All Posts
2008-08-20 13:02:50
by Coturnix in A Blog Around The Clock
Biology
As I announced this morning, there will be several guest posts here over the next several weeks. The first one, by Barn Owl of the lovely Guadalupe Storm-Petrel blog, is likely to appeal to a lot of my readers as it combines several of my own interests:
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In this guest-post for A Blog Around the Clock, I'll combine three things that Coturnix especially likes: horses, circadian biology, and an Open Access research paper. For the equestrian, there are two main seasonal issues, controlled primarily by photoperiod, or day length, which must be considered, esp...more
- Fitzgerald B. P. (2007) Rapid phase adjustment of melatonin and core body temperature rhythms following a 6-h advance of the light/dark cycle in the horse. Journal of Circadian Rhythms, 5(1), 5. DOI: 10.1186/1740-3391-5-5
2008-08-20 13:01:51
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Anthropology
A typical adult human recognizes that the image one sees in a mirror is oneself. We do not know how much training a mirror-naive adult requires to do this, but we think very little.
When a typical adult macaque (a species of monkey) looks in the mirror, it sees another monkey. Typical adult male macaques stuck in a cage with a mirror will treat the image as a fellow adult male macaque until you take the mirror out of the cage.
(Experiments that attempt to determine if an individual can recognize themselves in the mirror ultimately derive from what is known as the Gallup ...more
- Waal F. d. (2008) Mirror-Induced Behavior in the Magpie (Pica pica): Evidence of Self-Recognition. PLoS Biology, 6(8), e202. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0060202
2008-08-20 11:02:26
by ggg in Zzzoot
Biology
This paper takes a more semantic web and forward looking view than than recent cyberinfrastructure articles:
Stein, L. D. (2008).Towards a cyberinfrastructure for the biological
sciences: progress, visions and challenges Nat Rev Genet, 9(9), 678-688. DOI: 10.1038/nrg2414
Things like Semantic Web Pipes - missing from the article - can be found on the wiki page for the article (Thanks Matthias Samwald).
Related recent articles:Goble, C., Stevens, R. (2008). State of the nation in data integration for bioinformatics. Journal of Biomedical Informatics DOI: 10.1016/j.jbi.2...more
- STEVENS R. (2008) State of the nation in data integration for bioinformatics. Journal of Biomedical Informatics, DOI: 10.1016/j.jbi.2008.01.008
- (2008) Towards a cyberinfrastructure for the biological sciences: progress, visions and challenges. Nat Rev Genet, 9(9), 678-688. DOI: 10.3354/esep00089
2008-08-20 10:03:18
by PalMD in denialism blog
Clinical Research
I've been having an internal debate about whether to write on this issue, not because it isn't interesting, not because it isn't important, but because it's getting so much coverage and I'm not sure how much I can add to the conversation.
But it so infuriated me that I must blog. Science-based medicine relies on medical evidence. It relies on being able to grade medical evidence by its quality and strength, and to do this, there must be a certain level of transparency.
I'm only a little bit idealistic. I know that drug companies must fund clinical trials if we ever want...more
- (2008) The ADVANTAGE Seeding Trial: A Review of Internal Documents. , 149(4), 251-258. DOI:
2008-08-20 04:04:10
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Psychology
Children develop false memories for a negative event more readily than they do for a neutral one. Henry Otgaar and colleagues, who made the new finding, said their work has real world implications for anyone working with child witnesses: "The argument that is sometimes heard in court - i.e. this memory report must be true because it describes such a horrible event - is, as our data show, on shaky grounds."
Seventy-six children aged between seven and nine years were asked to recall details about a true event that had happened to them the previous year (e.g. that their class had to pe...more
- MERCKELBACH H. (2008) Children’s false memories: Easier to elicit for a negative than for a neutral event. Acta Psychologica, 128(2), 350-354. DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2008.03.009
- He Y. (2007) Climate Change and War Frequency in Eastern China over the Last Millennium. Human Ecology, 35(4), 403-414. DOI: 10.1007/s10745-007-9115-8
2008-08-20 02:07:49
by Amiya Sarkar in Physiology physics woven fine
Biology
In electronics we use integrated circuits (IC) to digitize analog signals, amplify them, and encode and transmit them where necessary. Digital logic ICs come in handy where generation of oscillator frequencies, for transmission of signals is needed.
These logic ICs come in broadly 2 types: CMOS-FET (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor- Field Effect Transistor) and TTL (Transistor Transistor Logic). While TTL ICs offer higher speed, they also consume higher current and a fixed regulated voltage (typically 5V). CMOS ICs work happily anywhere between 3V and 18V. Voltage regulation ...more
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- Billon P. L. (2001) The political ecology of war: natural resources and armed conflicts. Political Geography, 20(5), 561-584. DOI: 10.1016/S0962-6298(01)00015-4
2008-08-20 01:08:58
by scicurious in Neurotic Physiology
Biology
I JUST now got the email for this article out right this minute in PLoS ONE, and funnily enough, it goes along with something I think I saw on Yahoo, as well as a book I read recently. It’s such a small, internet connected world after all…
Blais et al. “Culture shapes how we look at faces” ...more
2008-08-19 23:13:16
by Stu in Improved Lives
Psychology
Photo Credit
Lately, I’ve been reading a lot on myths and stories and the power that narratives can have on how we view ourselves and thus how we live our lives. Myths and stories are a huge part of most of the world’s cultures. Native Americans, for example, still hold on to many of the myths
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- Mischel W. (2005) When Asking "Why" Does Not Hurt. Distinguishing Rumination From Reflective Processing of Negative Emotions. Psychological Science, 16(9), 709-715. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2005.01600.x
2008-08-19 22:02:43
by mwc in Discount Thoughts
Biology
In addition to the adverse consequences of addiction and the inconvenience of serving several years of jail time for possessing it, cocaine can cause a fatal overdose. Although this condition can be treated, no therapy presently exists that attacks the overdose by removing cocaine from the bloodstream. One possible approach to eliminating cocaine from a patient would be to accelerate the process by which it is degraded. Unfortunately, the enzymes that perform this activity in the human body are not very efficient. In an upcoming article in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, however,...more
- Zhan C. (2008) Most Efficient Cocaine Hydrolase Designed by Virtual Screening of Transition States. , DOI: 10.1021/ja803646t
2008-08-19 22:01:37
by GrrlScientist in Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)
Physics
tags: cognition, behavior, self-recognition, self awareness, tool use, memory, brain architecture, birds, European magpie, Pica pica, bpr3.org/?p=52
Figure 1. European magpie, Pica pica, with yellow mark [larger view].
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0060202.
Birds have been disparaged publicly as "bird brains" for so long that most people have lost the ability to view them as intelligent and sentient beings. However, a group of researchers in Germany have conducted a series of studies with several captive European magpies, Pica pica, that chal...more
- Waal F. d. (2008) Mirror-Induced Behavior in the Magpie (Pica pica): Evidence of Self-Recognition. PLoS Biology, 6(8), e202. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0060202
