Research / Scholarship posts
- February 6, 2012
- 10:00 PM
- 146 views
Getting Data Shared - the next step and the real work begins
by Winston Hide in elements of impact
comment on 10.1038/ng.1054... Read more »
Sansone, S., Rocca-Serra, P., Field, D., Maguire, E., Taylor, C., Hofmann, O., Fang, H., Neumann, S., Tong, W., Amaral-Zettler, L.... (2012) Toward interoperable bioscience data. Nature Genetics, 44(2), 121-126. DOI: 10.1038/ng.1054
- February 6, 2012
- 08:44 AM
- 594 views
the synapse: where the magic happens
by TheCellularScale in The Cellular Scale
What is a synapse?The synapse is the junction between two neurons, usually between an axon, which gives the signal, and a dendrite, which receives the signal. This meeting of neurons is absolutely essential to how the brain works. It is where the information gets passed on from one neuron to the next. The 'magic' at the synapseWhen someone talks about neuronal pathways being strengthened, they usually mean a strengthening of this synaptic connection. This strengthening (or weakening) is referred to as "synaptic plasticity." Specifically, when the connection between two neurons is strengthened, it is often referred to as Long Term Potentiation (LTP) and when it is weakened it is is often called Long Term Depression (LTD). Synaptic plasticity is so exciting because it is a feasible biological mechanism for memory formation and storage. How this 'magic' was discoveredThe first paper to show that the connections between neurons could be strengthened was Bliss and Lomo 1973. They were studying the hippocampus, the region that underlies episodic memory and spatial learning.Bliss and Lomo, 1973 Fig1aThey found that when you stimulated the nerve fibers with certain frequencies (100 Hz is now a commonly used frequency for this), the signal from the group of neurons grew, and stayed large for hours. (They tracked at least one experiment for 10 hours!) Bliss and Lomo, 1973 Fig4cIn this figure, the dots represent the size of the signal at each point in time. The arrows represent the high frequency stimulation (here they stimulated 4 times). After each stimulation, the signal grows. The black dots are the pathway that was stimulated and the open circles are an unstimulated pathway that they used as a control. The concept that activity patterns between cells could strengthen the connection between them fundamentally changed the way people thought about information processing in the brain. Now there is a huge branch of neuroscience devoted to connecting LTP and LTD to behavior and investigating the mechanisms which underlie synaptic plasticity. In a retrospective paper, Lomo describes how the discovery came about. I found this quote particularly interesting:"Why did I not pursue and publish a fuller account of my findings in 1966? Because I was overcome by the complexity of the system and my lack of understanding of what was behind the findings. There was also no sense of urgency. Thus, when Tim and I published a full account in 1973 (Bliss & Lømo 1973), it still took years for the significance of the findings to be generally appreciated. "It's hard to imagine 'no rush' to publish something like this and it is refreshing to see a scientist who is hesitant about publishing something that s/he does not fully understand.Bliss TV, & Lomo T (1973). Long-lasting potentiation of synaptic transmission in the dentate area of the anaesthetized rabbit following stimulation of the perforant path. The Journal of physiology, 232 (2), 331-56 PMID: 4727084Lømo T (2003). The discovery of long-term potentiation. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 358 (1432), 617-20 PMID: 12740104... Read more »
Bliss TV, & Lomo T. (1973) Long-lasting potentiation of synaptic transmission in the dentate area of the anaesthetized rabbit following stimulation of the perforant path. The Journal of physiology, 232(2), 331-56. PMID: 4727084
Lømo T. (2003) The discovery of long-term potentiation. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 358(1432), 617-20. PMID: 12740104
- February 6, 2012
- 06:25 AM
- 673 views
How Snowflakes Are Formed
by United Academics in United Academics
The delicate structure of snowflakes unfolds before your eyes, like a flower blooming. Scientist Kenneth Libbrecht has studied how snowflakes are formed.... Read more »
Kenneth G. Libbrecht. (2011) Observations of an Edge-enhancing Instability in Snow Crystal Growth near -15 C. Cornell University Library. arXiv: 1111.2786v1
- February 6, 2012
- 03:39 AM
- 735 views
Is it good to listen to music at work?
by Stuart Farrimond in Dr Stu's Science Blog
There’s one thing you notice whenever you come back from camping. The noise. In the car, the shops, the gym: the beat of a drum, the strum of a guitar, the sound of synth – it can feel like we live world of tunes. Arrive at work and what do we do? Turn the radio … Continue reading »... Read more »
Kampfe, J., Sedlmeier, P., & Renkewitz, F. (2010) The impact of background music on adult listeners: A meta-analysis. Psychology of Music, 39(4), 424-448. DOI: 10.1177/0305735610376261
Haake, A. (2011) Individual music listening in workplace settings: An exploratory survey of offices in the UK. Musicae Scientiae, 15(1), 107-129. DOI: 10.1177/1029864911398065
- February 2, 2012
- 07:09 AM
- 665 views
Design Performs a Key Role in Spider Webs, Scientists Say
by United Academics in United Academics
The strength of spider webs is not only based on silk’s properties, but also on the quality of their design, as researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Politecnico di Torino have found out.... Read more »
Cranford, S., Tarakanova, A., Pugno, N., & Buehler, M. (2012) Nonlinear material behaviour of spider silk yields robust webs. Nature, 482(7383), 72-76. DOI: 10.1038/nature10739
- February 2, 2012
- 06:54 AM
- 374 views
What’s your strategy?
by David Winter in Careers - in Theory
At the end of last year I taught a Chartered Management Institute Level 3 Leadership and Management course. It was great fun as it allowed me to play with various leadership and management theories and apply them to practical situations. During the course, we touched on strategic planning and I came across an interesting model/theory [...]... Read more »
Chaffee, E. (1985) Three Models of Strategy. The Academy of Management Review, 10(1), 89. DOI: 10.2307/258215
- February 2, 2012
- 05:13 AM
- 696 views
Pic of the Day: Meet the Shieldcroc, Crocodiles’ Earliest Ancestor
by United Academics in United Academics
Researchers from Marshall University, US, have reported a new kind of giant crocodilyform who lived 95 million years ago. Named Aegisuchus witmeri, scientists have nicknamed it “shieldcroc” for the shield-like skin on its head, never seen before in these species.... Read more »
Holliday, C., & Gardner, N. (2012) A New Eusuchian Crocodyliform with Novel Cranial Integument and Its Significance for the Origin and Evolution of Crocodylia. PLoS ONE, 7(1). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0030471
- February 1, 2012
- 01:12 AM
- 644 views
Solar Cells as Easy as Inkjet Printing
by Paige Brown in From The Lab Bench
Imagine if making solar cells, which harvest light from the sun to produce energy, was as easy as sending this blog post to your inkjet printer.... Read more »
Wang, W., Su, Y., & Chang, C. (2011) Inkjet printed chalcopyrite CuInxGa1−xSe2 thin film solar cells. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 95(9), 2616-2620. DOI: 10.1016/j.solmat.2011.05.011
- January 31, 2012
- 07:00 PM
- 592 views
Drinking Milk Might Be Good for your Brain, Study Says
by United Academics in United Academics
New research at the University of Maine, US, provides a novel field of study: drinking milk, among consuming other dairy products, may benefit our brain health, its authors say.... Read more »
Crichton, G., Elias, M., Dore, G., & Robbins, M. (2012) Relation between dairy food intake and cognitive function: The Maine-Syracuse Longitudinal Study. International Dairy Journal, 22(1), 15-23. DOI: 10.1016/j.idairyj.2011.08.001
- January 31, 2012
- 05:36 AM
- 477 views
Neil harbisson, the world's first cyborg.
by United Academics in United Academics
Neil Harbisson, aged 29, considers himself a cyborg. Affected from birth by achromatopsia, he is unable to perceive colours, just black and white. Since 2004, he wears an eyeborg, a device that allows him to recognize colours through sound waves... Read more »
Warwick, K. (2011) Future Issues with Robots and Cyborgs. Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology, 4(3). DOI: 10.2202/1941-6008.1127
- January 31, 2012
- 03:29 AM
- 428 views
Voodoo Neuroscience Revisited
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
Two years ago, neuroscientists were shaken by the appearance of a draft paper showing that half of the published work in a particular field had fallen prey to a major statistical error.Originally called "Voodoo Correlations in Social Neuroscience", it ended up with the less snappy name of Puzzlingly high correlations in fMRI studies of emotion, personality, and social cognition. I prefer the old title.The error in question is now known variously as the "circular analysis problem", "non-independence problem" or "double-dipping" although I still call it the "voodoo problem". In a nutshell it arises whenever you take a large set of data, search for data points which are statistically significantly different from some baseline (null hypothesis), and then go on to perform further statistics only on those significant data points.The problem is that when you picked out the statistically significant observations, you selected the data points that were especially "good", so if you then do some more analyses only on those data, you are almost guaranteed to find something "good". To avoid this you need to make sure that your second analysis is truly independent of your first one.Anyway, Vul and Pashler, the main authors of the original voodoo article, have just written a short piece in NeuroImage offering some reflections on the paper and the aftermath. They don't make any major new arguments but it's a good read. Particularly fun is their explanation of what inspired them to look into the voodoo problem:In early 2005 a speaker in our department reported that BOLD activity in a small region of the brain can account for the great majority of the variance in speed with which subjects walk out of the experiment several hours later (this finding was never published as far as we know). The implications of this result struck us as puzzling, to say the least: Are walking speeds really so reliable that most of their variability can be predicted? Does a focal cortical region determine walking speeds? Are walking speeds largely predetermined hours in advance? These implications all struck us as far-fetched...But they reveal that it was one paper in particular that set them off voodoo-hunting Our interest in probing the matter was further whetted by an episode occurring a short while later: Grill-Spector et al. (2006) reported that individual voxels in face selective regions have a variety of stable stimulus preferences; in a critical commentary, Baker et al. (2007) found that the analysis used to ascertain this fact implicitly built these conclusions into the method, such that the same analysis applied to noise data (voxels from the nasal cavity) revealed a similar variety of stable preferences. It occurred to us that a similar circularity might underlie the puzzlingly high correlations.To their credit, Grill-Spector et al quickly accepted Baker et al's criticism and admitted that some of their original conclusions had been wrong.Vul, E., and Pashler, H. (2012). Voodoo and circularity errors NeuroImage DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.01.027... Read more »
Vul, E., & Pashler, H. (2012) Voodoo and circularity errors. NeuroImage. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.01.027
- January 30, 2012
- 09:14 AM
- 562 views
And Yet another Use for Graphene: Distilling Vodka
by United Academics in United Academics
Last findings on graphene reveal unexpected utility: distilling booze. Membranes made from graphene allows water to pass through but blocks anything else.... Read more »
Nair RR, Wu HA, Jayaram PN, Grigorieva IV, & Geim AK. (2012) Unimpeded permeation of water through helium-leak-tight graphene-based membranes. Science (New York, N.Y.), 335(6067), 442-4. PMID: 22282806
- January 29, 2012
- 10:34 PM
- 484 views
There’s More to That Red Plastic Cup Than You Thought
by Krystal D'Costa in Anthropology in Practice
Who here has not enjoyed a cold, refreshing drink from a red plastic cup? Alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages alike find themselves comfortably enclosed within the confines of the bright red vessel that has become a ubiquitous American staple at barbecues, picnics, parties, in dugouts and at minor league games, in food cars and at lunch [...]
... Read more »
Bunimovitz, S., & Greenberg, R. (2004) Revealed in Their Cups: Syrian Drinking Customs in Intermediate Bronze Age Canaan. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 19. DOI: 10.2307/4150104
Donner, W. (1994) Alcohol, Community, and Modernity: The Social Organization of Toddy Drinking in a Polynesian Society. Ethnology, 33(3), 245. DOI: 10.2307/3774009
Magennis, H. (1985) The Cup as Symbol and Metaphor in Old English Literature. Speculum, 60(3), 517. DOI: 10.2307/2848173
McAllister, P. (2003) Culture, Practice, and the Semantics of Xhosa Beer-Drinking. Ethnology, 42(3), 187. DOI: 10.2307/3773800
- January 27, 2012
- 10:10 AM
- 743 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 26, 2012
- 01:14 PM
- 826 views
NOT "Killed by Cannabis"
by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers
A quick factual decomposition of the assertion that cannabis is lethal, made by the Daily Mail in response to Richard Branson's evidence at the Select Committee on drugs.... Read more »
Hughes CE, & Stevens A. (2012) A resounding success or a disastrous failure: Re-examining the interpretation of evidence on the Portuguese decriminalisation of illicit drugs. Drug and alcohol review, 31(1), 101-13. PMID: 22212070
- January 26, 2012
- 11:24 AM
- 482 views
Teachings from the Stolen Generations Issue
by United Academics in United Academics
On February 13th, 2008, the Australian government offered a formal apology to indigenous peoples for the Stolen Generations. This way the institutions fully recognized the practices that, during a period that mostly goes from 1869 to 1969, involved the removal of children of Australian aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders from their relatives, to place them in institutions or foster families.... Read more »
Petchkovsky, L., San Roque, C., Napaljarri Jurra, R., & Butler, S. (2004) Indigenous maps of subjectivity and attacks on linking: Forced separation and its psychiatric sequelae in Australia's Stolen Generation. Advances in Mental Health, 3(3), 113-128. DOI: 10.5172/jamh.3.3.113
- January 26, 2012
- 03:02 AM
- 421 views
Take Your Placebos, Or Die
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
People who take their medication as directed are less likely to die - even when that "medication" is just a sugar pill.This is the surprising finding of a paper just published, Adherence to placebo and mortality in the Beta Blocker Evaluation of Survival Trial (BEST).BEST was a clinical trial of beta blockers, drugs used in certain kinds of heart disease. The patients were aged about 60 and they all suffered from heart failure. Everyone was randomly assigned to get a beta blocker or placebo, then followed up for 3 years to see how they did.Here's the big finding: in the placebo group of 1174 patients, the people who took all of their placebo pills on time (the good adherers), were significantly less likely to die than the patients who missed lots of doses. People who took over 75% as directed were 40% less likely to die than those with less than 75% adherence:That's pretty interesting. The pills were placebos - they can't have had any benefit. So what's going on? It gets even better. You might be tempted to write off these results as obvious: "Clearly, people who follow the study instructions are just 'healthy' people in other ways - maybe they take more exercise, eat better, etc. and that's what protects them."Certainly, that's what I'd have said.... Read more »
Pressman, A., Avins, A., Neuhaus, J., Ackerson, L., & Rudd, P. (2012) Adherence to placebo and mortality in the Beta Blocker Evaluation of Survival Trial (BEST). Contemporary Clinical Trials. DOI: 10.1016/j.cct.2011.12.003
- January 25, 2012
- 01:59 PM
- 871 views
An Epilogue to a Protein Saga – But Not the Last Word
by Karen Kreeger in Penn Medicine News Blog
Every saga needs occasional updates. TDP-43 -- a protein important in gene expression that can undergo pathologic misfolding -- is no different. Earlier reports on the protein were outlined in a Penn Med news blog, which describes its pathology and genetics related to neurodegenerative disease. But now the field is maturing and researchers are linking TDP-43 to a well-established clinical area - the role of oxidative stress in the demise of nerve cells.
... Read more »
Cohen TJ, Hwang AW, Unger T, Trojanowski JQ, & Lee VM. (2011) Redox signalling directly regulates TDP-43 via cysteine oxidation and disulphide cross-linking. The EMBO journal. PMID: 22193716
Lee EB, Lee VM, & Trojanowski JQ. (2011) Gains or losses: molecular mechanisms of TDP43-mediated neurodegeneration. Nature reviews. Neuroscience, 13(1), 38-50. PMID: 22127299
- January 23, 2012
- 09:30 AM
- 615 views
Twitter for Scientists: Or, How A Procrastination Tool Can Be Useful – Part 1
by Mr Epidemiology in Mr Epidemiology
Twitter is a well known microblogging platform. People can post updates in the form of 140 character “tweets” that can be read by followers, who can “retweet,” i.e. repost that tweet to their own followers, or reply to the original post. I started using it about a year ago, and have found it to be [...]... Read more »
Scanfeld, D., Scanfeld, V., & Larson, E. (2010) Dissemination of health information through social networks: Twitter and antibiotics. American Journal of Infection Control, 38(3), 182-188. DOI: 10.1016/j.ajic.2009.11.004
Culotta, A. (2010) Detecting influenza outbreaks by analyzing Twitter messages. Unpublished. info:/
- January 23, 2012
- 07:05 AM
- 470 views
Ocean Acidification Has Risen Since Industrial Revolution
by United Academics in United Academics
A research team has reached new conclusion on ocean acidity: in the last two centuries, in some places acidity has risen more than in the previous 21,000 years.... Read more »
Friedrich, T., Timmermann, A., Abe-Ouchi, A., Bates, N., Chikamoto, M., Church, M., Dore, J., Gledhill, D., González-Dávila, M., Heinemann, M.... (2012) Detecting regional anthropogenic trends in ocean acidification against natural variability. Nature Climate Change. DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1372
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