- January 27, 2012
- 12:43 PM
- 3 views
Bird-Flu Bioterror
by E Markham in Genetic Cuckoo
Recent controversy about publishing research which might lead to terrorism has taken the media by story in relation to avian influenza. Scientists need to openly share their research but the US government has asked for it to be censored in case of terrorism, but with censorship comes limitation, which would hamper exchange of ideas and new developments. This article is a discussion of the issues raised and its potential impacts. ... Read more »
E Markham. (2012) Bird-Flu Bioterror. Blogspot. info:/
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- January 27, 2012
- 11:36 AM
- 9 views
Disrupting & Inventing “Religion”
by Cris Campbell in Genealogy of Religion
When I teach my anthropology of religion course the first order of business is to define and disrupt “religion” as a category. I begin by having students identify everything they consider to be “religion.” Our list grows and all the usual suspects make their appearance. After the list has been compiled, we then ask what [...]... Read more »
Josephson, Joseph A. (2011) The Invention of Japanese Religions. Religion Compass, 5(10), 589-597. DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2011.00307.x
- January 27, 2012
- 10:10 AM
- 5 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 27, 2012
- 10:00 AM
- 3 views
Watermarking molecules
by Aaron Sterling in Nanoexplanations
I’ve posted twice about Anonymous hacking into Stratfor — and, more generally, their hacktivism has been making bigger and bigger waves. CNN recently ran a fairly positive story on the support hacktivists are providing the Occupy movement. Many of these … Continue reading →... Read more »
Joachim J. Eggers, W.D. Ihlenfeldt, & Bern Girod. (2001) Digital Watermarking of Chemical Structure Sets. Information Hiding, 200-214. DOI: 10.1007/3-540-45496-9_15
- January 27, 2012
- 09:06 AM
- 11 views
Have you been blogging lately?
I have to admit I'm obsessed with social networking. I have a love-hate relationship with the whole thing. Until last year I would've sworn I'd never jump the "networking" fence. My thoughts: "There's enough background noise already on the Internet." And: "I've got nothing interesting today."Whether my posts are background noise or not, I'll leave it to you guys to decide, but I'm myself appalled by the fact that I've been blogging since last July and recently surpassed the threshold of 100 post........ Read more »
Cha, M., Pérez, J., & Haddadi, H. (2011) The spread of media content through blogs. Social Network Analysis and Mining. DOI: 10.1007/s13278-011-0040-x
- January 27, 2012
- 07:02 AM
- 6 views
Pretrial publicity & bias: Take a look at the age of your jurors!
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
Despite the Supreme Court ruling [Skilling v US] that pretrial publicity [PTP] does not bias the public perception and limit the right to a fair trial, most of us who have experienced the impact of pretrial publicity disagree. It is an accepted truism that older people are more conservative than younger people. So it’s interesting to [...]
No related posts.... Read more »
Ruva, C., & Hudak, E. (2011) Pretrial publicity and juror age affect mock-juror decision making. Psychology, Crime , 1-24. DOI: 10.1080/1068316X.2011.616509
- January 27, 2012
- 04:45 AM
- 9 views
Video Interview: Dr Tim Cash – Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute
by Vicki Colledge, Sanjay Thakrar, Galina Shyndriayeva in BHD Research Blog
This week we highlight the work of Dr Tim Cash, who worked on BHD syndrome as part of his PhD studies in the lab of Professor Celeste Simon at the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute, University of Pennsylvania. Dr Cash … Continue reading →... Read more »
Cash TP, Gruber JJ, Hartman TR, Henske EP, & Simon MC. (2011) Loss of the Birt-Hogg-Dubé tumor suppressor results in apoptotic resistance due to aberrant TGFβ-mediated transcription. Oncogene, 30(22), 2534-46. PMID: 21258407
Hartman TR, Nicolas E, Klein-Szanto A, Al-Saleem T, Cash TP, Simon MC, & Henske EP. (2009) The role of the Birt-Hogg-Dubé protein in mTOR activation and renal tumorigenesis. Oncogene, 28(13), 1594-604. PMID: 19234517
Lim TH, Fujikane R, Sano S, Sakagami R, Nakatsu Y, Tsuzuki T, Sekiguchi M, & Hidaka M. (2011) Activation of AMP-activated protein kinase by MAPO1 and FLCN induces apoptosis triggered by alkylated base mismatch in DNA. DNA repair. PMID: 22209521
- January 27, 2012
- 02:49 AM
- 11 views
Linking a lincRNA to active chromatin
by Habib Maroon in Biobabel
Wang et al show that a lincRNA encoded at one end of the HOXA gene cluster acts as a transcriptional enhancer, necessary for the translation of high order chromosomal structure into a transcriptionally active chromatin state. Hox genes encode transcription … Continue reading →... Read more »
Wang, K., Yang, Y., Liu, B., Sanyal, A., Corces-Zimmerman, R., Chen, Y., Lajoie, B., Protacio, A., Flynn, R., Gupta, R.... (2011) A long noncoding RNA maintains active chromatin to coordinate homeotic gene expression. Nature, 472(7341), 120-124. DOI: 10.1038/nature09819
- January 27, 2012
- 02:02 AM
- 20 views
Genes and criminality
by Suzanne Elvidge in Genome Engineering
We’ve heard that there might be a link between genes and creativity and genes and psychopathy – might there also be a link between genes and criminality?... Read more »
BARNES, J., BEAVER, K., & BOUTWELL, B. (2011) EXAMINING THE GENETIC UNDERPINNINGS TO MOFFITT'S DEVELOPMENTAL TAXONOMY: A BEHAVIORAL GENETIC ANALYSIS*. Criminology, 49(4), 923-954. DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-9125.2011.00243.x
- January 27, 2012
- 01:38 AM
- 13 views
SPSP 2012: Oxytocin, Threat, and the “Mama Bear Effect”
by Psych Your Mind in Psych Your Mind
“Oxytocin may be critically involved in both ethnocentrism
and parochial altruism.”
-Carsten
de Dreu, University of Amsterdam
Long called the “Love Hormone,” the hormone oxytocin has
been implicated for more than a decade in such prosocial activities as empathy,
trust, and generosity (with both human and animal models). At the social
neuroendocrinology pre-conference at this year’s SPSP conference, some
influential researchers in the field of social psychology laid out why oxyto........ Read more »
De Dreu CK, Greer LL, Handgraaf MJ, Shalvi S, Van Kleef GA, Baas M, Ten Velden FS, Van Dijk E, & Feith SW. (2010) The neuropeptide oxytocin regulates parochial altruism in intergroup conflict among humans. Science (New York, N.Y.), 328(5984), 1408-11. PMID: 20538951
- January 27, 2012
- 01:27 AM
- 8 views
The Social Shark Network
by Chuck in Ya Like Dags?
Recently Jason Goldman at the great blog The Thoughtful Animal (if you have any interest in animal behavior at all, you should be following it) put up a post titled “Sharks With Friends.” In that post, he summarizes a recent paper showing that blacktip sharks (Carcharhinus melanopterus) from schools with the same individuals. Social behavior in sharks is a big interest of mine because my Masters thesis study animal, the mighty spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias) is among the most soc........ Read more »
Guttridge, T., Gruber, S., Gledhill, K., Croft, D., Sims, D., & Krause, J. (2009) Social preferences of juvenile lemon sharks, Negaprion brevirostris. Animal Behaviour, 78(2), 543-548. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.06.009
Jacoby, D., Busawon, D., & Sims, D. (2010) Sex and social networking: the influence of male presence on social structure of female shark groups. Behavioral Ecology, 21(4), 808-818. DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arq061
Mourier, J., Vercelloni, J., & Planes, S. (2011) Evidence of social communities in a spatially structured network of a free-ranging shark species. Animal Behaviour. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.11.008
- January 27, 2012
- 12:00 AM
- 25 views
Why Are Some Scientists More Innovative Than Others?
by erichorow in peer-reviewed by my neurons
Given that the main purpose of education is to prepare people for some type of professional role, I think it’s a bit odd that there is such a big gap between our emphasis on creating a good 1960′s-style elementary school education and our emphasis on creating post-college professional skills. I suspect this is largely a [...]... Read more »
Keller, R. (2012) Predicting the performance and innovativeness of scientists and engineers. Journal of Applied Psychology, 97(1), 225-233. DOI: 10.1037/a0025332
- January 26, 2012
- 11:51 PM
- 20 views
Hemispatial neglect: a one-sided world
by Jordan Gaines in Gaines, on Brains
Check out the dog, Barley, in this video. Notice how he doesn't seem interested in the food on the left side of his bowl. Perhaps he's blind in his left eye?... Read more »
Koch G, Bonnì S, Giacobbe V, Bucchi G, Basile B, Lupo F, Versace V, Bozzali M, & Caltagirone C. (2012) Theta-burst stimulation of the left hemisphere accelerates recovery of hemispatial neglect. Neurology, 78(1), 24-30. PMID: 22170878
- January 26, 2012
- 11:25 PM
- 15 views
Speed Matters: Human Genome Sequencing with a Nano-Mechanical Twist
by Paige Brown in From The Lab Bench
Imagine genome sequencing technologies that approach the speed of that seen in the movies, in the futuristic film GATTACA, for example. In the future, a person need only wait a few minutes for important information to be retrieved from their genes for purposes of medical diagnosing and disease prevention. Nanotechnology, the science and technology of objects in the range of 1 billionth of a meter, may be just the key to upping the ante in DNA sequencing speed and accessible personalized medicine........ Read more »
Jiahao Wu, Rattikan Chantiwas,, & Alborz Amirsadeghi, Steven A. Soper, Sunggook Park. (2011) Complete plastic nanofluidic devices for DNA analysis via direct imprinting with polymer stamps. Lab on a Chip, 2984. info:/
- January 26, 2012
- 10:26 PM
- 25 views
The "Human Neuron", not so special after all?
by TheCellularScale in The Cellular Scale
Von Economo neurons, a set of neurons classified by their elongated, 'spindle-like' shape, were once thought to belong only to humans and great apes. This uniqueness, as you might imagine, encouraged extensive speculation about what this neuron does. Do they make you smart? Do they process emotions? social cues? future planning?Not that extensive speculation is a bad thing, it's just that it is easy to jump into the deep end and assume that because something is unique to humans, it is what........ Read more »
Butti C, Santos M, Uppal N, & Hof PR. (2011) Von Economo neurons: Clinical and evolutionary perspectives. Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior. PMID: 22130090
- January 26, 2012
- 10:00 PM
- 17 views
Neury (Retro) Thursday: What is the Meaning of the ATP Surge During Sleep?
by Allison in Dormivigilia
This paper, published a year prior, has received a large amount of criticism from the basic sleep research community for its grossly biased interpretation of the results as well as calculation boo-boos of which were found nearly a year after its publication. Although the data is interesting and lends credence to the biological importance of a good night's sleep it should be a lesson to us all to consult others and have thorough reviews of the results, statistics, and conclusions drawn. ... Read more »
Dworak M, McCarley RW, Kim T, Kalinchuk AV, & Basheer R. (2010) Sleep and brain energy levels: ATP changes during sleep. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 30(26), 9007-16. PMID: 20592221
- January 26, 2012
- 09:14 PM
- 16 views
Sniffing out Parkinson's disease
by Nsikan Akpan in That's Basic Science
Via my new Nature Network blog, a breathalyzer for Parkinson's disease based on carbon nanotube technology.... Read more »
Tisch, U., Aluf, Y., Ionescu, R., Nakhleh, M., Bassal, R., Axelrod, N., Robertman, D., Tessler, Y., Finberg, J., & Haick, H. (2011) Detection of Asymptomatic Nigrostriatal Dopaminergic Lesion in Rats by Exhaled Air Analysis Using Carbon Nanotube Sensors. ACS Chemical Neuroscience, 2147483647. DOI: 10.1021/cn200093r
- January 26, 2012
- 08:09 PM
- 21 views
Narcissism Drains Men's Credibility
by ultimo167 in Strong Silent Types
If you look at narcissism as being driven by men with fragile egos who act ever so defensively to hide the shame within you, in common with Reinhard et al. (2012), would have no trouble in claiming that the resultant defensiveness would lead to a rise in cortisol levels. However, cortisol is a chemical associated with many human emotions, from fear to rage, and narcissism is a troubled personality trait to which even the decidedly catholic DSM-V wants to bar entry...... Read more »
Reinhard, D., Konrath, S., Lopez, W. . (2012) Expansive Egos: Narcissistic Males Have Higher Cortisol. PLOS One, 7(1). info:/
- January 26, 2012
- 06:48 PM
- 30 views
Leveraging feedback to improve healthy food & beverage choices
by pennydeck in Feedback Solutions for Obesity
Energy-dense foods purchased outside the home are an important contributor to the obesity epidemic facing our society. Can public health interventions that target the point of purchase help support individuals making healthy choices? A recent paper by Thorndike et al … Continue reading →... Read more »
Thorndike, A., Sonnenberg, L., Riis, J., Barraclough, S., & Levy, D. (2012) A 2-Phase Labeling and Choice Architecture Intervention to Improve Healthy Food and Beverage Choices. American Journal of Public Health. DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2011.300391
- January 26, 2012
- 03:30 PM
- 44 views
Man's Best Friend, the Turkana Tribe & a Gruesome Parasite
by rbca in BODY HORRORS
Echinococcus granulosus is the causative agent of hydatid disease, a real nasty piece of work that usually plagues dogs and the ruminants they herd or hunt. The Turkana district in Kenya has the highest incidence and prevalence of hydatid disease in the world, due to the incredibly unique role that dogs play in the day-to-day life of their human owners.... Read more »
Romig, T., Omer, R., Zeyhle, E., Hüttner, M., Dinkel, A., Siefert, L., Elmahdi, I., Magambo, J., Ocaido, M., Menezes, C.... (2011) Echinococcosis in sub-Saharan Africa: Emerging complexity. Veterinary Parasitology, 181(1), 43-47. DOI: 10.1016/j.vetpar.2011.04.022
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