Brain & Behavior
January 13, 2010
The Quantum Pontiff
Entangled in the Membrane, Entangled in the Brain? Bad New Scientist has an article up today entitled Brain 'entanglement' could explain memories, which certainly must have sent Roger Penrose's brain into a state of multiple correlated back-flips (twistor flips?) However, from the article:Subatomic particles do it. Now the...
The Frontal Cortex
Haiti The news out of Haiti this morning is hellish; the Earth slips and thousands die. The early reports have the same feel as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, in that every bulletin brings more awful news. I already find myself...
Neurophilosophy
Viewing headless bodies causes face adaptation VIEWING a stimulus for a prolonged period of time results in a bias in the perception of a stimulus viewed afterwards. For example, after looking at a moving stimulus for some time, a stationary stimulus that is viewed subsequently appears...
A Blog Around The Clock
New and Exciting in PLoS ONE There are 42 new articles in PLoS ONE today. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services...
January 12, 2010
On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess
Fairness, Reward, Mark McGwire, and the Game... Dr. and Mr. Isis discusses Mark McGwire's steroid use and qualification for the Hall of Fame over dinner tonight. I didn't really feel like blogging, since we've all been a little under the weather, so I recorded the end of...
Not Exactly Rocket Science
How objectification silences women - the male glance as a psychological muzzle Women (but not men) spend less time describing themselves to a male stranger (but not a female one) if they think that their bodies (but not their faces) are being checked out.
Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)
King Bird of Paradise -vs- Red-Capped Manakin I recently showed you the oddly shaped iridescent tail plume from a King Bird of Paradise as the daily mystery bird, now watch this video to see how the birds use these plumes in courtship displays
January 11, 2010
The Frontal Cortex
How We Decide (Paperback Remix) The paperback of How We Decide is now shipping from your favorite online retailers and should be in local bookstores. To celebrate the occasion, I thought I'd repost an interview I conducted with myself when the hardcover was published last...
The Corpus Callosum
Possible New Nonaddictive Anti-Anxiety Drug Those of us who watch the drug development pipeline have been pining for a nonaddictive anti-anxiety drug. Occasionally there are glimmers of hope. One candidate is emapunil, aka XBD-173 or AC-5216. In 2004, there was an article in the British...
Neurotopia
The music of the species It's all about the music. Gill and Purves. "A biological rationale for musical scales" PLoS ONE, 2009 So you might think that music like this: (HOT STUFF. Go to 0:35 for the real hotness. It's Victoria's O Magnum Mysterium) or...
January 9, 2010
Greg Laden's Blog
Rushton on Race and IQ As previously noted, J. Philippe Rushton has made the argument that the brain size of "Blacks" is about 1267 cc's, and for whites it is about 1347 CC's. It has also been noted that Rushton claims that the average IQ of Blacks is 85 and...
The Primate Diaries
Bonobos and the Emergence of Culture In this TED Talk Susan Savage-Rumbaugh discusses bonobos housed in a bispecies environment that have been taught to communicate using pictographs. In the talk she suggests that biology isn't what made humans unique from nonhuman apes, but rather argues...
Neurophilosophy
Desire influences visual perception A new study shows that desirable objects are perceived to be closer than they really are.
January 8, 2010
Neurotopia
Friday Weird Science: the "reality" of the G Spot and the mainstream media The problem is, the media here was not after the truth of the existence of the G-spot. They were after the CONTROVERSY over the existence of the G-spot.
A Blog Around The Clock
New and Exciting in PLoS ONE There are 20 new articles in PLoS ONE today (and there were 14 yesterday). As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place...
January 7, 2010
Cognitive Daily
The outfielder problem: The psychology behind catching fly balls It's football season in America: The NFL playoffs are about to start, and tonight, the elected / computer-ranked top college team will be determined. What better time than now to think about ... baseball! Baseball players, unlike most football players,...
Greg Laden's Blog
Average Brain Size for the Three Races Philipe Rushton, in his book Race, Evolution and Behavior, reports average brain size for the three races. The following is the graph from Rusthton's book:...
Developing Intelligence
New Optogenetic Tool for Neural Inhibition A fascinating paper from Gradinaru et al describes a genetically engineered mouse model of Parkinson's disease that expresses a photoreceptor in the neurons of a particular part of the brain - the subthalamic nucleus (STN). This area is widely thought...
The Frontal Cortex
Intelligence and the Idle Mind I've written before about the importance of daydreaming and the so-called default, or resting state network, which seems to underlie some important features of human cognition. Instead of being shackled to our immediate surroundings and sensations, the daydreaming mind is...
Not Exactly Rocket Science
The memory molecules - interview with Todd Sacktor (and a feature in Eureka) The latest issue of Eureka, the Times's monthly science supplement, is out today. I've been incredibly supportive of the venture and it's great to see that a major national newspaper is increasing its science coverage, rather than cutting back on...
January 6, 2010
Cognitive Daily
Picks and interviews from ResearchBlogging.org Here's this week's list of notable posts from Psychology and Neuroscience at ResearchBlogging.org. Is autism really surging? Michelle Dawson wonders whether the recent rise in autism rates can be traced to methodological differences in studies tracking autism rates. We know...
Neurotopia
To Media Covering Science: An Open Letter Dear Mass Media Covering Science (BBC, CNN, etc): I need some help. I often get emailed or tweets from readers, saying "hey! look at this article! Isn't it cool/weird?! You should cover it!" I see the article. It is indeed...
On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess
You Might Be a Redneck If... Bikemonkey is having a conversation with some folks over on the Drugmonkey blog about the word "redneck." To provide a little context, Bikemonkey is a pro-cycling enthusiast and recently write this about Lance Armstrong and Chris Horner:He totally rehabilitated his...
January 5, 2010
Neuron Culture
Neuron Culture's top five from December The month's goodies included orchids and dandelions; more of those; Shakespeare; toddlers in many permutations; and, naturally, a bit of stress.
A Blog Around The Clock
Woodpecker vs. egg eating Yellow-bellied Puffing Snake (video) (hat-tip @tdelene @aubiefan on Twitter)...
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“The cartoonist and writer James Thurber said the hardest part of his job was convincing his wife that when he was standing and staring out the window he was actually hard at work.” Kris Jackson on Intelligence and the Idle Mind
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From NYTimes.com
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SB Basics
Synthetic Biology
Some engineers use cranes and steel to make their designs reality, but synthetic biologists engineer using tools on a different scale: DNA and the other molecular components of living cells. Synthetic biology uses cellular systems and structures to produce artificial models based on natural order. Read these posts from the ScienceBlogs archives for more:
Pharyngula May 30, 2007
“Playing God”
The Loom January 31, 2008
"Frankenstein Was Here": Synthetic Biology as Graffiti
Discovering Biology in a Digital World July 2, 2006
Build your own virus
