Neuron Culture
Archives for January, 2008
Why the Mona Lisa’s smile vanishes
Posted by David Dobbs on January 31, 2008 Stumbled across this early this morning: Why the Mona Lisa’s smile is so strangely alluring, and seems to come and go. From the website of Harvard neuroscientist Margaret LIvingstone: The elusive quality of the Mona Lisa’s smile can be explained by the fact that her smile is almost entirely in low spatial frequencies, and so…
A Debate over Hopeless Monsters (and Sloppy Narratives)
Posted by David Dobbs on January 25, 2008 A bit o’ squabble has broken out about hopeful monsters. As paleontologist evolutionary geneticist Jerry Coyne notes in a guest post at The Loom, Carl Zimmer’s blog, hopeful monsters are the products of … well, there’s the problem: They were either the product of sudden large evolutionary forces, as suggested in a recent NY Times…
What’s Under the Rock: Full Data Shows SSRIs Barely Best Placebo
Posted by David Dobbs on January 17, 2008 I’ve written before, both here and in print, about how FDA policy and drug company practices have allowed drug makers to publish (and the FDA to base approval on) only the most flattering drug-trial results while keeping less-flattering studies in the drawer. Today a New England Journal of Medicine report shows how things change when…
You paid for this research, now you get to read it
Posted by David Dobbs on January 16, 2008 The public will soon start getting quicker access to research results it sponsors. From BioMed Central Blog : NIH Public Access Policy to become mandatory: NIH Public Access Policy to become mandatory Many open access advocates will already have heard that NIH’s Public Access Policy, until now voluntary, is set to become mandatory following President…
Cod, climate, and Nature’s new Climate Change journal
Posted by David Dobbs on January 15, 2008 A new journal from the Nature Publishing Group (publishers of Nature, Nature Neuroscience, and other favorites of mine) has just started a journal about climate change, and to my delight they feature a story about climate change and Atlantic cod, an old love of mine from my time on the Gulf of Maine. Atlantic cod,…
Left-Hand-Turn Elimination – New York Times
Posted by David Dobbs on January 10, 2008 There were a mess of interesting items in the New York Times Magazine annual “Ideas” issue last December 9, but I keep thinking of this one every time a) I wait to make a left-hand turn or b) see a UPS truck. Short v: Avoid left turns and save … Here’s the whole thing: Left-Hand-Turn…
The Garden Waits
Posted by David Dobbs on January 6, 2008 You’re supposed to bring Adirondack chairs in for the winter, to make them last longer. But I like to leave them in the garden, sitting in their comfortable circle. They look tough, as mountain chairs should. And they remind me the garden, and spring and summer, await. \
Gay Men and Women Navigate Differently ..
Posted by David Dobbs on January 4, 2008 Spatial cognition research is a major interest of mine. This one’s a doozy. From ScienceDaily, Jan 3, 2008: Gay Men Navigate In A Similar Way To Women, Virtual Reality Researchers Find ScienceDaily (Jan. 3, 2008) Gay men navigate in a similar way to women, according to a new study from researchers at Queen Mary, University…
Simple checklist saves 1500 lives; feds axe it
Posted by David Dobbs on January 4, 2008 A New York Times piece by Atul Gawande gives some good news and bad news about a life-saving checklist developed to prevent fatal infections in intensive care units. The good news: A year ago, researchers at Johns Hopkins University published the results of a program that instituted in nearly every intensive care unit in Michigan…
Mirror Neuron Backlash
Posted by David Dobbs on January 1, 2008 A backlash is brewing against the mirror neuron theory, or at least its overextension. (Fair disclosure: I was part of the alleged problem.) I picked this up distinctly at the Society of Neuroscience meeting last November. I’ve seen it in the literature since. Last week, I convinced Greg Hickok, a cogsci/language researcher at UC Irvine,…