alkass Kanar, Bernard Samuel, Salehpour Mehran, Huttner Hagen B., Boström Emil, Westerlund Isabelle, Vial Céline, & Buchholz Bruce A. (2013) Dynamics of Hippocampal Neurogenesis in Adult Humans. Cell, 153(6), 1219-1227. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2013.05.002
- June 18, 2013
- 06:16 AM
- 37 views
Peter Suber’s Open Access book is now available under an #OpenAccess license
by Duncan Hull in O'Really?
If you never got around to buying Peter Suber‘s book “for busy people” about Open Access (OA) publishing [1], you might be pleased to learn that it’s now available under an Open Access license.... Read more »
Clair, K. (2013) Kevin Michael Clair reviews Open Access, by Peter Suber. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 39(1), 94. DOI: 10.1016/j.acalib.2012.11.017
- June 18, 2013
- 05:35 AM
- 31 views
New ‘embryonic’ subduction zone found
by Perikis Livas in Tracing Knowledge
A new subduction zone forming off the coast of Portugal heralds the beginning of a cycle that will see the Atlantic Ocean close as continental Europe moves closer to America.... Read more »
Media Release Monash University. (2013) New 'embryonic' subduction zone found. Monash University. info:/
- June 18, 2013
- 04:42 AM
- 31 views
"Undruggable" cancers may by druggable
by beredim in Stem Cells Freak
Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers have identified in the most aggressive forms of cancer a gene known to regulate embryonic stem cell self-renewal, beginning a creative search for a drug that can block its activity.The gene, SALL4, gives stem cells their ability to continue dividing as stem cells rather than becoming mature cells. Typically, cells only express SALL4 during embryonic development, but the gene is re-expressed in nearly all cases of acute myeloid leukemia and 10 to 30 ........ Read more »
Yong, K., Gao, C., Lim, J., Yan, B., Yang, H., Dimitrov, T., Kawasaki, A., Ong, C., Wong, K., Lee, S.... (2013) Oncofetal Gene in Aggressive Hepatocellular Carcinoma . New England Journal of Medicine, 368(24), 2266-2276. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1300297
- June 18, 2013
- 04:15 AM
- 26 views
NYSCF researchers generate beta cells from MODY patients
by beredim in Stem Cells Freak
A team from the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute and the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Centre of Columbia University has generated patient-specific beta cells, or insulin-producing cells, that accurately reflect the features of maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY).The researchers used skin cells of MODY patients to produce induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, from which they then made beta cells. Transplanted into a mouse, the stem cell-derived beta cells secreted insulin........ Read more »
Hua, H., Shang, L., Martinez, H., Freeby, M., Gallagher, M., Ludwig, T., Deng, L., Greenberg, E., LeDuc, C., Chung, W.... (2013) iPSC-derived β cells model diabetes due to glucokinase deficiency. Journal of Clinical Investigation. DOI: 10.1172/JCI67638
- June 18, 2013
- 03:55 AM
- 51 views
Explainer: Why Do Women Menstruate?
by Dyani Lewis in United Academics
For half the population, it comes three to five days each month, 12 months each year, for 40 years of our lives. Menstruation can be debilitating, relieving, disappointing, or simply an inconvenient fact of life.
But why do humans menstruate, when most animals don’t? When you shake the tree of life, you find that only a handful of mammals aside from us – primates, a small number of bat species, and the elephant shrew – have opted for the monthly bleed.... Read more »
Emera, D., Romero, R., & Wagner, G. (2012) The evolution of menstruation: A new model for genetic assimilation. BioEssays, 34(1), 26-35. DOI: 10.1002/bies.201100099
Blanks, A., & Brosens, J. (2013) Meaningful menstruation. BioEssays, 35(5), 412-412. DOI: 10.1002/bies.201300022
- June 18, 2013
- 01:01 AM
- 38 views
The Hazards of Debating Race and Inequality
by Eric Horowitz in peer-reviewed by my neurons
Imagine there is a certain advantaged group of people that supports a policy that harms a disadvantaged group, and you believe there are hints of racial or ethnic bias underlying their position. Even if the advantaged group doesn’t literally believe that the disadvantaged group is less deserving, it’s impossible to view their insensitivity to the [...]... Read more »
Saguy, T., Chernyak-Hai, L., Andrighetto, L., & Bryson, J. (2013) When the powerful feels wronged: The legitimization effects of advantaged group members' sense of being accused for harboring racial or ethnic biases. European Journal of Social Psychology. DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.1948
Rasinski, H., Geers, A., & Czopp, A. (2013) "I Guess What He Said Wasn't That Bad": Dissonance in Nonconfronting Targets of Prejudice. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. DOI: 10.1177/0146167213484769
- June 18, 2013
- 12:05 AM
- 25 views
It's Fun to Play with the Y- and C- Graft
by Kyle Harris in Sports Medicine Research (SMR): In the Lab & In the Field
Take Home Message: While both the Y-graft and C-graft effectively stabilized the patellofemoral joint, the patients who received the Y-graft had significantly better subjective outcome scores than the patients who received the C-graft.
Patients who endure a patellofemoral dislocation are often plagued with patellofemoral instability and frequent re-injury. While multiple methods of patellar fixation exist, a gold-standard does not. Therefore, Kang and colleagues performed a randomized trial t........ Read more »
Kang, H., Cao, J., Yu, D., Zheng, Z., & Wang, F. (2013) Comparison of 2 Different Techniques for Anatomic Reconstruction of the Medial Patellofemoral Ligament: A Prospective Randomized Study. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 41(5), 1013-1021. DOI: 10.1177/0363546513480468
- June 17, 2013
- 06:18 PM
- 34 views
New Silicon Wafer Production Method to Make Solar Cells Cheaper
by dailyfusion in The Daily Fusion
A team of researchers from the Nanoengineering Research Centre (CRNE) and the Department of Electronic Engineering at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya—BarcelonaTech (UPC) has found a way to manufacture crystalline silicon materials cheaper and faster.... Read more »
Hernández, D., Trifonov, T., Garín, M., & Alcubilla, R. (2013) “Silicon millefeuille”: From a silicon wafer to multiple thin crystalline films in a single step. Applied Physics Letters, 102(17), 172102. DOI: 10.1063/1.4803009
- June 17, 2013
- 05:10 PM
- 32 views
On the Trail of Ancient Killers
by Perikis Livas in Tracing Knowledge
The newly unveiled genome of a medieval strain of the mycobacterium that causes leprosy is a technical triumph borne of next-generation sequencing machines and clever new techniques to extract target DNA from a soup of ancient molecules. Awash in data, several labs are racing neck-and-neck to cull DNA from a Most Wanted list of other legendary killers: tuberculosis, plague, cholera, Leishmania, the potato blight, and AIDS. They gather traces of these culprits from ancient teeth, bones, hair, fec........ Read more »
Gibbons, A. (2013) On the Trail of Ancient Killers. Science, 340(6138), 1278-1282. DOI: 10.1126/science.340.6138.1278
- June 17, 2013
- 04:18 PM
- 35 views
Supreme Court rules natural genes not patentable
by Liza Lester in EcoTone
Unanimous decision against BRCA breast cancer susceptibility gene patents in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc.
Plus: a movie about BRCA1 discoverer Mary-Claire King.... Read more »
Hall, J., Lee, M., Newman, B., Morrow, J., Anderson, L., Huey, B., & King, M. (1990) Linkage of early-onset familial breast cancer to chromosome 17q21. Science, 250(4988), 1684-1689. DOI: 10.1126/science.2270482
Miki, Y., Swensen, J., Shattuck-Eidens, D., Futreal, P., Harshman, K., Tavtigian, S., Liu, Q., Cochran, C., Bennett, L., Ding, W.... (1994) A strong candidate for the breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility gene BRCA1. Science, 266(5182), 66-71. DOI: 10.1126/science.7545954
Wooster, R., Neuhausen, S., Mangion, J., Quirk, Y., Ford, D., Collins, N., Nguyen, K., Seal, S., Tran, T., Averill, D.... (1994) Localization of a breast cancer susceptibility gene, BRCA2, to chromosome 13q12-13. Science, 265(5181), 2088-2090. DOI: 10.1126/science.8091231
- June 17, 2013
- 02:52 PM
- 46 views
Hey boy, you really activate my ventral midbrain
by Brooke N in Smaller Questions
Scientists at CalTech simultaneously found a way to stimulate your midbrain without invasive methods (ie: opening up your skull) and make you find them attractive.
Chib, et al. reported in Translational Psychiatry that by using their newly designed noninvasive method called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on the prefrontal cortex they were able to activate the interconnected midbrain.... Read more »
Chib VS, Yun K, Takahashi H, & Shimojo S. (2013) Noninvasive remote activation of the ventral midbrain by transcranial direct current stimulation of prefrontal cortex. Translational psychiatry. PMID: 23756377
- June 17, 2013
- 12:03 PM
- 65 views
Brain Insula Signals Response to Depression Treatment
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
In a previous post, I reviewed a research summary of the potential for brain imaging to be a clinical tool in the diagnosis of brain disorders in the mood disorders domain.One of the key points in that review is the value of finding brain biomarkers for response to specific treatments.To follow up on this point, a recent research study has been published that proposes the brain insular cortex region may be key to determining specific treatment response in major depressive disorder.Helen Mayberg ........ Read more »
McGrath CL, Kelley ME, Holtzheimer PE, Dunlop BW, Craighead WE, Franco AR, Craddock RC, & Mayberg HS. (2013) Toward a Neuroimaging Treatment Selection Biomarker for Major Depressive Disorder. JAMA psychiatry (Chicago, Ill.), 1-9. PMID: 23760393
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