- May 19, 2012
- 12:49 PM
- 12 views
What is the longest axon?
by Bradley Voytek in Oscillatory Thoughts
This is a fascinating question I got over on Quora.Short answer: probably the dorsal root ganglion in the blue whale.Initially I thought it would be a motor axon in the sciatic nerve, but after consideration I'm pretty sure that the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) has a longer axon than the motor information carried in the sciatic nerve (which is the longest nerve in the body, but not axon).The DRG is a weird neuron because it's unipolar, so it's got a loooong ........ Read more »
Smith, D. (2009) Stretch growth of integrated axon tracts: Extremes and exploitations. Progress in Neurobiology, 89(3), 231-239. DOI: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2009.07.006
- May 19, 2012
- 09:23 AM
- 18 views
Chances Are, What You Know About Eating Disorders is Wrong
by Tetyana Pekar in Science of Eating Disorders
Although clinicians (and medical professionals not specializing in eating disorders) often carry a lot of false beliefs about EDs, the public is even worse. Way worse. The portrayal of eating disorders in the news contributes to the myriad of myths and misconceptions that surround EDs. O’Hara and Smith wanted to find out how exactly newspapers “contribute to shaping public perception of EDs.” It is awful when doctors are dismissive and ignorant, but what’s even worse sometimes is when ........ Read more »
O’Hara, S., & Smith, K. (2007) Presentation of eating disorders in the news media: What are the implications for patient diagnosis and treatment?. Patient Education and Counseling, 68(1), 43-51. DOI: 10.1016/j.pec.2007.04.006
- May 19, 2012
- 08:33 AM
- 11 views
Mapping the sense of smell
by Suzanne Elvidge in Genome Engineering
Our sense of smell comes from the control of around 300 olfactory receptor genes, allowing each sensory neuron to detect a small number of different components of smell, or odorants. Researchers at RIKEN have mapped the odorant receptors in mice, finding the promoter sequences that control the genes. The research was published in Genome Research.... Read more »
Plessy, C., Pascarella, G., Bertin, N., Akalin, A., Carrieri, C., Vassalli, A., Lazarevic, D., Severin, J., Vlachouli, C., Simone, R.... (2011) Promoter architecture of mouse olfactory receptor genes. Genome Research, 22(3), 486-497. DOI: 10.1101/gr.126201.111
Plessy, C., Bertin, N., Takahashi, H., Simone, R., Salimullah, M., Lassmann, T., Vitezic, M., Severin, J., Olivarius, S., Lazarevic, D.... (2010) Linking promoters to functional transcripts in small samples with nanoCAGE and CAGEscan. Nature Methods, 7(7), 528-534. DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.1470
Shiraki, T. (2003) Cap analysis gene expression for high-throughput analysis of transcriptional starting point and identification of promoter usage. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 100(26), 15776-15781. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2136655100
- May 19, 2012
- 01:54 AM
- 25 views
The Magic Of the Unknown
by erichorow in peer-reviewed by my neurons
Earlier in the week I caught some of a Stuart Firestein talk about the origin of his new pop-science book, Ignorance: How it Drives Science. The idea for the book came out of a class he taught at Columbia in which each week a professor from a different field would come in and lecture about [...]... Read more »
Arya, D., & Maul, A. (2012) The Role of the Scientific Discovery Narrative in Middle School Science Education: An Experimental Study. Journal of Educational Psychology. DOI: 10.1037/a0028108
- May 18, 2012
- 06:21 PM
- 31 views
Gaming and Exercise: Will Diablo III Derail Your Discipline?
by Melanie Tannenbaum in PsySociety
Even though I’m hardly a gamer, I couldn’t miss the fact that the highly-anticipated new game Diablo III was released this week. It’s difficult not to notice when half of your friends suddenly decide not to leave home for a … Continue reading →... Read more »
Hepler, J., Wang, W., & Albarracin, D. (2012) Motivating exercise: The interactive effect of general action goals and past behavior on physical activity. Motivation and Emotion. DOI: 10.1007/s11031-011-9267-0
Albarracin, D., Hepler, J., & Tannenbaum, M. (2011) General Action and Inaction Goals: Their Behavioral, Cognitive, and Affective Origins and Influences. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20(2), 119-123. DOI: 10.1177/0963721411402666
Noguchi, K., Handley, I., & Albarracin, D. (2010) Participating in Politics Resembles Physical Activity: General Action Patterns in International Archives, United States Archives, and Experiments. Psychological Science, 22(2), 235-242. DOI: 10.1177/0956797610393746
- May 18, 2012
- 11:58 AM
- 39 views
Show off Your Best Side: It Works To Brag
by Lizabeth Dijkstra in United Academics
But recent research in the Journal for Social Psychological and Personality Science reveals that it is wise to actually show your best self when meeting new people. At least, when you want them to really get to know you.... Read more »
Human, L., Biesanz, J., Parisotto, K., & Dunn, E. (2011) Your Best Self Helps Reveal Your True Self: Positive Self-Presentation Leads to More Accurate Personality Impressions. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 3(1), 23-30. DOI: 10.1177/1948550611407689
- May 18, 2012
- 11:42 AM
- 21 views
Anchors away! When neural stem cells decide a change is as good as a rest
by John Ankers in Too Many Live Wires
Between 1830 and 1930, over nine million people left England from Liverpool on ships bound for Australia, Canada and America. The Merseyside port swelled with would-be emigrants, all holding tightly to the decision to leave their homes for the promise of a new life.
Stem cells in the brain are similarly destined for change. A recent study suggests their transformation into specialised cells, a process known as differentiation, is combined with the decision to migrate to where they are needed........ Read more »
Niola, F., Zhao, X., Singh, D., Castano, A., Sullivan, R., Lauria, M., Nam, H., Zhuang, Y., Benezra, R., Di Bernardo, D.... (2012) Id proteins synchronize stemness and anchorage to the niche of neural stem cells. Nature Cell Biology, 14(5), 477-487. DOI: 10.1038/ncb2490
- May 18, 2012
- 11:17 AM
- 28 views
How to survive the health care system.
by Lutz Kraushaar in Chronic Health
You have heard about good and bad cholesterol. You have
heard that increasing the former and reducing the latter will cut your risk of
heart disease. You will now hear what's principally wrong with this strategy of
attacking risk factors. And how it prevents us from eradicating the heart
disease epidemic sweeping the globe.
On 30th November 2006, Jeff Kindler, the CEO of Pfizer,
praised their about-to-be released drug for increasing good cholesterol as
"...one of the m........ Read more »
Barter, P., Caulfield, M., Eriksson, M., Grundy, S., Kastelein, J., Komajda, M., Lopez-Sendon, J., Mosca, L., Tardif, J., Waters, D.... (2007) Effects of Torcetrapib in Patients at High Risk for Coronary Events. New England Journal of Medicine, 357(21), 2109-2122. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa0706628
Kaiser, L. (2003) Impact of Oseltamivir Treatment on Influenza-Related Lower Respiratory Tract Complications and Hospitalizations. Archives of Internal Medicine, 163(14), 1667-1672. DOI: 10.1001/archinte.163.14.1667
Doshi P, Jefferson T, & Del Mar C. (2012) The imperative to share clinical study reports: recommendations from the tamiflu experience. PLoS medicine, 9(4). PMID: 22505850
Wannamethee, S. (2005) Metabolic Syndrome vs Framingham Risk Score for Prediction of Coronary Heart Disease, Stroke, and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Archives of Internal Medicine, 165(22), 2644-2650. DOI: 10.1001/archinte.165.22.2644
Ioannidis, J., & Tzoulaki, I. (2012) Minimal and Null Predictive Effects for the Most Popular Blood Biomarkers of Cardiovascular Disease. Circulation Research, 110(5), 658-662. DOI: 10.1161/RES.0b013e31824da8ad
Ioannidis JP, & Tzoulaki I. (2012) Minimal and null predictive effects for the most popular blood biomarkers of cardiovascular disease. Circulation research, 110(5), 658-62. PMID: 22383708
Paul, S., Mytelka, D., Dunwiddie, C., Persinger, C., Munos, B., Lindborg, S., & Schacht, A. (2010) How to improve R. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. DOI: 10.1038/nrd3078
- May 18, 2012
- 10:55 AM
- 25 views
The Secret to Success Is Giant-Jawed Snake Babies
by Elizabeth Preston in Inkfish
When coming face-to-face with a wriggling, freshly born pile of poisonous snakes, most of us wouldn't linger for a close look. But it was by looking into these living linguini platters that one biologist found a new answer to an old question: Why does island life make animals such freak shows?
Some big-bodied species shrink when they move from the mainland to an island habitat, a phenomenon that's created pygmy sloths, miniature mammoths, and possibly even a dwarf hominid that's now extinct......... Read more »
Fabien Aubret. (2012) Body-Size Evolution on Islands: Are Adult Size Variations in Tiger Snakes a Nonadaptive Consequence of Selection on Birth Size?. The American Naturalist, 169(6). info:/
- May 18, 2012
- 08:56 AM
- 25 views
Decay Fungi: Eaters of Forests, Painters of Wood
by Kimberly Gerson in Endless Forms Most Beautiful
Decay fungi are generally disdained, but wood is held in high regard. The meeting of both can create emotional conflict and challenges the viewer to reevaluate their position on functional wood and natural ornamentation processes. – Dr. Sara C. Robinson Gene handed me a small block of maple, maybe an inch across. “This is spalted [...]... Read more »
Rayner, A., & Todd, N. (1977) Intraspecific Antagonism in Natural Populations of Wood-decaying Basidiomycetes. Microbiology, 103(1), 85-90. DOI: 10.1099/00221287-103-1-85
Worrall, J. (2004) Armillaria root disease. The Plant Health Instructor. DOI: 10.1094/PHI-I-2004-0706-01
- May 18, 2012
- 07:56 AM
- 33 views
An Ecological Approach to Language
by Andrew Wilson in Notes from Two Scientific Psychologists
Language is often held up as an example against the possibility of the radical (non-representational) psychology we advocate for. You might be able to explain perception-action without representations, people say, but we can't see how you'll ever be able to explain 'real cognition, like language' without them. It's finally time for us to begin chipping away at this criticism. In the next few posts I'll lay out a first draft of an embodied, ecological analysis of language use.Psychologists u........ Read more »
Bingham, G. (1988) Task-specific devices and the perceptual bottleneck☆. Human Movement Science, 7(2-4), 225-264. DOI: 10.1016/0167-9457(88)90013-9
- May 18, 2012
- 07:56 AM
- 16 views
Decay Fungi: Eaters of Forests, Painters of Wood
by Kimberly Gerson in Endless Forms Most Beautiful
Decay Fungi: Eaters of Forests, Painters of Wood... Read more »
Rayner, A., & Todd, N. (1977) Intraspecific Antagonism in Natural Populations of Wood-decaying Basidiomycetes. Microbiology, 103(1), 85-90. DOI: 10.1099/00221287-103-1-85
Worrall, J. (2004) Armillaria root disease. The Plant Health Instructor. DOI: 10.1094/PHI-I-2004-0706-01
- May 18, 2012
- 07:28 AM
- 36 views
Living Fossils and Creationism
by gunnardw in The Beast, the Bard and the Bot
Some organisms show little change over a (very) long period of time. Often species that have undergone little morphological change are known as living fossils (for more about the possible definition, and a list of examples, check the Wikipedia page). … Continue reading →... Read more »
Garwood, R., Dunlop, J., Giribet, G., & Sutton, M. (2011) Anatomically modern Carboniferous harvestmen demonstrate early cladogenesis and stasis in Opiliones. Nature Communications, 444. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1458
Garwood, R. (2012) Reach out to defend evolution. Nature, 485(7398), 281-281. DOI: 10.1038/485281a
Zhu, M., Yu, X., Lu, J., Qiao, T., Zhao, W., & Jia, L. (2012) Earliest known coelacanth skull extends the range of anatomically modern coelacanths to the Early Devonian. Nature Communications, 772. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1764
- May 18, 2012
- 06:01 AM
- 24 views
The next chapter of apoptosis research
by Maria Daly in Science Calling
Death. Morbid and depressing to most but a topic that fascinated me in college. A natural part of my everyday life. Before you report me to the Gardaí as a serial killer, zoom down to the microscopic level. Billions of our cells die everyday and many have been programmed to do so. A fine equilibrium [...]... Read more »
Lüthi AU, Cullen SP, McNeela EA, Duriez PJ, Afonina IS, Sheridan C, Brumatti G, Taylor RC, Kersse K, Vandenabeele P.... (2009) Suppression of interleukin-33 bioactivity through proteolysis by apoptotic caspases. Immunity, 31(1), 84-98. PMID: 19559631
Martin SJ. (2010) Cell biology. Opening the cellular poison cabinet. Science (New York, N.Y.), 330(6009), 1330-1. PMID: 21127237
- May 18, 2012
- 04:54 AM
- 34 views
Web analytics: Numbers speak louder than words
by Duncan Hull in O'Really?
According to the software which runs this site, this is the 200th post here at O’Really? To mark the occasion, here are some stats via WordPress with thoughts and general navel-gazing analysis paralysis [1] on web analytics. It all started just over six years ago at nodalpoint with help from Greg Tyrelle, the last four years have been WordPressed with help from Matt Mullenwegg. WordPress stats are unfortunately very primitive compared to the likes of Google Analytics and don’t give ........ Read more »
Shema, H., Bar-Ilan, J., & Thelwall, M. (2012) Research Blogs and the Discussion of Scholarly Information. PLoS ONE, 7(5). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0035869
- May 18, 2012
- 04:26 AM
- 26 views
People with Good Memory More Likely to Suffer from Traumatic Experiences
by Jaime Menchen in United Academics
New study on adult refugees who suffered the Rwandan genocide shows that people genetically predisposed to having a good memory are more vulnerable to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).... Read more »
de Quervain DJ, Kolassa IT, Ackermann S, Aerni A, Boesiger P, Demougin P, Elbert T, Ertl V, Gschwind L, Hadziselimovic N.... (2012) PKCα is genetically linked to memory capacity in healthy subjects and to risk for posttraumatic stress disorder in genocide survivors. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. PMID: 22586106
- May 18, 2012
- 04:00 AM
- 21 views
mTOR signalling and BHD-associated lung and kidney lesions
by Vicki Colledge, Sanjay Thakrar, Galina Shyndriayeva in BHD Research Blog
Pulmonary cysts and pneumothorax are key indicators of BHD syndrome. However, very little is known about the pathophysiology of these lung cysts. A recent Japanese study of 9 families has now shown that not only are BHD cysts different from … Continue reading →... Read more »
Furuya M, Tanaka R, Koga S, Yatabe Y, Gotoda H, Takagi S, Hsu YH, Fujii T, Okada A, Kuroda N.... (2012) Pulmonary cysts of Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome: a clinicopathologic and immunohistochemical study of 9 families. The American journal of surgical pathology, 36(4), 589-600. PMID: 22441547
- May 18, 2012
- 01:59 AM
- 37 views
Is the Objectification Of Others Driven By An Honorable Motive?
by erichorow in peer-reviewed by my neurons
Researchers have identified a few reasons why we objectify others. One explanation relates to instrumentality. When somebody is seen as instrumental to achieving a goal — whether it be sexual, professional, or recreational — people are more likely to treat them as tools to be used or obstacles to be overcome. Another explanation is that we [...]... Read more »
Landau, M., Sullivan, D., Keefer, L., Rothschild, Z., & Osman, M. (2012) Subjectivity uncertainty theory of objectification: Compensating for uncertainty about how to positively relate to others by downplaying their subjective attributes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2012.05.003
- May 18, 2012
- 01:15 AM
- 32 views
Candy Harms Your Brain
by Carian Thus in United Academics
Are you a sweet tooth? Maybe it’s time to change your high-sugar diet if you want to keep your brains healthy. Eating too much sugar – or rather high-fructose corn syrup added to most processed foods – slows the brain, hampering memory and learning, says new research.... Read more »
Agrawal R, & Gomez-Pinilla F. (2012) 'Metabolic syndrome' in the brain: deficiency in omega-3 fatty acid exacerbates dysfunctions in insulin receptor signalling and cognition. The Journal of physiology, 590(Pt 10), 2485-99. PMID: 22473784
- May 18, 2012
- 12:24 AM
- 26 views
Blast Wave Injury and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy: What's the Connection?
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
Fig. 3 (Goldstein et al., 2012). Single-blast exposure induces CTE-like neuropathology in wild-type C57BL/6 mice.In a tour de force, a group of 35 Boston-area scientists1 (Goldstein et al., 2012) developed a mouse model of blast-related neurotrauma that resulted in pathological changes similar to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive neurodegenerative disease seen most often in athletes with repeated concussions. They also reported post-mortem neuropathological findings from th........ Read more »
Goldstein, L., Fisher, A., Tagge, C., Zhang, X., Velisek, L., Sullivan, J., Upreti, C., Kracht, J., Ericsson, M., Wojnarowicz, M.... (2012) Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in Blast-Exposed Military Veterans and a Blast Neurotrauma Mouse Model. Science Translational Medicine, 4(134), 134-134. DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3003716
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