Now on ScienceBlogs: On cheerleaders and watchdogs - the role of science journalism [Not Exactly Rocket Science]
Category: Medicine & Health
If someone told you that they wanted to have a perfectly good leg amputated, or that they have three arms, when they clearly do not, you would probably be inclined to think that they are mentally disturbed. Psychiatrists, too, considered...
Posted by Mo at 7:01 PM • 20 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Medicine & Health
The top medical breakthrough of the year, according to TIME Magazine, is the creation of motor neurons from ALS patients. (Here are all 50 of the magazine's Top 10 lists for 2008.)This work was carried out by researchers at Harvard...
Posted by Mo at 4:30 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Neuroscience
The term body image was coined by the great neurologist Henry Head and refers to a mental representation of one's physical appearance. Constructed by the brain from past experience and present sensations, the body image is a fundamental aspect of...
Posted by Mo at 12:40 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Microbiology
Fox 10 News has a rather gruesome story about the removal of a live parasitic worm from a woman's brain, which is accompanied by a film clip containing footage of the surgical procedure. As the film explains, the woman,...
Posted by Mo at 9:31 PM • 20 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Medicine & Health
The BBC has film footage of the legendary Bluegrass musician Eddie Adcock playing the banjo whilst having his brain operated on.Adcock is suffering from essential tremor, a progressive neurological condition characterised by tremors in the arms which appear during voluntary...
Posted by Mo at 6:22 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Medicine & Health
These X-rays show a knife plunged into the skull of a 16-year-old boy from southeast London. Fortunately, his injuries were nowhere near as serious as they might have been - according to a police officer quoted in The Times,...
Posted by Mo at 10:45 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Neuroscience
Radiation therapy is a common treatment for adults and children who present with tumours in or close to the brain. In the last 20 years, advances in radiotherapy have significantly improved the prognosis for brain cancer patients. However, the resulting...
Posted by Mo at 10:17 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: History of neuroscience
The patient lies on the operating table, with the right side of his body raised slightly. The anaesthetist sterilizes his scalp and injects it with Nupercaine to produce analgesia - the patient will remain fully conscious throughout the procedure. Behind...
Posted by Mo at 5:30 PM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Art
At Bioephemera, Jessica has a fascinating post about depictions of madness in 15th-17th century art, during which time mental illness was popularly attributed to the presence of a "stone of madness" (or "stone of folly") in the head. One...
Posted by Mo at 4:59 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Medicine & Health
Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has dementia.In her forthcoming book, which is serialized in the Mail on Sunday (a paper which, I hasten to add, I do not read), Carol Thatcher reveals that her mother's mental faculties have been...
Posted by Mo at 2:50 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
PZ Myers 07.01.2009
Ed Yong 07.06.2009
PZ Myers 07.05.2009
Orac 07.04.2009
Greg Laden 07.05.2009
Latest science stories | More at nytimes.com
4:43 AM, 07.06.2009
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2:24 AM, 07.03.2009
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2:50 PM, 06.30.2009
