ResearchBlogging.org News

Krystal D’Costa selects interesting and notable ResearchBlogging.org posts in the social sciences, including anthropology, research, and philosophy. She blogs about the anthropology of urban life at Anthropology in Practice.

• At Design. Build. Play. Frautech investigates whether you can fake it til you make it. The author reports on the effects of assuming a high power stance versus a low power position, and finds some evidence to suggest that they way you carry yourself may matter.
• Alun has crafted a fantastic defense of 17th-century astronomy–and Ptolemy. He encourages readers to acknowledge the science of the times, and recognize the great strides that advances truly represented.
• At Speech and Science, Maria Wolters dissects a study claiming to have identified sounds that may be universally associated with happiness and sadness. She skillfully walks readers through the methodology, pointing out alternatives and possible areas for scrutiny.
• And finally, Michael Plyer of A Replicated Typo discusses the role of imitation in our evolutionary history.  The post highlights overimitation as a sign of our tendency toward social norms.

I’ll be back next Thursday with more research from the social sciences.

Each week, Dr. Peter Janiszewski selects several notable posts from Health and Medical Research. He blogs at Obesity Panacea and Science of Blogging.

Here are some of the most fascinating discussions from the previous week:

• New insights into scar prevention are discussed on Beaker, including an interview with the author of the recent study.
• Dr. Shock discusses how social media is being used by students in medical school – 1 in 5 claim to regularly read blogs.
• Can an entire town go mad due to a bit of fungus? According to Neuroskeptic, its certainly possible.
• How effective is cognitive-behavioural therapy for relief of irritable bowel syndrome? Head over to Brain Posts and find out!

Check back next week for some more riveting discussions of health and clinical research!

Peter

Each week, Dr. Peter Janiszewski selects several notable posts from Health and Medical Research. He blogs at Obesity Panacea.

Here are some of the most fascinating discussions from the previous week:

• We’ve know for a while that exercise and a low calorie diet can reduce the effects of aging and extend lifespan in rodents. In a fascinating post, Scicurious of Neurotic Physiology discusses how this might happen.
• Flu season is upon us. But what is one to do to prevent catching it? Is simply washing your hands often good enough precaution? MC at Begin to Dig blog discusses.
• According to a new post on Nou Stuff, walking while listening to music can be a useful tool for gait training in Parkinson’s disease.
• We Canadians have already had our Thanksgiving, and most of us have by now worked off the excess consumed. Our friends in the US are about to have their Thanksgiving weekend. Colby of Nutritional Blogma discusses the association of Thanksgiving and weight gain.
• And finally, if you are currently blogging about science, or would like to start communicating science online, head over to our new venture, Science of Blogging and see what all the fuss is about.

Check back next week for some more riveting discussions of health and clinical research!

Peter

Each week, Dr. Peter Janiszewski selects several notable posts from Health and Clinical Research. He blogs at Obesity Panacea.

Here are some of the most fascinating discussions from the previous week:

• The Mediterranean folks had the right idea with their siestas. According to a great post by Chalita Thanyakoop at Brain Blogger, daytime napping improves your memory.

• More reason to not be a fool and stay in school: a great post on the Wellcome Trust Blog discusses why higher education pays dividends in terms of health.

• Dr. Sharma discusses unsuspected autopsy findings in obese individuals.

Check back next week for some more riveting discussions of health and clinical research!

Peter

Based on your comments here and here, as well as responses on Twitter and input from the Research Blogging editors, we’ve now revised the list of major topics and secondary tags available to bloggers.

When bloggers register for the site, they may pick one major tag (in bold) and are urged to select just one secondary tag (in regular type). These are the default tags selected when bloggers create citations, but bloggers are free to override these defaults and select as many tags as they like for individual posts.

Here are the major changes:

• Secondary Astronomy tags revised to match the arXiv
• A new major tag, Ecology / Conservation, with several secondary tags
• The major tag, Clinical Research, has been renamed to Medicine, and some secondary tags from Health have been moved to this tag
• Computer Science and Engineering were merged into a single major tag
• Several new secondary tags were added to the Psychology tag

An important note: There are currently no posts under Ecology / Conservation because this is a new topic. If you would like to have an older post listed under this topic, you’ll need to regenerate the citation or edit the tags in the existing citation for that post, then rescan it.

Posts that were previously listed under Clinical Research are automatically now re-tagged as Medicine, and posts that were previously listed under Computer Science are new re-tagged as Computer Science / Engineering. However, Engineering tags were not affected (this affects only a small number of posts).

Secondary tags are not affected at all by the changes; the changes only affect the suggested tags when you create a new citation.

If these revised topics affect you, you may want to log in and change your default tags for your blog — this is done by clicking on your blog name, then “edit blog settings,” and scrolling to the bottom of the dialog there.

Below is the full list of new tags.

Read the rest of this entry »

Each week, Dr. Peter Janiszewski selects several notable posts from Health and Clinical Research. He blogs at Obesity Panacea.

This week was full of fantastic posts, making my job that much tougher. Here are some of the absolute best discussions:

• Medication for anxiety and depression often comes with an unfortunate side effect: sexual dysfunction. Bill Yates of Brain Posts discusses new research suggesting a possible solution to this all too common problem.

• In her second great post on the topic, Melinda Wenner Moyer of Body Politic asks: If BPA exposure is so low, why should we be worried?

• According to a fascinating post by Neurosceptic, reboxetine is the worst anti-depressant ever! This topic is also eloquently covered by Michael over at Good, Bad, and Bogus.

• So you like coffee, do you? Psychothalamus blog highlights a study suggesting coffee may acutely increase your chances of stroke. Why do I think this finding won’t have much of an impact on your habit?

• PalMD of the White Coat Underground takes a look at the health effects of the smoking bans which have swept across North America over recent years.

That is some good readin’! Check back next week for some more riveting discussions of health and clinical research!

Peter

Each week, Dr. Peter Janiszewski selects several notable posts from Health and Clinical Research. He blogs at Obesity Panacea.

Here are some of the past week’s most intriguing discussions:

• Allison of Dormivigilia discusses new research which suggests too much ice cream may be bad for your brain, and we’re not talking brain freezes either.
• Euan Lawson of Northern Doctor’s Antidote points out how much error is associated with the measurement of blood pressure – quite a bit!
• Ever wondered what all the controversy surrounding artificial sweeteners in weight control is about? Travis Saunders thoroughly dissects the topic over at Obesity Panacea.
• Are you intolerant to gluten? Many are forced to follow a strict diet to avoid issues associated with the condition. However, new research discussed by Michael Long suggests a new treatment may be just around the corner.
• And finally, John Wayland takes his readers on a fascinating journey through the history of smoking bans and the anti-smoking sentiment.

Check back next week for some more riveting discussions of health and clinical research!

Peter

Each week, Dr. Peter Janiszewski selects several notable posts from Health and Clinical Research. He blogs at Obesity Panacea.

Here are some of the past week’s most intriguing discussions:

• Melinda Wenner Moyer of Body Politic discusses evidence suggesting that breastfeeding may prevent disease by changing gene expression in the gut flora and whether dieting might ‘pollute’ our bodies.
• Dr. Arya Sharma provides another stellar week of clinical research posts, highlights of which include a discussion of weight bias among medical students, and how exercise may reduce the genetic predisposition to obesity.
• Michael Long of Phased investigates a ghostly topic: how pharmaceutical company ghostwriters may falsely promote certain treatments, such as hormone-replacement therapy.
• Ever wondered how fMRI works? I did. But after reading Amiya’s wonderful post entitled: fMRI, BOLD and the Beautiful, I no longer have to wonder.
• Finally, to add to the continually expanding science blogosphere, in addition to the recently hatched  Guardian Science Blogs and PLoS Blogs, you can now get more science blogging goodness from the brand spankin’ new Wired Science Blogs Network. Boy, have you got some reading to do!

Check back next week for some more riveting discussions of health and clinical research!

Peter

Each week, Dr. Peter Janiszewski selects several notable posts from Health and Clinical Research. He blogs at Obesity Panacea.

Here are some of the past week’s most intriguing discussions:

• Mahjong epilepsy? Kevin Zelnio gives everyone a good reason to take it easy when playing mahjong. If you fail to heed Kevin’s advice, you just may end up having a seizure.
• Creatine has been used as an ergogenic supplement by athletes for many years. Despite much evidence to the contrary, the supplement retains a heavy stigma in the popular press. Colby Vorland of Nutritional Blogma discusses the discrepancy between scientific evidence and naive hysteria.
• Apparently, bariatric surgery is the second most common abdominal surgery in the US. Dr. Arya Sharma breaks down a recent JAMA study looking at the safety of this popular procedure.
• Need another reason to go to the gym? Check out Greg Laden’s discussion of new evidence pointing to neuroendocrine mechanics by which exercise attenuates appetite, and how inactivity may increase it.
• Low-carb/high protein diets; bad for your bones? Steve Parker of Diabetic Mediterranean Diet blog speaks on a new study which suggests the answer is a resounding “Nah!”

Check back next week for some more riveting discussions of health and clinical research!

Peter

Each week, Dr. Peter Janiszewski selects several notable posts from Health and Clinical Research. He blogs at Obesity Panacea.

Here are some of the past week’s most intriguing discussions:

• Have you ever wondered: what would be the effect of eating a Big Mac and following it up with a vodka and Redbull, specifically among Brazilian men? No, well some researchers thought it worthy of investigation. TwoYaks of Geneflow discusses this interesting study.

• Not yet convinced that acupuncture is completely a placebo effect? I have a feeling that even the most devout believers in the effectiveness of needle pricking will be persuaded otherwise by a new study eloquently discussed by Orac of Respectful Insolence.

• Scicurious of Neurotic Physiology talks female orgasms and ejaculation. Fascinating stuff that is sure to make you blush, and maybe have an orgasm… (sexy photos included).

• The concept of muscle memory when concerning resistance training has always been thought to be of neural origin. Colby Vorland of Nutritional Blogma discusses a new study suggesting another important player in this physiological phenomenon.

How is that for some cool science?

See you next week for another installment.

Peter