Molecular Biology:
In his 1941 book Man on His Nature, the Nobel Prize-winning physiologist Sir Charles Sherrington described the brain as "an enchanted loom where millions of flashing shuttles weave a dissolving pattern." Little could he have known that within 50 years...
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Posted on October 8, 2008 8:23 AM • 2 Comments •
The transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), which include variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in humans, "Mad Cow" Disease in cattle and scrapie in sheep, are progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disorders characterized by the accumulation within nerve cells of an abnormally folded and insoluble...
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Posted on October 7, 2008 11:10 AM • 8 Comments •
The September issue of Scientific American contains an excellent and lengthy article about a state-of-the-art technique called optogenetics, by molecular physiologist Gero Miesenböck, who has been instrumental in its development. As its name suggests, optogenetics is a combination of optics...
Posted on September 24, 2008 11:05 AM • 2 Comments •
National Library of Medicine / Hot Medical NewsThis silent film clip shows several victims of a disease called kuru. They are - or rather were - members of the South Fore, a tribe of approximately 8,000 people who inhabit the...
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Posted on August 11, 2008 7:21 PM • 15 Comments •
The classic Nobel Prize-winning studies of David Hubel and Torsten Weisel showed how the proper maturation of the developing visual cortex is critically dependent upon visual information received from the eyes. In what would today be considered highly unethical experiments,...
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Posted on August 8, 2008 10:54 PM • 0 Comments •
This three-dimensional reconstruction of an amyloid fibril (found at Discover) was created by Nikolaus Grigorieff and his colleagues at Brandeis University, by computer processing of a transmission electron cryomicroscopy image. It is the most detailed image yet of the abnormally...
Posted on July 16, 2008 6:17 AM • 4 Comments •
When it comes to human brain evolution, it is often said that size matters. The human cerebral cortex is much larger than that of other primates, and therefore its expansion must have been a vital feature of human evolution. Researchers...
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Posted on June 11, 2008 9:35 PM • 0 Comments •
Logo by Ricardo at My Biotech Life Welcome to the 33rd edition of Gene Genie, the blog carnival devoted to genes and genetic diseases.In this edition, there is a strong emphasis on cancer. There's also a focus on leukodystrophy, and...
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Posted on June 8, 2008 8:57 PM • 0 Comments •
Whilst preparing for the comprehension exam - which I sat yesterday, and which went well - I referred to this piece I wrote in March last year, about a genetic method which employs a modified rabies virus for labelling all...
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Posted on May 17, 2008 6:49 AM • 3 Comments •
What with the current debate about the use of "smart" drugs by academics, I thought it pertinent to republish this old piece from January of last year, about a bacterial toxin which has been shown to enhance fear conditioning and...
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Posted on April 6, 2008 7:30 PM • 3 Comments •
