910 posts · 582,784 views
I have big dreams [don't we all?], I want to change the world. That is why I started Lunatic Laboratories, a little project that I hope will one day be a household name. Who knows, maybe it will work out, but even if it doesn't, at least it will be fun to try.
Lunatic Laboratories
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- October 1, 2016
- 03:20 PM
- 511 views
Nature or nurture: is violence in our genes?
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Nature or nurture? The quest to understand why humans kill one another has occupied the minds of philosophers, sociologists and psychologists for centuries. Are we innately violent, as Englishman Thomas Hobbes postulated in the 1650s, or is our behaviour influenced more by the environment we grow up in, as Jean-Jacques Rousseau theorised a century later?
... Read more »
Gómez, J., Verdú, M., González-Megías, A., & Méndez, M. (2016) The phylogenetic roots of human lethal violence. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/nature19758
- September 30, 2016
- 03:14 PM
- 368 views
Omega-3 fatty acid stops known trigger of lupus
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
A team of researchers has found that consuming an omega-3 fatty acid called DHA, or docosahexaenoic acid, can stop a known trigger of lupus and potentially other autoimmune disorders. DHA can be found in fatty, cold-water fish and is produced by the algae that fish eat and store in their bodies. It can be found in fish oil supplements as well, used by more than 30 million Americans.
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Bates, M., Brandenberger, C., Langohr, I., Kumagai, K., Lock, A., Harkema, J., Holian, A., & Pestka, J. (2016) Silica-Triggered Autoimmunity in Lupus-Prone Mice Blocked by Docosahexaenoic Acid Consumption. PLOS ONE, 11(8). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0160622
- September 29, 2016
- 01:36 PM
- 366 views
Children could point the way to new HIV treatments
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Children with HIV who can resist the disease progressing could point the way to new treatments for HIV infection that are more widely applicable to infected adults and children alike, an international team of researchers has found.
... Read more »
Muenchhoff, M., Adland, E., Karimanzira, O., Crowther, C., Pace, M., Csala, A., Leitman, E., Moonsamy, A., McGregor, C., Hurst, J.... (2016) Nonprogressing HIV-infected children share fundamental immunological features of nonpathogenic SIV infection. Science Translational Medicine, 8(358), 358-358. DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aag1048
- September 28, 2016
- 01:51 PM
- 363 views
Research team may have observed building blocks of memories in the brain
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
A team of researchers has observed what they believe are the building blocks of memories in a mouse brain. In their paper, the researchers describe how they caused certain neurons to become illuminated when they fired, allowing them to watch in real time as memories were made and then later as they were replayed while the mouse was sitting idle.
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Malvache, A., Reichinnek, S., Villette, V., Haimerl, C., & Cossart, R. (2016) Awake hippocampal reactivations project onto orthogonal neuronal assemblies. Science, 353(6305), 1280-1283. DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf3319
- September 27, 2016
- 05:50 PM
- 427 views
The unintended consequences of almond milk on California
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
A new study using aerial imagery across the state of California has found that converting land to grow almonds between 2007 and 2014 has led to a 27% annual increase in irrigation demands—despite the state's historic drought. The expansion of almonds has also consumed 16,000 acres of wetlands and will likely put additional pressure on already stressed honeybee populations.
... Read more »
WATKINS, Larissa, WATSON, Kelly, & HUFFMAN, F. Tyler. (2016) MONITORING CHANGE IN AGRICULTURAL LAND AND WATER USAGE IN CALIFORNIA’S CENTRAL VALLEY USING GEOSPATIAL TECHNIQUES. Geological Society of America. info:/10.1130/abs/2016AM-285205
- September 26, 2016
- 01:35 PM
- 380 views
Why do more men than women commit suicide?
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Why do more men die when they attempt suicide than women? The answer could lie in four traits, finds scientists. There are over 6,000 British lives lost to suicide each year, and nearly 75 per cent of those are male. However, research has found women are more likely to suffer from depression, and to attempt to take their own life.
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Deshpande, G., Baxi, M., Witte, T., & Robinson, J. (2016) A Neural Basis for the Acquired Capability for Suicide. Frontiers in Psychiatry. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2016.00125
- September 25, 2016
- 02:57 PM
- 382 views
Linking perception to action
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Researchers studying how the brain uses perception of the environment to guide action offer a new understanding of the neural circuits responsible for transforming sensation into movement.
... Read more »
Goard, M., Pho, G., Woodson, J., & Sur, M. (2016) Distinct roles of visual, parietal, and frontal motor cortices in memory-guided sensorimotor decisions. eLife. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.13764
- September 22, 2016
- 03:14 PM
- 444 views
Historical analysis examines sugar industry role in heart disease research
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Using archival documents, a new report examines the sugar industry's role in coronary heart disease research and suggests the industry sponsored research to influence the scientific debate to cast doubt on the hazards of sugar and to promote dietary fat as the culprit in heart disease.
... Read more »
Kearns, C., Schmidt, L., & Glantz, S. (2016) Sugar Industry and Coronary Heart Disease Research. JAMA Internal Medicine. DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.5394
- September 21, 2016
- 12:35 PM
- 354 views
Protect kids from toxic secondhand smoke, experts urge
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
It's advice most smokers with children probably take lightly, but they shouldn't. Parents and policy advocates should take a "zero tolerance" approach to exposing children to secondhand cigarette smoke, which can be responsible for lifelong cardiovascular consequences in addition to respiratory and other health issues.
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Raghuveer, G., White, D., Hayman, L., Woo, J., Villafane, J., Celermajer, D., Ward, K., de Ferranti, S., Zachariah, J., & , . (2016) Cardiovascular Consequences of Childhood Secondhand Tobacco Smoke Exposure: Prevailing Evidence, Burden, and Racial and Socioeconomic Disparities: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association. Circulation. DOI: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000000443
- September 20, 2016
- 04:31 PM
- 493 views
Potentially harmful chemicals widespread in household dust
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Household dust exposes people to a wide range of toxic chemicals from everyday products, according to a new study. A multi-institutional team conducted a first-of-a-kind meta-analysis, compiling data from dust samples collected throughout the United States to identify the top ten toxic chemicals commonly found in dust.
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Mitro, S., Dodson, R., Singla, V., Adamkiewicz, G., Elmi, A., Tilly, M., & Zota, A. (2016) Consumer Product Chemicals in Indoor Dust: A Quantitative Meta-analysis of U.S. Studies. Environmental Science . DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.6b02023
- September 19, 2016
- 03:09 PM
- 549 views
Physicists retrieve 'lost' information from quantum measurements
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Typically when scientists make a measurement, they know exactly what kind of measurement they're making, and their purpose is to obtain a measurement outcome. But in an "unrecorded measurement," both the type of measurement and the measurement outcome are unknown.
... Read more »
Revzen, M., & Mann, A. (2016) Measuring unrecorded measurement. EPL (Europhysics Letters), 115(3), 30005. DOI: 10.1209/0295-5075/115/30005
- September 18, 2016
- 03:01 PM
- 396 views
The new findings heart repair research
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Scientists trying to find ways to regenerate a damaged heart have shed more light on the molecular mechanisms that could one day make this a reality. Whilst other organs such as the liver can regenerate, the heart muscle has very little ability to do so after suffering damage, such as a heart attack.
In the womb the body is able to produce heart muscle cells but soon after birth it effectively stops producing them.... Read more »
Mazzotta, S., Neves, C., Bonner, R., Bernardo, A., Docherty, K., & Hoppler, S. (2016) Distinctive Roles of Canonical and Noncanonical Wnt Signaling in Human Embryonic Cardiomyocyte Development. Stem Cell Reports. DOI: 10.1016/j.stemcr.2016.08.008
- September 17, 2016
- 01:50 PM
- 514 views
Largest-ever study reveals environmental impact of genetically modified crops
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
According to new research, widespread adoption of genetically modified crops has decreased the use of insecticides, but increased the use of weed-killing herbicides as weeds become more resistant. This is the largest study of genetically modified crops and pesticide use to date. The team of economists studied annual data from more than 5,000 soybean and 5,000 maize farmers in the U.S. from 1998 to 2011, far exceeding previous studies that have been limited to one or two years of data.
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Perry, E., Ciliberto, F., Hennessy, D., & Moschini, G. (2016) Genetically engineered crops and pesticide use in U.S. maize and soybeans. Science Advances, 2(8). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1600850
- September 16, 2016
- 03:57 PM
- 520 views
The blur doesn't cut it: AI can identify people in blurred images
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
A trio of researchers has found off-the-shelf AI software can be used to identify people in blurred or pixilated images. The researchers have uploaded a paper describing the experiments they carried out with AI software identification of people or other items in blurred out images, what they found and reveal just how accurate they found it could be.
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Richard McPherson, Reza Shokri, & Vitaly Shmatikov. (2016) Defeating Image Obfuscation with Deep Learning. arXiv. arXiv: 1609.00408v2
- September 15, 2016
- 02:22 PM
- 421 views
MRI scanner sees emotions flickering across an idle mind
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
As you relax and let your mind drift aimlessly, you might remember a pleasant vacation, an angry confrontation in traffic or maybe the loss of a loved one. And now a team of researchers say they can see those various emotional states flickering across the human brain.
... Read more »
Kragel, P., & LaBar, K. (2015) Multivariate neural biomarkers of emotional states are categorically distinct. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 10(11), 1437-1448. DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsv032
- September 14, 2016
- 03:48 PM
- 619 views
Food waste could store solar and wind energy, or there's the obvious...
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Saving up excess solar and wind energy for times when the sun is down or the air is still requires a storage device. Batteries get the most attention as a promising solution although pumped hydroelectric storage is currently used most often. Now researchers are advancing another potential approach using sugar alcohols—an abundant waste product of the food industry—mixed with carbon nanotubes.
... Read more »
Zhang, H., Rindt, C., Smeulders, D., & Nedea, S. (2016) Nanoscale Heat Transfer in Carbon Nanotubes - Sugar Alcohol Composite as Heat Storage Materials. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.6b05466
- September 13, 2016
- 03:48 PM
- 446 views
Entitlement -- a damning recipe for happiness
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Entitlement--a personality trait driven by exaggerated feelings of deservingness and superiority--may lead to chronic disappointment, unmet expectations and a habitual, self-reinforcing cycle of behavior with dire psychological and social costs, according to new research. In a new theoretical model, researchers have mapped how entitled personality traits may lead to a perpetual loop of distress.
... Read more »
Grubbs, J., & Exline, J. (2016) Trait Entitlement: A Cognitive-Personality Source of Vulnerability to Psychological Distress. Psychological Bulletin. DOI: 10.1037/bul0000063
- September 12, 2016
- 02:19 PM
- 377 views
Learning to turn down your amygdala can modify your emotions
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Training the brain to treat itself is a promising therapy for traumatic stress. The training uses an auditory or visual signal that corresponds to the activity of a particular brain region, called neurofeedback, which can guide people to regulate their own brain activity. However, treating stress-related disorders requires accessing the brain's emotional hub, the amygdala, which is located deep in the brain and difficult to reach with typical neurofeedback methods.
... Read more »
Keynan, J., Meir-Hasson, Y., Gilam, G., Cohen, A., Jackont, G., Kinreich, S., Ikar, L., Or-Borichev, A., Etkin, A., Gyurak, A.... (2016) Limbic Activity Modulation Guided by Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging–Inspired Electroencephalography Improves Implicit Emotion Regulation. Biological Psychiatry, 80(6), 490-496. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2015.12.024
- September 11, 2016
- 03:12 PM
- 403 views
A microRNA plays role in major depression
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
A tiny RNA appears to play a role in producing major depression, the mental disorder that affects as many as 250 million people a year worldwide. Major depression, formally known as major depressive disorder, or MDD, brings increased risk of suicide and is reported to cause the second-most years of disability after low-back pain.
... Read more »
Roy, B., Dunbar, M., Shelton, R., & Dwivedi, Y. (2016) Identification of microRNA-124-3p as a Putative Epigenetic Signature of Major Depressive Disorder. Neuropsychopharmacology. DOI: 10.1038/npp.2016.175
- September 10, 2016
- 03:09 PM
- 540 views
Social connectedness can increase suicide risk
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Community characteristics play an important role in perpetuating teen suicide clusters and thwarting prevention efforts, according to a new study by sociologists who examined clusters in a single town. The study illustrates how the homogeneous culture and high degree of social connectedness of a community can increase suicide risk, particularly among teenagers.
... Read more »
Mueller, A., & Abrutyn, S. (2016) Adolescents under Pressure: A New Durkheimian Framework for Understanding Adolescent Suicide in a Cohesive Community. American Sociological Review. DOI: 10.1177/0003122416663464
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