Research / Scholarship posts
- February 10, 2012
- 06:56 AM
- 86 views
This Chimp May Be Smarter than You
by Jaime Menchén in United Academics
His name is Ayumu, and he’s unbeatable at a memorization game. When he was 5 years old his skills stunned the world. A research was published in 2007 reporting his achievements, and now that he is 11 years old it seems that he is at his best, better than any human.... Read more »
Inoue, S., & Matsuzawa, T. (2007) Working memory of numerals in chimpanzees. Current Biology, 17(23). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2007.10.027
- February 8, 2012
- 10:12 AM
- 44 views
Is Medical Reporting Making the Grade?
by Arielle D. Ross in Salamander Hours
The quality of scientific reporting, especially of medical reporting, is of great import to the public, but that is only one reason among many to care about media coverage quality. False or sub-quality reporting can lead to inaccurate beliefs, … Continue reading →... Read more »
Schwartz, L., Woloshin, S., Andrews, A., & Stukel, T. (2012) Influence of medical journal press releases on the quality of associated newspaper coverage: retrospective cohort study. BMJ, 344(jan27 1). DOI: 10.1136/bmj.d8164
- February 8, 2012
- 09:11 AM
- 45 views
Small Primate Communicates in High-Pitched Sounds Inaudible to Humans
by Jaime Menchén in United Academics
US researchers have discovered that Philippine Tarsier can “talk” within the pure ultrasound domain, this is, above human hearing capacity.... Read more »
Ramsier, M., Cunningham, A., Moritz, G., Finneran, J., Williams, C., Ong, P., Gursky-Doyen, S., & Dominy, N. (2012) Primate communication in the pure ultrasound. Biology Letters. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2011.1149
- February 8, 2012
- 07:44 AM
- 56 views
Deceiving Degrees
by E Markham in Genetic Cuckoo
Discussion of the recent change to courses offered in British universities following increased awareness and protest against pseudoscience, with more universities choosing to no longer offer degrees in homeopathy and alternative medicine, it seems evidence based medicine is finally eradicating flimflam from our higher institutions. However, this is not the situation in much of the world, as many leading universities in Australia still offering these misleading and pointless courses. This article highlights the change within the British universities, following more scrutiny form students and parents alike for the quality of university courses in the wake of the rises in tuition fees.... Read more »
E Markham. (2012) Deceiving Degrees. Blogspot. info:/
- February 8, 2012
- 07:00 AM
- 48 views
Ship Noise Causes Stress in Whales, Study Reveals
by Jaime Menchén in United Academics
Following September 11, 2001, ship traffic along America’s shores was substantially decreased. A team of researchers used the situation to test the stress levels of North Atlantic right whales, finding evidence that low-frequency sounds from ships cause chronic stress in whales.... Read more »
Rolland, R., Parks, S., Hunt, K., Castellote, M., Corkeron, P., Nowacek, D., Wasser, S., & Kraus, S. (2012) Evidence that ship noise increases stress in right whales. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2011.2429
- February 7, 2012
- 09:10 AM
- 56 views
Military Use of Neuroscience Should Be Regulated, Report Warns
by Jaime Menchen in United Academics
tDCS is a form of neurostimulation that, in the case of the research mentioned above, led to a better detection of concealed objects, based on the fact that the brain detects things before the subject is consciously aware of them. The results also showed that it may improve learning abilities, thus decreasing “the time required to attain expertise in a variety of settings,” according to the study.... Read more »
Clark, V., Coffman, B., Mayer, A., Weisend, M., Lane, T., Calhoun, V., Raybourn, E., Garcia, C., & Wassermann, E. (2012) TDCS guided using fMRI significantly accelerates learning to identify concealed objects. NeuroImage, 59(1), 117-128. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.11.036
- February 6, 2012
- 10:00 PM
- 8 views
Getting Data Shared - the next step and the real work begins
by Winston Hide in elements of impact
comment on 10.1038/ng.1054... Read more »
Sansone, S., Rocca-Serra, P., Field, D., Maguire, E., Taylor, C., Hofmann, O., Fang, H., Neumann, S., Tong, W., Amaral-Zettler, L.... (2012) Toward interoperable bioscience data. Nature Genetics, 44(2), 121-126. DOI: 10.1038/ng.1054
- February 6, 2012
- 08:44 AM
- 80 views
the synapse: where the magic happens
by TheCellularScale in The Cellular Scale
What is a synapse?The synapse is the junction between two neurons, usually between an axon, which gives the signal, and a dendrite, which receives the signal. This meeting of neurons is absolutely essential to how the brain works. It is where the information gets passed on from one neuron to the next. The 'magic' at the synapseWhen someone talks about neuronal pathways being strengthened, they usually mean a strengthening of this synaptic connection. This strengthening (or weakening) is referred to as "synaptic plasticity." Specifically, when the connection between two neurons is strengthened, it is often referred to as Long Term Potentiation (LTP) and when it is weakened it is is often called Long Term Depression (LTD). Synaptic plasticity is so exciting because it is a feasible biological mechanism for memory formation and storage. How this 'magic' was discoveredThe first paper to show that the connections between neurons could be strengthened was Bliss and Lomo 1973. They were studying the hippocampus, the region that underlies episodic memory and spatial learning.Bliss and Lomo, 1973 Fig1aThey found that when you stimulated the nerve fibers with certain frequencies (100 Hz is now a commonly used frequency for this), the signal from the group of neurons grew, and stayed large for hours. (They tracked at least one experiment for 10 hours!) Bliss and Lomo, 1973 Fig4cIn this figure, the dots represent the size of the signal at each point in time. The arrows represent the high frequency stimulation (here they stimulated 4 times). After each stimulation, the signal grows. The black dots are the pathway that was stimulated and the open circles are an unstimulated pathway that they used as a control. The concept that activity patterns between cells could strengthen the connection between them fundamentally changed the way people thought about information processing in the brain. Now there is a huge branch of neuroscience devoted to connecting LTP and LTD to behavior and investigating the mechanisms which underlie synaptic plasticity. In a retrospective paper, Lomo describes how the discovery came about. I found this quote particularly interesting:"Why did I not pursue and publish a fuller account of my findings in 1966? Because I was overcome by the complexity of the system and my lack of understanding of what was behind the findings. There was also no sense of urgency. Thus, when Tim and I published a full account in 1973 (Bliss & Lømo 1973), it still took years for the significance of the findings to be generally appreciated. "It's hard to imagine 'no rush' to publish something like this and it is refreshing to see a scientist who is hesitant about publishing something that s/he does not fully understand.Bliss TV, & Lomo T (1973). Long-lasting potentiation of synaptic transmission in the dentate area of the anaesthetized rabbit following stimulation of the perforant path. The Journal of physiology, 232 (2), 331-56 PMID: 4727084Lømo T (2003). The discovery of long-term potentiation. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 358 (1432), 617-20 PMID: 12740104... Read more »
Bliss TV, & Lomo T. (1973) Long-lasting potentiation of synaptic transmission in the dentate area of the anaesthetized rabbit following stimulation of the perforant path. The Journal of physiology, 232(2), 331-56. PMID: 4727084
Lømo T. (2003) The discovery of long-term potentiation. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 358(1432), 617-20. PMID: 12740104
- February 6, 2012
- 06:25 AM
- 62 views
How Snowflakes Are Formed
by Jaime Menchen in United Academics
The delicate structure of snowflakes unfolds before your eyes, like a flower blooming. Scientist Kenneth Libbrecht has studied how snowflakes are formed.... Read more »
Kenneth G. Libbrecht. (2011) Observations of an Edge-enhancing Instability in Snow Crystal Growth near -15 C. Cornell University Library. arXiv: 1111.2786v1
- February 6, 2012
- 03:39 AM
- 120 views
Is it good to listen to music at work?
by Stuart Farrimond in Dr Stu's Science Blog
There’s one thing you notice whenever you come back from camping. The noise. In the car, the shops, the gym: the beat of a drum, the strum of a guitar, the sound of synth – it can feel like we live world of tunes. Arrive at work and what do we do? Turn the radio … Continue reading »... Read more »
Kampfe, J., Sedlmeier, P., & Renkewitz, F. (2010) The impact of background music on adult listeners: A meta-analysis. Psychology of Music, 39(4), 424-448. DOI: 10.1177/0305735610376261
Haake, A. (2011) Individual music listening in workplace settings: An exploratory survey of offices in the UK. Musicae Scientiae, 15(1), 107-129. DOI: 10.1177/1029864911398065
- February 2, 2012
- 07:09 AM
- 83 views
Design Performs a Key Role in Spider Webs, Scientists Say
by Jaime Menchén in United Academics
The strength of spider webs is not only based on silk’s properties, but also on the quality of their design, as researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Politecnico di Torino have found out.... Read more »
Cranford, S., Tarakanova, A., Pugno, N., & Buehler, M. (2012) Nonlinear material behaviour of spider silk yields robust webs. Nature, 482(7383), 72-76. DOI: 10.1038/nature10739
- February 2, 2012
- 05:13 AM
- 69 views
Pic of the Day: Meet the Shieldcroc, Crocodiles’ Earliest Ancestor
by Jaime Menchén in United Academics
Researchers from Marshall University, US, have reported a new kind of giant crocodilyform who lived 95 million years ago. Named Aegisuchus witmeri, scientists have nicknamed it “shieldcroc” for the shield-like skin on its head, never seen before in these species.... Read more »
Holliday, C., & Gardner, N. (2012) A New Eusuchian Crocodyliform with Novel Cranial Integument and Its Significance for the Origin and Evolution of Crocodylia. PLoS ONE, 7(1). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0030471
- February 1, 2012
- 01:12 AM
- 86 views
Solar Cells as Easy as Inkjet Printing
by Paige Brown in From The Lab Bench
Imagine if making solar cells, which harvest light from the sun to produce energy, was as easy as sending this blog post to your inkjet printer.... Read more »
Wang, W., Su, Y., & Chang, C. (2011) Inkjet printed chalcopyrite CuInxGa1−xSe2 thin film solar cells. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 95(9), 2616-2620. DOI: 10.1016/j.solmat.2011.05.011
- January 31, 2012
- 07:00 PM
- 108 views
Drinking Milk Might Be Good for your Brain, Study Says
by Jaime Menchen in United Academics
New research at the University of Maine, US, provides a novel field of study: drinking milk, among consuming other dairy products, may benefit our brain health, its authors say.... Read more »
Crichton, G., Elias, M., Dore, G., & Robbins, M. (2012) Relation between dairy food intake and cognitive function: The Maine-Syracuse Longitudinal Study. International Dairy Journal, 22(1), 15-23. DOI: 10.1016/j.idairyj.2011.08.001
- January 31, 2012
- 05:36 AM
- 95 views
Neil harbisson, the world's first cyborg.
by Jaime Menchen in United Academics
Neil Harbisson, aged 29, considers himself a cyborg. Affected from birth by achromatopsia, he is unable to perceive colours, just black and white. Since 2004, he wears an eyeborg, a device that allows him to recognize colours through sound waves... Read more »
Warwick, K. (2011) Future Issues with Robots and Cyborgs. Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology, 4(3). DOI: 10.2202/1941-6008.1127
- January 31, 2012
- 03:29 AM
- 131 views
Voodoo Neuroscience Revisited
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
Two years ago, neuroscientists were shaken by the appearance of a draft paper showing that half of the published work in a particular field had fallen prey to a major statistical error.Originally called "Voodoo Correlations in Social Neuroscience", it ended up with the less snappy name of Puzzlingly high correlations in fMRI studies of emotion, personality, and social cognition. I prefer the old title.The error in question is now known variously as the "circular analysis problem", "non-independence problem" or "double-dipping" although I still call it the "voodoo problem". In a nutshell it arises whenever you take a large set of data, search for data points which are statistically significantly different from some baseline (null hypothesis), and then go on to perform further statistics only on those significant data points.The problem is that when you picked out the statistically significant observations, you selected the data points that were especially "good", so if you then do some more analyses only on those data, you are almost guaranteed to find something "good". To avoid this you need to make sure that your second analysis is truly independent of your first one.Anyway, Vul and Pashler, the main authors of the original voodoo article, have just written a short piece in NeuroImage offering some reflections on the paper and the aftermath. They don't make any major new arguments but it's a good read. Particularly fun is their explanation of what inspired them to look into the voodoo problem:In early 2005 a speaker in our department reported that BOLD activity in a small region of the brain can account for the great majority of the variance in speed with which subjects walk out of the experiment several hours later (this finding was never published as far as we know). The implications of this result struck us as puzzling, to say the least: Are walking speeds really so reliable that most of their variability can be predicted? Does a focal cortical region determine walking speeds? Are walking speeds largely predetermined hours in advance? These implications all struck us as far-fetched...But they reveal that it was one paper in particular that set them off voodoo-hunting Our interest in probing the matter was further whetted by an episode occurring a short while later: Grill-Spector et al. (2006) reported that individual voxels in face selective regions have a variety of stable stimulus preferences; in a critical commentary, Baker et al. (2007) found that the analysis used to ascertain this fact implicitly built these conclusions into the method, such that the same analysis applied to noise data (voxels from the nasal cavity) revealed a similar variety of stable preferences. It occurred to us that a similar circularity might underlie the puzzlingly high correlations.To their credit, Grill-Spector et al quickly accepted Baker et al's criticism and admitted that some of their original conclusions had been wrong.Vul, E., and Pashler, H. (2012). Voodoo and circularity errors NeuroImage DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.01.027... Read more »
Vul, E., & Pashler, H. (2012) Voodoo and circularity errors. NeuroImage. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.01.027
- January 30, 2012
- 09:14 AM
- 128 views
And Yet another Use for Graphene: Distilling Vodka
by Jaime Menchén in United Academics
Last findings on graphene reveal unexpected utility: distilling booze. Membranes made from graphene allows water to pass through but blocks anything else.... Read more »
Nair RR, Wu HA, Jayaram PN, Grigorieva IV, & Geim AK. (2012) Unimpeded permeation of water through helium-leak-tight graphene-based membranes. Science (New York, N.Y.), 335(6067), 442-4. PMID: 22282806
- January 29, 2012
- 10:34 PM
- 73 views
There’s More to That Red Plastic Cup Than You Thought
by Krystal D'Costa in Anthropology in Practice
Who here has not enjoyed a cold, refreshing drink from a red plastic cup? Alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages alike find themselves comfortably enclosed within the confines of the bright red vessel that has become a ubiquitous American staple at barbecues, picnics, parties, in dugouts and at minor league games, in food cars and at lunch [...]
... Read more »
Bunimovitz, S., & Greenberg, R. (2004) Revealed in Their Cups: Syrian Drinking Customs in Intermediate Bronze Age Canaan. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 19. DOI: 10.2307/4150104
Donner, W. (1994) Alcohol, Community, and Modernity: The Social Organization of Toddy Drinking in a Polynesian Society. Ethnology, 33(3), 245. DOI: 10.2307/3774009
Magennis, H. (1985) The Cup as Symbol and Metaphor in Old English Literature. Speculum, 60(3), 517. DOI: 10.2307/2848173
McAllister, P. (2003) Culture, Practice, and the Semantics of Xhosa Beer-Drinking. Ethnology, 42(3), 187. DOI: 10.2307/3773800
- January 27, 2012
- 10:10 AM
- 141 views
Oxford University Censor First Broadcast of Lecture That Resulted in Censuring of Prof. Nutt, Former UK Government Drugs Advisor
by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers
Watch the full video of the lecture and uncover what was in the slides censored for "copyright reasons"... Read more »
Nutt, D., King, L., & Phillips, L. (2010) Drug harms in the UK: a multicriteria decision analysis. The Lancet, 376(9752), 1558-1565. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61462-6
Nutt, D. (2009) Estimating drug harms: a risky business?. Centre for Crime and Justice Studies. info:/
Halpern JH, Sherwood AR, Hudson JI, Gruber S, Kozin D, & Pope HG Jr. (2011) Residual neurocognitive features of long-term ecstasy users with minimal exposure to other drugs. Addiction (Abingdon, England), 106(4), 777-86. PMID: 21205042
Carhart-Harris, R., Erritzoe, D., Williams, T., Stone, J., Reed, L., Colasanti, A., Tyacke, R., Leech, R., Malizia, A., Murphy, K.... (2012) Neural correlates of the psychedelic state as determined by fMRI studies with psilocybin. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1119598109
Editorial team. (2010) The EMCDDA annual report 2010: the state of the drugs problem in Europe. The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, also published in Euro surveillance :European communicable disease bulletin, 15(46). PMID: 21144426
- January 26, 2012
- 01:14 PM
- 131 views
NOT "Killed by Cannabis"
by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers
A quick factual decomposition of the assertion that cannabis is lethal, made by the Daily Mail in response to Richard Branson's evidence at the Select Committee on drugs.... Read more »
Hughes CE, & Stevens A. (2012) A resounding success or a disastrous failure: Re-examining the interpretation of evidence on the Portuguese decriminalisation of illicit drugs. Drug and alcohol review, 31(1), 101-13. PMID: 22212070
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