Other posts
- March 17, 2010
- 09:55 AM
- 29 views
Nest making, oxytocin, and social bonding
by The Dog Zombie in The Dog Zombie
I encountered Nest making and oxytocin comparably promote wound healing in isolation reared rats [1] while reading about how stress affects wound healing, and it drew me in with its lure of drawing connections between nest making and oxytocin. Oxytocin does a lot of things in the body, but what this paper was interested in was its participation in social bonding. You all must already know the coolest story about oxytocin, the story about the two species of voles. The species are almost identic........ Read more »
Vitalo A, Fricchione J, Casali M, Berdichevsky Y, Hoge EA, Rauch SL, Berthiaume F, Yarmush ML, Benson H, Fricchione GL.... (2009) Nest making and oxytocin comparably promote wound healing in isolation reared rats. PloS one, 4(5). PMID: 19436750
Young, L. (1998) Neuroendocrine bases of monogamy. Trends in Neurosciences, 21(2), 71-75. DOI: 10.1016/S0166-2236(97)01167-3
- March 16, 2010
- 09:06 AM
- 18 views
Research roundup
by City University Science Journalism MA in Elements Science
Sexual ambiguity crosses species in this week's research roundup.... Read more »
Zhao, D., McBride, D., Nandi, S., McQueen, H., McGrew, M., Hocking, P., Lewis, P., Sang, H., & Clinton, M. (2010) Somatic sex identity is cell autonomous in the chicken. Nature, 464(7286), 237-242. DOI: 10.1038/nature08852
Yoon, J., Maddock, R., Rokem, A., Silver, M., Minzenberg, M., Ragland, J., & Carter, C. (2010) GABA Concentration Is Reduced in Visual Cortex in Schizophrenia and Correlates with Orientation-Specific Surround Suppression. Journal of Neuroscience, 30(10), 3777-3781. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.6158-09.2010
Popescu, M., & Polley, D. (2010) Monaural Deprivation Disrupts Development of Binaural Selectivity in Auditory Midbrain and Cortex. Neuron, 65(5), 718-731. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2010.02.019
Aristov, V., Urbanik, G., Kummer, K., Vyalikh, D., Molodtsova, O., Preobrajenski, A., Zakharov, A., Hess, C., Hänke, T., Büchner, B.... (2010) Graphene Synthesis on Cubic SiC/Si Wafers. Perspectives for Mass Production of Graphene-Based Electronic Devices. Nano Letters, 10(3), 992-995. DOI: 10.1021/nl904115h
- March 15, 2010
- 07:40 PM
- 20 views
Krill v. Salps in the Southern Ocean
by Sam in Oceanographer's Choice
Last week, writing about copepods, I mentioned that they make up what is probably the most massive group of animals on earth. I also mentioned the likely runner up: krill. In particular, the Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba.
The Euphausiids are a major group of small, shrimp-like crustaceans found worldwide in the marine plankton. [...]... Read more »
V Loeb, V Siegel, O Holm-Hansen, R Hewitt, W Fraser, W Trivelpiece, S Trivelpiece. (1997) Effects of sea-ice extent and krill or salp dominance on the Antarctic food web. Nature, 897-900. info:/
- March 13, 2010
- 12:29 PM
- 39 views
High Arctic soil carbon underestimated
by Phil Camill in Global Change: Intersection of Nature and Culture
Most people have heard about the potential positive feedback of soil carbon on climate: As temperatures warm, soil microbes are more active and permafrost begins to thaw–both of which can hasten decomposition and the release of CO2 to the atmosphere. This, in turn, has the potential to accelerate warming.
A lot of us who study climate [...]... Read more »
Burnham, J. H., and R. S. Sletten. (2010) Spatial Distribution of Soil Organic Carbon in Northwest Greenland and Underestimates of High Arctic Carbon Stores. Global Biogeochemical Cycles. info:/10.1029/2009GB003660
- March 12, 2010
- 06:59 PM
- 50 views
Obesity, more and more reports and resources!
by PhD Blogger in Exercise Psychology
There are it seems more reports and strategies concerning obesity than just about anything else. The strange thing is I have yet to read a bad strategy or poorly presented report, most of the papers are excellent. Its the scale and complexity of the problem that seems to be defeating us. The best report on the causes remain in my view the UK Government Foresight report, available on this site. There is also the recently published Scottish report Preventing Overweight and Obesity in Sc........ Read more »
TRUST FOR AMERICA’S HEALTH. (2009) F as in Fat:HOW OBESITY POLICIES ARE FAILING IN AMERICA. Web, 1-108. info:/
- March 12, 2010
- 06:22 AM
- 38 views
Can the Theory of Planned Behavior Predict the Maintenance of Physical Activity?
by Armitage, C. in Exercise Psychology
The theory of planned behavior (TPB) has been applied to many areas of research in physical activity with varying degrees of success I would argue. This paper looks at the ability of TPB to predict participation in physical activity and explored the development of activity habits in a 12-week study. Gym members completed standard theory of planned behavior measures at baseline and follow-up. The author argues that the results showed that perceived behavioralcontrol was significantly predictive........ Read more »
Armitage, C. (2005) Can the Theory of Planned Behavior Predict the Maintenance of Physical Activity?. Health Psychology, 24(3), 235-245. DOI: 10.1037/0278-6133.24.3.235
- March 11, 2010
- 01:42 PM
- 29 views
Science in Russia
by Olexandr Isayev in isayev.info
Ever since the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, Russian leaders have been vowing to transform their old-line, industrial society into a modern, knowledge-based economy driven by innovative science and technology. The current Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, has repeated that ambition frequently — not least as a way to overcome Russia’s dependence on oil and [...]... Read more »
Editorial. (2010) Scientific glasnost. Nature, 464(7286), 141-142. DOI: 10.1038/464141b
News. (2007) Russian science: What the scientists say. Nature, 449(7162), 528-530. DOI: 10.1038/449528a
- March 10, 2010
- 09:40 PM
- 33 views
Natural climate factors unlikely to put the brakes on greenhouse-gas-driven sea level rise this century
by Phil Camill in Global Change: Intersection of Nature and Culture
The IPCC 2007 report projected a conservative sea level rise of about 18-59 cm by the year 2100.
Why conservative? Because it mainly accounted for things we know are happening and can measure well—like thermal expansion of the ocean and melting of land glaciers (see here for a discussion of the Kilimanjaro example). What it doesn’t [...]... Read more »
Jevrejeva, S., J. C. Moore, and A. Grinsted. (2010) How will sea level respond to changes in natural and anthropogenic forcings by 2100?. Geophysical Research Letters. info:/10.1029/2010GL042947
- March 10, 2010
- 11:42 AM
- 38 views
Environmental news round up
by City University Science Journalism MA in Elements Science
Find out how climate change is affecting malaria, how ocean bacteria could be the key to producing clean fuels, how a tree purifies dirty water and more.... Read more »
Stelzer, R., Chittka, L., Carlton, M., & Ings, T. (2010) Winter Active Bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) Achieve High Foraging Rates in Urban Britain. PLoS ONE, 5(3). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0009559
Michael Lea. (2010) Bioremediation of Turbid Surface Water Using Seed Extract from Moringa oleifera Lam. (Drumstick) Tree. Wiley InterScience. DOI: 10.1002/9780471729259.mc01g02s16
Chaves, L., & Koenraadt, C. (2010) Climate Change and Highland Malaria: Fresh Air for a Hot Debate. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 85(1), 27-55. DOI: 10.1086/650284
Savage, D., Afonso, B., Chen, A., & Silver, P. (2010) Spatially Ordered Dynamics of the Bacterial Carbon Fixation Machinery. Science, 327(5970), 1258-1261. DOI: 10.1126/science.1186090
- March 10, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 42 views
Whatever happened to the audiophile?
by sciencebase in Sciencebase Science Blog
Back in the 1970s my parents had friends who had stacks of hi-fi separates with gold contact wiring and speaker stands on metal spikes. They were only playing Perry Como on vinyl, but that was their idea of fun, so good luck to them. When the CD emerged on to the market with its claims [...]Whatever happened to the audiophile? is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog
... Read more »
Jerald Hughes. (2009) Emergent quality standards for digital entertainment experience goods: the case of consumer audio. Int. J. Services and Standards, 5(4), 333-353. info:/
- March 10, 2010
- 05:11 AM
- 37 views
Self-Evident Victor of the Invert War
by Sam in Oceanographer's Choice
Invert war has been declared. Personally, I consider myself a lover, not a fighter. And all the inverts are worthy of love in my book. But, knowing that tempers may flare as biologists across the blogosphere come to the defense of their preferred spineless taxa, I thought it would be worth injecting a [...]... Read more »
Naganuma, T. (1996) Calanoid copepods:linking lower-higher trophic levels by linking lower-higher Reynolds numbers. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 311-313. DOI: 10.3354/meps136311
- March 10, 2010
- 05:09 AM
- 51 views
Bridging the intention behaviour gap: Planning, self-efficacy, and action control in the adoption and maintenance of physical exercise
by PhD Blogger in Exercise Psychology
In this paper from 2005 Sniehottaet al. examine why although some people develop an intention to change their health behaviour many do not follow through from intention to action. The gap between the intention and behaviour has been called the ‘‘intention–behaviour gap.’’ The authors examine factors which can be used to reduce the gap. They examine action planning, perceived self-efficacy, and self-regulatory strategies to investigate what effect these can have on reducing disparity........ Read more »
Sniehotta, F., Scholz, U., & Schwarzer, R. (2005) Bridging the intention-behaviour gap: Planning, self-efficacy, and action control in the adoption and maintenance of physical exercise. Psychology , 20(2), 143-160. DOI: 10.1080/08870440512331317670
- March 9, 2010
- 05:30 AM
- 46 views
Baclofen against alcohol dependency
by David Bradley in SciScoop Science Forum
A marketing rep from GQ magazine emailed me today offering a story (an anecdotal tale) of an (ex)alcoholic who had tried the 12-step program and then discovered baclofen and is apparently cured. It’s certainly an intriguing thought: pop a pill, eradicate alcoholic cravings and dependency. The feature article, from a quick read through, is well [...]... Read more »
Leggio L, Garbutt JC, & Addolorato G. (2010) Effectiveness and safety of baclofen in the treatment of alcohol dependent patients. CNS , 9(1), 33-44. PMID: 20201813
- March 8, 2010
- 10:12 PM
- 50 views
The hidden global CO2 emissions of consumerism
by Phil Camill in Global Change: Intersection of Nature and Culture
It’s been easy for citizens of the developed, industrialized world to criticize China and India over their rapidly growing greenhouse gas emissions. This was one of the major reasons why the Kyoto Protocol was never ratified in the United States.
As many have pointed out, however, there are several flaws with this argument:
The per-capita C emissions [...]... Read more »
Steven J. Davis and Ken Caldeira. (2010) Consumption-based accounting of CO2 emissions . PNAS. info:/10.1073/pnas.0906974107
- March 7, 2010
- 04:33 AM
- 39 views
Let's Make Scotland More Active!
by PhD Blogger in Exercise Psychology
I thought i would post the Scottish Physical Activity strategy to demonstrate that a good strategy requires effective implementation. The document Preventing Overweight and Obesity in Scotlandidentified that Scotland was the third most obese country in the world after the USA and Mexico. This may actually be progress as until the report we were usually named as the second! Let's Make Scotland More Active is actually a very good strategy document. It was published in 2003 but progress has bee........ Read more »
The Scottish Government. (2003) Let's Make Scotland More Active. Government Paper. info:/
- March 6, 2010
- 09:45 PM
- 63 views
Climate communication: Is fear collective action a winning strategy?
by Phil Camill in Global Change: Intersection of Nature and Culture
In a previous post from my series on why people don’t engage climate change, I described my interpretations of work by Susanne Moser and Lisa Dilling1, which suggested that the use of fear can be a poor way to motivate behavioral changes to deal with climate warming:
Challenge 6: Fear can change perception but not willingness [...]... Read more »
Martijn van Zomeren, Russell Spears, Colin Wayne Leach. (2010) Experimental evidence for a dual pathway model analysis of coping with the climate crisis . Journal of Environmental Psychology. info:/10.1016/j.jenvp.2010.02.006
- March 6, 2010
- 01:24 PM
- 57 views
Black men in women’s work do not get to ride the glass escalator
by Christina Pikas in Christina's LIS Rant
This post reviews a fairly recent article that examines the experiences of black men in nursing and asks whether they experience the "glass escalator" effect or if the work is racialized as well as gendered.
As requested by some fellow Sciblings, I recently blogged about an older article* that coined the term glass escalator. In my post I was uncertain about how the findings from the study were viewed by experts familiar with that body of work. In the comments, Kris D, who identifies........ Read more »
Wingfield, A. (2009) Racializing the Glass Escalator: Reconsidering Men's Experiences with Women's Work. Gender , 23(1), 5-26. DOI: 10.1177/0891243208323054
- March 5, 2010
- 04:55 AM
- 63 views
Pleasant for some and unpleasant for others: Cognitive factors that influence affective responses to exercise
by PhD Blogger in Exercise Psychology
This article leads on from the post Exercise does not feel the same when you are overweight. It explores how exercise feels different for different people. The authors examine the idea that individuals choose to participate in behaviours which are pleasant and avoid those that are unpleasant. This is an important area of physical activity research. The study also examines the role of the Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE). The authors examine "the idea that knowing why someone feels the w........ Read more »
Ekkekakis, P., & Lind, E. (2005) Exercise does not feel the same when you are overweight: the impact of self-selected and imposed intensity on affect and exertion. International Journal of Obesity, 30(4), 652-660. DOI: 10.1038/sj.ijo.0803052
Rose, E., & Parfitt, G. (2010) Pleasant for some and unpleasant for others: a protocol analysis of the cognitive factors that influence affective responses to exercise. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 7(1), 15. DOI: 10.1186/1479-5868-7-15
- March 4, 2010
- 04:59 PM
- 51 views
East Siberian Arctic Ocean discovered to be venting a lot of methane
by Phil Camill in Global Change: Intersection of Nature and Culture
Methane (CH4) release from ocean sediments has long intrigued scientists. There is an event that happened 54 million years ago called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), when up to 4,500 gigatons of carbon were released from the oceans, possibly as one large methane burp caused by an underwater landslide.
That’s a lot of carbon—more than 10 [...]... Read more »
Shakhova, N., Semiletov, I., Salyuk, A., Yusupov, V., Kosmach, D., & Gustafsson, O. (2010) Extensive Methane Venting to the Atmosphere from Sediments of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf. Science, 327(5970), 1246-1250. DOI: 10.1126/science.1182221
- March 4, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 47 views
Forensic saliva test within spitting distance
by sciencebase in Sciencebase Science Blog
The latest issue of SpectroscopyNOW is online. This week I cover everything from MRI for testicular cancer to egg-shaped carbon balls by way of energy molecules, copper proteins, secret writing, first up a forensic test for distinguishing saliva deposits from other substances at a crime scene:
Non-destructive spit test – Raman spectroscopy can identify samples of [...]Forensic saliva test within spitting distance is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog
... Read more »
Virkler, K., & Lednev, I. (2010) Forensic body fluid identification: The Raman spectroscopic signature of saliva. The Analyst, 135(3), 512. DOI: 10.1039/b919393f
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