Research / Scholarship posts
- May 23, 2013
- 07:15 PM
- 8 views
Molecular visualization tools - Survey and practical tips
by Ragothamanyennamalli in Getting to know Structural Bioinformatics
What would be like to teach a class or describe someone about a protein, without visualizing its structure? Boring is one word that pops in my mind. I vividly remember the professor drawing two blobs touching each other, to describe protein-protein interaction, while explaining it either on the blackboard or on the transparencies of a over-head projector. Those were the days! Tracing back nearly 60 years back, when John Kendrew showed everyone a coiled mess, it has fueled every scientist's ........ Read more »
Craig, P., Michel, L., & Bateman, R. (2013) A survey of educational uses of molecular visualization freeware. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, 41(3), 193-205. DOI: 10.1002/bmb.20693
- May 21, 2013
- 05:51 PM
- 23 views
A Machine to Weigh the Soul
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic_Discover
Newly discovered papers have shed light on a fascinating episode in the history of neuroscience: Weighing brain activity with the balance The story of the early Italian neuroscientist Dr Angelo Mosso and his ‘human circulation balance’ is an old one – I remember reading about it as a student, in the introductory bit of a [...]... Read more »
Sandrone S, Bacigaluppi M, Galloni MR, Cappa SF, Moro A, Catani M, Filippi M, Monti MM, Perani D, & Martino G. (2013) Weighing brain activity with the balance: Angelo Mosso's original manuscripts come to light. Brain : a journal of neurology. PMID: 23687118
- May 18, 2013
- 02:10 PM
- 38 views
‘Is ‘cloning’ mad, bad and dangerous?’ – an argument revisited
by Lee Turnpenny in The Mawk Moth Profligacies
Is 'cloning' appropriate terminology for somatic cell nuclear transfer derivation of human embryonic stem cells?... Read more »
Tachibana, M., Amato, P., Sparman, M., Gutierrez, N., Tippner-Hedges, R., Ma, H., Kang, E., Fulati, A., Lee, H., Sritanaudomchai, H.... (2013) Human Embryonic Stem Cells Derived by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer. Cell. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2013.05.006
- May 16, 2013
- 02:54 PM
- 9 views
Why not use human material for medical research?
by Professor Gareth Sanger in NC3Rs Blog
Using human tissue in medical research throws up a number of different challenges. In our third 2012 NC3Rs 3Rs Prize post, Professor Gareth Sanger from Queen Mary, University of London, discusses how tissue removed from the stomach and intestine can actually help overcome some of these challenges. Is this a viable alternative to using animals for gastrointestinal research? Professor Sanger’s research suggests it could be.... Read more »
Broad, J., Mukherjee, S., Samadi, M., Martin, J., Dukes, G., & Sanger, G. (2012) Regional- and agonist-dependent facilitation of human neurogastrointestinal functions by motilin receptor agonists. British Journal of Pharmacology, 167(4), 763-774. DOI: 10.1111/j.1476-5381.2012.02009.x
- May 16, 2013
- 11:16 AM
- 28 views
'Vocal mimicry hypothesis' falsified? [Part 2]
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
A few entries ago I uploaded a fragment from a study that discusses an intriguing experiment with three chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) which were trained to tap regularly on a piano keyboard...... Read more »
Hattori, Y., Tomonaga, M., & Matsuzawa, T. (2013) Spontaneous synchronized tapping to an auditory rhythm in a chimpanzee. Scientific Reports. DOI: 10.1038/srep01566
Hasegawa, A., Okanoya, K., Hasegawa, T., & Seki, Y. (2011) Rhythmic synchronization tapping to an audio–visual metronome in budgerigars. Scientific Reports. DOI: 10.1038/srep00120
Honing, H., Merchant, H., Háden, G., Prado, L., & Bartolo, R. (2012) Rhesus Monkeys (Macaca mulatta) Detect Rhythmic Groups in Music, but Not the Beat. PLoS ONE, 7(12). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0051369
- May 15, 2013
- 09:46 AM
- 37 views
Male Black Widows Sniff Out Femme Fatales
by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog
I am thrilled to announce that this month I am joining a new top-notch science blogging team at Scitable, Nature Education’s award-winning science education website! (But don’t worry, friends. I will continue to post here about animal physiology and behavior every Wednesday). Next week, Scitable will be launching eleven new blogs covering topics like neuroscience, genetics, oceanography, physics and more. I will be co-authoring an evolution blog called Accumulating Glitches together with Se........ Read more »
Johnson, J., Trubl, P., Blackmore, V., & Miles, L. (2011) Male black widows court well-fed females more than starved females: silken cues indicate sexual cannibalism risk. Animal Behaviour, 82(2), 383-390. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.05.018
- May 14, 2013
- 02:00 AM
- 23 views
Measuring scientific coverage of @Wikipedia: Fellows of the Wiki Society Index 2013
by Duncan Hull in O'Really?
A quick-and-dirty measure of the scientific coverage of wikipedia is the percentage of these fellows that have a profile on wikipedia at the time of their election to the prestigous Society. Let’s call it the Fellows of the Wiki Society Index (FWSi)...... Read more »
Moy, C., Locke, J., Coppola, B., & McNeil, A. (2010) Improving Science Education and Understanding through Editing Wikipedia. Journal of Chemical Education, 87(11), 1159-1162. DOI: 10.1021/ed100367v
- May 14, 2013
- 01:29 AM
- 13 views
Evolutionary arms-race won by moths
by Mini Watsa in SurroundScience
It is easy to forget that other organisms also affect the “environment” of a given species. No one is evolving in a vacuum. The existence of other species can not only … Continue reading →... Read more »
Moir H. M., Jackson J. C., & Windmill J. F. C. (2013) Extremely high frequency sensitivity in a 'simple' ear. Biology Letters, 9(4), 20130241-20130241. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2013.0241
- May 13, 2013
- 09:45 AM
- 36 views
A Quantum Version of Google
by Carian Thus in United Academics
A team of computer scientists in Spain applied a quantum PageRank algorithm to a network with 7 webpages. They found that the quantum PageRank sometimes ordered the webpages differently in terms of importance, but averaging the quantum PageRank score over time recovered the classical ordering.... Read more »
Paparo, G., & Martin-Delgado, M. (2012) Google in a Quantum Network. Scientific Reports. DOI: 10.1038/srep00444
- May 11, 2013
- 01:42 AM
- 13 views
How Not to Be Eaten
by Mini Watsa in SurroundScience
In the soft jungle sun, a thick-limbed primate—with heavy fur and a strong grasping tail—is poised for flight. This is Lagothrix poeppigii, or Poeppigi’s woolly monkey, and it is the … Continue reading →... Read more »
Papworth Sarah, Milner-Gulland E. J., Slocombe Katie, & Noë Ronald. (2013) Hunted Woolly Monkeys (Lagothrix poeppigii) Show Threat-Sensitive Responses to Human Presence. PLoS ONE, 8(4). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0062000.s004
- May 9, 2013
- 11:05 PM
- 33 views
Stop to smell the flowers. Especially lavender.
by Cobb & Hecht in Do You Believe In Dog?
(source)Hi Julie, WOW!Dogs in clothes. Corgis in bikinis at the beach. Greyhounds in onesies. We people do some weird things to our canine friends, no?! I'm pretty sure I wouldn't enjoy being dressed up in a padded outfit all day long, so I think I'll pass on sharing that experience with my dogs. As you said, cultural perceptions, ethics and expectations add a whole layer of extra consideration. It's not always easy to work out what dogs want or need. That's why I like........ Read more »
Wells Deborah L. (2009) Sensory stimulation as environmental enrichment for captive animals: A review. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 118(1-2), 1-11. DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2009.01.002
Graham Lynne, Wells Deborah L., & Hepper Peter G. (2005) The influence of olfactory stimulation on the behaviour of dogs housed in a rescue shelter. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 91(1-2), 143-153. DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2004.08.024
Wells Deborah L. (2006) Aromatherapy for travel-induced excitement in dogs. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 229(6), 964-967. DOI: 10.2460/javma.229.6.964
MOTOMURA NAOYASU, SAKURAI AKIHIRO, & YOTSUYA YUKIKO. (2001) REDUCTION OF MENTAL STRESS WITH LAVENDER ODORANT. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 93(3), 713-718. DOI: 10.2466/pms.2001.93.3.713
- May 9, 2013
- 09:57 AM
- 20 views
Taking memory research to Parliament
by Kamar Ameen-Ali in NC3Rs Blog
NC3Rs-funded PhD student Kamar Ameen-Ali, Department of Psychology, Durham University, takes us on a trip to the House of Commons SET for BRITAIN event, where she presented her research recently to MPs and VIPs.... Read more »
Ameen-Ali, K., Eacott, M., & Easton, A. (2012) A new behavioural apparatus to reduce animal numbers in multiple types of spontaneous object recognition paradigms in rats. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 211(1), 66-76. DOI: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2012.08.006
- May 9, 2013
- 06:07 AM
- 13 views
Common Coincidence
by Emarkham in GeneticCuckoo
An analysis using the Monte Carlo simulation, to investigate the probability of restaurant bills having the same total. Combining statistics with modeling from the real world allows for a realistic probability for this occurrence. ... Read more »
E Markham. (2013) Common Coincidence . Blogspot. info:/
- May 8, 2013
- 09:50 AM
- 53 views
Thanks Mom!
by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog
Like Mother, like baby! Photo from freedigitalphotos.net.Moms give us so much more than we ever give them credit for. Biologically speaking, we all have a mom and a dad (unless you’re a flatworm or some other species that can reproduce without sex) that provide us with one of each chromosome type (our chromosomes contain our genes, commonly thought of as our “biological blueprints”). So it makes sense that we tend to think of ourselves as being half-our-mom and half-our-dad. But not so! Al........ Read more »
BERNARDO, J. (1996) Maternal Effects in Animal Ecology. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 36(2), 83-105. DOI: 10.1093/icb/36.2.83
Wolf, J., & Wade, M.J. (2009) What are maternal effects (and what are they not)?. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 1107-1115. info:/
- May 8, 2013
- 08:10 AM
- 43 views
http://blog.dolotest.com/2013/05/08/pain-and-depression-linked-to-the-immune-system/
by Kim Kristiansen in Picture of Pain
epression together with pain, but not pain alone, may increase activity in the immune system and inflammation. These are the important findings of a new study just published in the journal “Pain Medicine”.... Read more »
Kim Kristiansen, M.D. (2013) Pain and Depression Linked to the Immune System. Picture of Pain Blog. info:/
- May 5, 2013
- 05:22 AM
- 76 views
The (Lack of) Changes in Ecological Research
by gunnardw in The Beast, the Bard and the Bot
Ecology is a rapidly changing, dynamic field of research. In recent decades, there’s been a major shift from considering ecosystems as stable and poised to seeing them as systems that are in constant flux. At least, that’s what ecologists want (us) to believe. But how much of this claimed change has been able to seep [...]... Read more »
Carmel, Y., Kent, R., Bar-Massada, A., Blank, L., Liberzon, J., Nezer, O., Sapir, G., & Federman, R. (2013) Trends in Ecological Research during the Last Three Decades – A Systematic Review. PLoS ONE, 8(4). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0059813
- May 3, 2013
- 05:48 PM
- 11 views
Scatological Scents
by Mini Watsa in SurroundScience
Ever since tamarins were first captured from the wild to serve as research models in laboratories, we have been curious about their use of odour for communication. These miniature monkeys … Continue reading →... Read more »
Threlfall C., Law B., & Banks P. B. (2013) Odour cues influence predation risk at artificial bat roosts in urban bushland. Biology Letters, 9(3), 20121144-20121144. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2012.1144
- May 3, 2013
- 03:40 PM
- 72 views
Why blogging science is rewarding!
by Ragothamanyennamalli in Getting to know Structural Bioinformatics
... Read more »
Bik HM, & Goldstein MC. (2013) An introduction to social media for scientists. PLoS biology, 11(4). PMID: 23630451
- May 2, 2013
- 05:30 PM
- 53 views
Elite journals: to hell in a handbasket?
by Hadas Shema in Information Culture
Once upon a time, journals were made of paper and ink. However, we left the dark ages of dead woods behind us and moved forward to an age in which authors don’t need to publish in journals (but still want to). There’s an increasing decoupling between the individual article and its publishing journal, created by [...]
... Read more »
Vincent Lariviere, George A. Lozano, & Yves Gingras. (2013) Are elite journals declining?. ArXiv. arXiv: 1304.6460v1
George A. Lozano, Vincent Lariviere, & Yves Gingras. (2012) The weakening relationship between the Impact Factor and papers' citations in the digital age. ArXiv. arXiv: 1205.4328v1
- May 2, 2013
- 10:38 AM
- 85 views
Redefining Mental Disorders as Brain Disorders: TED Talk of Thomas Insel
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Components of Brain Limbic SystemAdvances in the diagnosis and treatment of brain disorders like bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and autism are a public health priority.Dr. Thomas Insel, director at NIMH recently presented a TED talk that emphasized the need to rethink how we conceptualize and study these types of disorders. He argues for a need to redefine mental disorders as brain disorders. Advances in brain research tools are likely to provide improvements in early diagnosis and ........ Read more »
Collins, P., Insel, T., Chockalingam, A., Daar, A., & Maddox, Y. (2013) Grand Challenges in Global Mental Health: Integration in Research, Policy, and Practice. PLoS Medicine, 10(4). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001434
Insel, T. (2011) A bridge to somewhere. Translational Psychiatry, 1(4). DOI: 10.1038/tp.2011.4
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