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Corpus Callosum is written by a psychiatrist at a small community hospital somewhere in midwestern USA. Email to cc.scienceblogger at gmail dot com.


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November 30, 2007

Epigenetic Transmission of Biomarkers for PTSD?

Category: Neuroscience

A great deal of evidence has accumulated that there is a problem with regulation of cortisol levels in persons with posttraumatic stress disorder.  Several years ago, it was demonstrated that adult offspring of persons with PTSD had lower circulating cortisol...

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November 29, 2007

Shrinky-Dink Tech

Category: Science News

For years, universities have struggled to find ways to move esoteric technologies from the lab to the commercial sector.  Now, scientists at UC Merced have begun to grapple with another problem: how to move technology from the toy shop into...

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November 27, 2007

The Three Laws of Musicodynamics

Category: Armchair Musings

1. Good music can neither be created, nor destroyed. All the good music already exists.  It does not matter how many hours you spend at the keyboard trying to come up with something new.  All of your efforts are in...

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November 26, 2007

Appropriate Taxes

Category: Social Commentary

I've rarely linked to Kos before; this is probably the second time (I'm a liberal, just not that kind of liberal).  However, the recent post on the reality of the Iraq war demands some commentary.  Plus, there is no point...

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3D Imaging To Diagnose Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Category: Neuroscience

Using my new Firefox search box to search ScienceBlogs, I learned that Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) retards neural growth, screws up the circadian clock, is the subject of moralistic cartoons, and that it cannot be cured.   True enough, it...

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November 25, 2007

Flickr Pic(kr) 9

Category: Photos of Interest

Bosque del Apache is a somewhat famous site for people to go to see migratory birds as they (birds) fly south.  I believe these are snow geese (Chen caerulescens), but I am not sure. Flickr has a lot of...

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Agomelatine: A New Approach For Depression

Category: Neuroscience

Agomelatine is a new chemical entity that is nearing approval for treatment of depression.  It was developed by Servier Laboratories; they have entered into an agreement with Novartis for commercialization of the product (Valdoxan®). This represents a new approach to...

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November 24, 2007

Teehuggers Gone Wild: Organic Water

Category: Humor

The treehuggers at TreeHugger saw right through this one.  Safeway is now selling "organic water."   I find the last point especially amusing: "No Genetic Modification." Greenwashing to the extreme. HT: J-Walk Blog Beta...

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Happy Birthday

Category: Social Commentary

On 24 November, 1859, Charles Darwin's book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, was published. Things haven't been the same, ever since.  For example, the...

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November 23, 2007

Run Household With Battery?

Category: Energy

Apparently, it is not only possible to run a household with a battery, but to run 25,000 with a battery: a battery that uses uranium hydride. The device is being developed from technology  from Los Alamos National Laboratory, by a...

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Foreign Policy: A Suggestion

Category: Politics

Turkey is considering adding the letters "Q," "W," and "X" to their alphabet.  The idea is that it would appease the Kurds.   Gov’t reform envisages including X, Q, W in Turkish alphabets Changing the Turkish alphabet to include the...

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Tech Tip #5: Search ScienceBlogs

Category: Meta

Why use Google, which will give you ten million irrelevant hits, when all you really want to do, is to find the juicy stuff on ScienceBlogs? Well, you can navigate to the ScienceBlogs home page, and search there, or go...

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November 21, 2007

Buy Nothing Day

Category: Chatter

MTV is taking some heat for its refusal to broadcast an advertisment for Buy Nothing Day. MTV, the channel that markets itself to hip youth, has decreed that our Buy Nothing Day public service spot "goes further than we are...

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Pecan Pie for Thanksgiving

Category: Chatter

We found a recipe for pecan pie that does not use corn syrup.  I would not try to argue that this confection is salubrious, mind you, but at least there is no corn syrup. Most pecan pie is so sweet...

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November 20, 2007

What Are Conservatives *Really* Interested In?

Category: Politics

Here is a part of a screenshot, showing the most-viewed pages: Notice that the page on homosexuality has 78% as many visits as the main page.  The site?  Conservapedia: "The Trustworthy Encyclopedia."  It is a wiki, like Wikipedia, but for...

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Cannabis Extract for Cancer?

Category: Medicine

Any time something related to a medical use for cannabis is found, it makes headlines.  Mostly, the interest is generated by the relationship to an illegal drug.  Sometimes, though, the media do a decent job of reporting the real issue....

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Finally, Another Candidate Who Understands Global Warming

Category: Environment

America missed her chance to elect a sane pro-environmental candidate in 2000.  Or rather, the Supreme Court missed its chance.  Whatever.  The critical point is that environmentalism cannot be understood as an isolated issue.  Pro-environmental thinking must pervade everything we...

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November 19, 2007

Distorted Perception of Sleep

Category: Medicine

It is common for tension to occur in the doctor-patient relationship occurs when the patient reports symptoms that are distressing to the patient, but which do not seem serious to the doctor. Each instance of this is different, so it...

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"Fox" is to "News" what "Scientology" is to "Religion"

Category: Social Commentary

According to the Guardian: ...because it minimally adheres to certain superficial conventions, it can masquerade as a "news" outfit and enjoy all the rights that accrue to that......

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The Great Escape

Category: Chatter

Video of Pandas cooperating so one can escape:...

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November 18, 2007

Sun in a Coal Mine

Category: Energy

Sun Microsystems is planning to put a data center in an old coal mine.  The idea is to save on energy costs.  In fact, they expect nine million dollars per year on electricity.  This is because much of the electrical...

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Flickr Pic(kr) 8

Category: Photos of Interest

The Golden Retriever is the finest breed of dog in the world.  These dogs are smart, and noble.   I don't have any dogs right now, but if I do get a dog, it will be a Golden Retriever....

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One Reason Health Insurance Premiums Go Up

Category: Medicine

The cost of health insurance has been increasing, typically at double-digit annual rates.   With the expansion of information technology, particularly electronic claims processing, one would expect that the insurance companies would be operating much more efficiently now that they...

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November 17, 2007

Increasing Serotonin Without Drugs

Category: Neuroscience

Simon N. Young, PhD, the Editor-in-chief of the Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, has written an editorial: How To Increase Serotonin In The Human Brain Without Drugs.  In is published in this month's edition of the Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience....

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Freudian Slippers

Category: Humor

The term "Freudian Slip" has been the subject of innumerable puns.  This one is new to me: It's the perfect holiday gift for shrinks in cold climates. HT: Mental Floss...

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The Inevitable Decline of Science

Category: Computing

According to Google, we are heading into a bad season for Science: This is from Google Trends.  Every December, there is a steep drop in the number of searches conducted for "science."  Plus, there has been a year-to-year decline.  What...

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November 16, 2007

Stop the Catalogs

Category: Environment

The environmental consequences of shopping catalogs have been well documented.  For example, over eight million tons of trees are consumed each year in the production of paper catalogs. Now there is a website where you can go to opt out...

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Errors in Texas Textbooks

Category: Chatter

The San Antonio Express-News reports that "Reviewers have found 109,263 errors in sample copies of math textbooks to be used next fall in Texas." One second-grade math book, for example, has 4 plus 7 equaling 10. OK, anybody can make...

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Legislation Regarding Generic Drugs

Category: Medicine

In 1984, the Hatch-Waxman Drug Price Competition and Patent Restoration Act was passed.  This was an important development that changed forever the economics of the pharmaceutical industry.   NEJM has a nice, short, open-access article on the history and consequences...

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Try Before You Tat

Category: Chatter

Computer graphics allow a person to see what a tattoo will look like, before going under the needle.

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Why Telecom Immunity Is Bad, and A Digression

Category: Armchair Musings

Currently, both the House and the Senate are leaning away from granting immunity to telecommunications companies that were involved in warrantless domestic spying.   In an unrelated debacle, the State Department tried to grant immunity to Blackwater personnel who shot...

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November 15, 2007

Do-Gooders Can Become The Worst Of Cheaters

Category: Armchair Musings

I haven't gotten to the actual research paper yet, but this is sufficiently interesting that I wanted to put up a quick post about it.  Live Science has an article about some research, showing that persons who think of themselves...

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Antibiotic Resistance Not Evolution?

Category: Propaganda

This is strange.  A person with a Ph.D. in molecular genetics, Georgia Purdom, wrote a post in which she claims to have shown that the development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria is not an example of evolution. Antibiotic Resistance of...

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November 14, 2007

LOLCat Calendar

Category: Chatter

The all-new, completely free LOLCats calendar for 2008 is here. It is a 2MB PDF download....

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Veteran's Mental Health Burden Greater Than First Thought

Category: Psychiatry

The Department of Defense appears to be making a real effort to determine the scope of the problem.  They now have published the results of a second screening of 88,235 returning soldiers.  In their most recent study, they acknowledge that...

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Elitism and Psychology and Politics

Category: Armchair Musings

Click for full-sized version From: Dilbert Internet Archive There is elitism, and anti-elitism.  In pure form, both are bad.  I recommend, as an alternative, something called mutual respect. In politics, there is a long history of us-versus-them-ism.  In the...

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November 13, 2007

Unflattering Comparison

Category: Humor

In his article about what is wrong with Windows Vista, PC Mag's John Dvorak unintentionally disrespects northern Michigan: Until now, Microsoft could sell code better than anyone, but it seems the company would rather sell services: software as a service,...

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64% Think Bush Has Abused Office

Category: Politics

Remember, this guy ran for office claiming that he was going to "restore dignity" to the office.  Now, 64% of persons surveyed think "has abused his powers as president."  55% think he has committed impeachable offenses, although they are split...

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Air Tilly

Category: Photos of Interest

Tilly is an eagle that has been trained to fly with a pair of video cameras.  The cameras weigh less than 30 grams and can transmit video signals more than a mile.   I gather this was shown on Aminal...

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What Conservatives Like

Category: Armchair Musings

The Norman Lear Center recently commissioned a Zogby poll regarding the relative media preferences of liberals, moderates, and conservatives: The Zogby/Lear Center Survey On Politics And Entertainment. The typology revealed three significant clusters of respondents:  "conservatives," as we decided to...

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Pistacia chinenesis

Category: Photos of Interest

The Chinese pistache, Pistacia chinenesis, is the most frost-tolerant of the Pistacia, and is relatively drought-tolerant as well.  It is prized for the vivid autumn color of the leaves....

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November 12, 2007

The Last Viola

Category: Photos of Interest

There are just a few splashes of color left in the garden....

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November 11, 2007

Flickr Pic(kr) 7

Category: Photos of Interest

Yes, it is a Darth Vader ballon.  Photo by Vincent Maurin.  Taken in St-Julien-lès-Gorze, Lorraine, France.  The caption: "Created by a Belgian."...

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Common Census Map Project

Category: Chatter

This is a neat project; I hope more people participate.  The map below shows the USA divided into regions, based upon their emotional ties to particular areas.  Thus it is not based upon borders or any other typical geographic boundary....

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November 10, 2007

Is It Just Me?

Category: Medicine

Is it just me, or do others find this article to be offensive? When the Patient Is a Googler By SCOTT HAIG Thursday, Nov. 08, 2007 We had never met, but as we talked on the phone I knew she...

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True Cost of Alternative Energy

Category: Energy

People who advocate alternative energy (i.e. not oil or natural gas) often fail to appreciate the true cost of developing the necessary technology.  Courtesy of Cryptogon, I now present a chart that illustrates these true costs, in proper perspective. As...

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Economic Consequences of Mr. Bush

Category: Politics

A Nobel-winning economist has some comments about our current fiscal situation: The Economic Consequences of Mr. Bush The next president will have to deal with yet another crippling legacy of George W. Bush: the economy. A Nobel laureate, Joseph E....

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November 9, 2007

Shakespeare Quote Generator

Category: Meta

O excellent! I love corpus callosum better than figs.Which work of Shakespeare was the original quote from?Get your own quotes:...

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Deconstructing Hamlet and Designer Genes

Category: Humor

This is a highly amusing podcast, for nerds anyway.  Tweaking a few genes here and there will not alter our fundamental humanness.  But is this what we really want? Go to the page and click on the Listen: MP3 format...

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Fife Symington III on UFOs

Category: Politics

Fife Symington III, former governor of Arizona, is planning a press conference to discuss UFOs.  He plans to discuss the Phoenix Lights incident.  Symington is a former Air Force pilot, which he feels lends him some credibility.   Symington: I...

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Demise of Open Access?

Category: Humor

I was thrilled to note that the Journal of Geoclimatic Studies offered open access to their papers.  But as of today, the website is down, with no explanation.   Whois shows that their site was created on 11/2/2007.  Pity, it...

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November 8, 2007

Placebos for Performance Enhancement

Category: Bioethics

Athletic regulatory bodies have a new headache.  This time, the pain is being caused by placebos (an unexpected side effect!)   As reported in New Scientist, athletes have found that they can exert themselves to a greater extent, while under...

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Bush Downplayed Torture...in 1967

Category: Politics

This story originally ran in the New York Times, 40 years ago.  It is behind a pay wall now, but it is reprinted in Harper's; I found it from a link at Project for an Old American Century: "We Do...

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Open Source for K-12

Category: Computing

Neil Bush's "COW" is probably the closest the Bush family ever has come to real ranching.  Now the COW may be going the way of the Dodo This may turn out to be one of the best things that could...

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