Memories can be strengthened while we sleep by providing the right triggers
Category: Sleep
A new study suggests that you can strengthen individual memories by reactivating them as you snooze.
Posted by Ed Yong at 9:20 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Not Exactly Rocket Science
My small attempt to celebrate science and to make it interesting and fun by giving jargon, confusion and elitism a solid beating with the stick of good writing.
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Ed Yong is an award-winning science writer based in London. Not Exactly Rocket Science is his attempt to make the latest scientific discoveries interesting to everyone by beating jargon, confusion and elitism with the stick of good writing. He finds writing about himself in the third person strange and unsettling.
"One of the best sites for in-depth analysis of interesting scientific papers" - The Times
"A consistently illuminating home for long, thoughtful, and thorough explorations of science news" - National Association of Science Writers
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Recent Posts
- Memories can be strengthened while we sleep by providing the right triggers
- Tiny fungi replay the fall of the giant beasts
- Breaking the inverted pyramid - placing news in context
- Elephants and humans evolved similar solutions to problems of gas-guzzling brains
- Some housekeeping
- Cooperating bacteria are vulnerable to slackers
- South African wildlife - Tyson the leopard
- Travels with dopamine - the chemical that affects how much pleasure we expect
- Revisiting FOXP2 and the origins of language
- Measuring dino fitness - more evidence that two-legged dinosaurs were warm-blooded
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- Ed Yong on Tiny fungi replay the fall of the giant beasts
- Will Baird on Tiny fungi replay the fall of the giant beasts
- Khalil A. on Breaking the inverted pyramid - placing news in context
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November 20, 2009
November 19, 2009
Tiny fungi replay the fall of the giant beasts
Category: Palaeontology
North American used to be home to giant mammals - megafauna - that went extinct between 10 and 15 thousand years ago. Now, scientists are replaying the final days of these giant beasts by studying a tiny fungus that grew in their dung.
Posted by Ed Yong at 2:00 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 18, 2009
Breaking the inverted pyramid - placing news in context
Category: Journalism
Does the inverted pyramid model of news writing still apply in an online world? Do the "living stories" of Wikipedia and growing freedom from column restrictions suggest a different model?
Posted by Ed Yong at 9:30 AM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 16, 2009
Elephants and humans evolved similar solutions to problems of gas-guzzling brains
Category: Animals
As humans and elephants evolved large brains with huge energy demands, we have developed similar adaptations in genes used by our mitochondria - small power plants that supply energy to our cells.
Posted by Ed Yong at 5:04 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 15, 2009
Some housekeeping
Hi folks, A couple of housekeeping issues: ScienceBlogs have developed a set of funky widgets that allow you to share the headlines from your favourite blogs on other websites. You can find the one for Not Exactly Rocket Science here...
Posted by Ed Yong at 6:13 PM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Cooperating bacteria are vulnerable to slackers
Category: Altruism
Slackers and layabouts are an inevitable part of human society, and even bacterial colonies have their own cheats that reap the benefits of communal living while contributing nothing in return.
Posted by Ed Yong at 10:00 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 14, 2009
South African wildlife - Tyson the leopard
Category: South African wildlife
This is Tyson, a male leopard and one of the last animals we saw on our South African safari. We only took headshots of him but immediately, you can see that he's stockier and more powerfully built than Safari,...
Posted by Ed Yong at 12:00 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 12, 2009
Travels with dopamine - the chemical that affects how much pleasure we expect
Category: Neuroscience
Many of our decision hinge upon the ability to imagine how happy we'd be in the future. And these mental simulations of future expectations are strongly affected by the chemical dopamine.
Posted by Ed Yong at 12:00 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 11, 2009
Revisiting FOXP2 and the origins of language
Category: Genetics
This is an updated version of a feature I wrote on FOXP2 (the so-called "language gene" for New Scientist, now edited for 2009 to include breaking research.
Posted by Ed Yong at 1:00 PM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 10, 2009
Measuring dino fitness - more evidence that two-legged dinosaurs were warm-blooded
Category: Palaeontology
A study of 13 dinosaur species suggests that these ancient reptiles would have needed more energy to walk and run than a cold-blooded physiology could supply. Their metabolic demands were within the range of modern warm-blooded animals like mammals and birds.
Posted by Ed Yong at 4:56 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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