Neuron Culture

Posted via web from David Dobbs's Somatic Marker

The Maldives, featured in a Wired gallery of islands shot from space. A place crucial to the story I told in Reef Madness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the Meaning of Coral. It was in this unique archipelago that Alexander Agassiz found the evidence he felt proved beyond doubt that Darwin's theory of coral reef formation was wrong, dead wrong. It's also a singularly beautiful place, and particularly threatened by global warming.

Posted by David Dobbs at 6:57 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

November 5, 2009

"The male approaches with his thumbs (like the Fonz) and mounts the female (like the Fonz.)"

Tell me that doesn't leave you wanting more. Ed Yong delivers:

Male bats create tents by biting leaves until they fall into shape. These provide shelter and double as harems, each housing several females who the male mates with. Fruit bat sex goes like this: the female approaches and sniffs the male, and both partners start to lick one another. The male makes approaches with his thumbs (like the Fonz) and mounts the female (like the Fonz). Sex itself is the typical rhythmic thrusting that we're used to, and afterwards, the male licks his own penis for several seconds.

But Tan also found that female bat will often bend down to lick the shaft of her mate's penis during sex itself. This behaviour happened on 70% of the videos, making it the only known example of regular fellatio in a non-human animal.

via scienceblogs.com

Posted via web from David Dobbs's Somatic Marker

Posted by David Dobbs at 2:46 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Quick dip: Healthcare reform, conflicted profs, and the vaccine shortage

Pardon my light posting lately. Flat out with big projects, travel, and the stacking of the wood for the winter.

This, however, is what has jumped out at me from the intertubez of late:

Meet the New Health Care Reform, Same as the Old Health Care Reform

At Top Schools, More Than Half the Profs Have Industry Ties

US: Shortage of flu vaccines leaves healthcare workers vulnerable Our lack of readyness for this thing is sobering -- as is the complacency about same. In my own town, our much-delayed swine flu vaccines for kids is finally being administered this coming Monday. How'd I hear this? It was in an obscure paragraph in an obscure corner of the 8-page parents' group newsletter -- not even an official communication -- that came to us in the pile of junk-mail-by-backpack sent home each day by the school via our 5- and 7-year-old. Otherwise, we'd be blind to it. And the substantial number of kids in this town who go to private schools or home schools -- they have no clue.

Meanwhile:

US: 11% fatality rate in hospitalized California H1N1 cases

and

US: 114 dead children, or 300?

It seems that

"We overpromised"

Posted by David Dobbs at 10:53 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

"No pity party, no macho man." Psychologist Dave Grossman on surviving killing

Preston Gannaway, The Virginian-Pilot

When I did my story on the overextension of the PTSD diagnosis in vets (and elsewhere), I found Grossman's take on the psychic toll of killing (and almost being killed) among the most compelling. His "On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society" is a unique and uniquely valuable contribution. Below, part of a story on a recent presentation Grossman (pictured above) gave at a recent Pentagon-sponsored conference on building resilience in warriors.

Dave Grossman puts humans into three categories: Ninety-eight percent are "sheep," content to graze and likely to stampede when they're threatened. One percent are "wolves," psychopaths with a propensity for violence who lack empathy. The other 1 percent: "sheepdogs," who have both empathy and a propensity for violence.

The sheepdogs are also called warriors, he said. They're not always liked or appreciated by the sheep, but they come to the herd's rescue when wolves threaten.

Grossman seemed to captivate the crowd Tuesday at a Pentagon-sponsored conference on warrior resiliency. Most in attendance wore camouflage military uniforms, but the two-day meeting includes civilian therapists and health care providers, as well as personnel from Veterans Affairs.

The program continues today with a video address from Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and concludes with a panel of "real warriors" talking about combat experiences.

Grossman, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and former professor of psychology at West Point, acknowledges the reality of combat stress and psychological trauma. World War II's "greatest generation" included 500,000 soldiers who were psychiatric casualties, he noted.

Still, he said, the vast majority of troops return from war stronger for their experience. Too many people believe what he called a Hollywood myth that portrays combat veterans as victims, forever scarred by their service. That myth creates a self-fulfilling prophecy that produces victims and destroys lives, he said.

Grossman is no John Wayne, however. In fact, he used the legendary Hollywood tough guy as an example of another potent myth.

"John Wayne was an actor," he told the packed ballroom at the Sheraton Norfolk Waterside Hotel, letting the message sink in.

He urged the audience to avoid both ends of the spectrum.

"No pity party, no macho man," he said over and over.

via hamptonroads.com

Posted via web from David Dobbs's Somatic Marker

Posted by David Dobbs at 10:38 AM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Still hope for writers everywhere: Robots take over sports desk - but need writer to write lede.

By way of demonstration, the group plugged in stats from the Oct. 11 playoff game between the Angels and the Red Sox:

BOSTON -- Things looked bleak for the Angels when they trailed by two runs in the ninth inning, but Los Angeles recovered thanks to a key single from Vladimir Guerrero to pull out a 7-6 victory over the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on Sunday.

Guerrero drove in two Angels runners. He went 2-4 at the plate.

via mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com

Posted via web from David Dobbs's Somatic Marker

Posted by David Dobbs at 6:20 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

The importance of stupidity in scientific research (and in writing), by Randy Burgess

Just heard of a neat article about why feeling stupid on a regular basis is actually a good sign if you're doing serious scientific research. The article is by a fellow named Martin Schwartz, a professor of microbiology and biomedical engineering at the University of Virginia, and it was published in April of 2008 in The Journal of Cell Science. Here's an excerpt:

Productive stupidity means being ignorant by choice. Focusing on important questions puts us in the awkward position of being ignorant. One of the beautiful things about science is that it allows us to bumble along, getting it wrong time after time, and feel perfectly fine as long as we learn something each time. No doubt, this can be difficult for students who are accustomed to getting the answers right. No doubt, reasonable levels of confidence and emotional resilience help, but I think scientific education might do more to ease what is a very big transition: from learning what other people once discovered to making your own discoveries. The more comfortable we become with being stupid, the deeper we will wade into the unknown and the more likely we are to make big discoveries.

What I like about this excerpt - and about the entire article - is that with a very few changes, it could be speaking of writing. Writing seriously, regularly, searchingly, means feeling stupid on a regular basis. For that matter the same applies for writing even reasonably well, at least for me. I've had writing students come up to me anxiously after class and say, "There must be something wrong; I find writing is terribly hard work. It takes me hours." And I tell them, "You can relax - that's normal."

via raburgess.com

Posted via web from David Dobbs's Somatic Marker

Posted by David Dobbs at 5:44 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

October 27, 2009

Why is the swine flu vaccine so late? Who are you to ask such a question?

In a disturbing post at ScienceInsider, Jon Cohen and Martin Enserink explain why the swine flu vaccine is running so late. Or at least they try to explain why it's so late. For while all the suppliers are running into problems, we're not allowed to know what they are.

The delays are substantial and critical. They leave us naked as the flu spreads through the country. The flu has now killed 1000 people, over 100 of them children. Even as this happens, the delivery dates keep moving back and the delivery amounts keep shrinking. As recently as a month ago, the CDC was telling us that we'd have 40 million doses by the end of this month. Last week, they were saying 30 million doses. Now they're saying 16 million doses and not making any promises beyond that.

The U.S. contracted with five companies to supply vaccine. Only one, MedImmune -- the company supplying the adjuvanted FluMist product -- has come close to its promised delivery schedule. But because we're so leery of adjuvanted product, we ordered only 12.8 million doses from MedImmune. The other four companies, meanwhile, are all running badly behind. Why? When ScienceInsider pressed Nicole Lurie, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at HHS, for answers, she essentially she couldn't say.

Read on »

Posted by David Dobbs at 8:43 AM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Previous Next

Neuron Culture

Search

Profile

My Google Shared links

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Categories

Fallows on the Fort Hood shootings: "Don't mean nothing."

Gorgeous thing of the day: Sky's-eye view of the Maldives & other islands

"The male approaches with his thumbs (like the Fonz) and mounts the female (like the Fonz.)"

Quick dip: Healthcare reform, conflicted profs, and the vaccine shortage

Meet the New Health Care Reform, Same as the Old Health Care Reform

At Top Schools, More Than Half the Profs Have Industry Ties

US: 11% fatality rate in hospitalized California H1N1 cases

US: 114 dead children, or 300?

"We overpromised"

"No pity party, no macho man." Psychologist Dave Grossman on surviving killing

Still hope for writers everywhere: Robots take over sports desk - but need writer to write lede.

The importance of stupidity in scientific research (and in writing), by Randy Burgess

Top 5 Neuron Culture Posts for October

Why is the swine flu vaccine so late? Who are you to ask such a question?

ScienceBlogs

Search ScienceBlogs:

Go to:

Channels

RSS Feeds

More ScienceBlogs

Editor's Picks

Science News from NYTimes.com »

From NYTimes.com