Jake Young is a MD/PhD student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine focusing in Neuroscience. He is due to graduate in 2032. He received a BS and a MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University -- where he spent most of his time drinking heavily and building vegetable catapults instead of learning information that would now be eminently useful. When he is not failing terrifically to perform his sworn duties, he enjoys watching bad movies, ethnic food, and running.
Pure Pedantry is a blog about science -- social sciences and otherwise -- as well as academic and scientific culture. No one can live on science alone, so I also like to dwell on pop culture, periodically explore the humanities, and indulge in other types of geeky goodness.
Jake is joined periodically by two wonderful guest bloggers: Kara Contreary and Kate Seip. See the About Page.
DISCLAIMERS: 1) Jake Young is not a licensed physician (yet). He is merely a medical student. The information published on this site is not intended for use in medical decision making. Please seek advice from a licensed, medical professional before making any health decisions. 2) The opinions expressed are my own or those of my co-bloggers. They do not represent the views of SEED magazine or the educational establishments we currently attend.
January 31, 2007
Category: Aminals
There is no reason that you would know this (and frankly I doubt you really want to), but I have a problem when women stay over. There are hot as hell, and they always want to cuddle and make me...
Posted by Jake Young at 11:12 AM • 6 Comments •
Category: Women's Health
There is a big controversy among doctors and patients as to the wisdom of C-section vs. vaginal delivery. It is a complex issue. For the first birth, there is no evidence that I am aware of that C-section or vaginal...
Posted by Jake Young at 10:46 AM • 11 Comments •
January 30, 2007
Category: Gender
We have had an ongoing discussion on this blog about whether the disparity between women and men in the sciences is the result of a innate difference in cognitive ability or the result of some social phenomena such as selective...
Posted by Jake Young at 12:06 PM • 38 Comments •
January 29, 2007
Category: Media
Jeffrey Toobin, writing in the New Yorker, has an excellent article on Google's plan to scan all the books they can get their hands on into digital: The legal assertion at the core of Google's business plan is its purported...
Posted by Jake Young at 2:37 PM • 0 Comments •
Category: Politics
Will we really be going Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton? Michael Barone had this story in the WSJ on the emerging tendency towards political dynasty in American politics: Not that anyone assumes that family members are all alike. It would not do for candidate...
Posted by Jake Young at 2:17 PM • 3 Comments •
Category: Carnivals
Encephalon #15 is up at Sharp Brains....
Posted by Jake Young at 12:57 PM • 0 Comments •
Category: Aminals
At a zoo in England, a Komodo dragon has laid eggs that have hatched even though she has never been exposed to a male: Scientists unveiled five squirmy black and yellow Komodo dragons Wednesday that were the product of a...
Posted by Jake Young at 11:04 AM • 2 Comments •
Category: Haha, a funny
Residents of New Jersey must be warned not to eat too many toxic squirrels: New Jersey has warned squirrel hunters near a toxic waste dump about consuming the critters because they could be contaminated with lead. It is the first...
Posted by Jake Young at 10:38 AM • 3 Comments •
Category: Haha, a funny
Not to suggest that Americans wouldn't: Ignoring health warnings and threats of prosecution, hundreds of people foraged among containers washed from a stricken cargo vessel on the southern English coast on Monday, hauling off booty that included BMW motorcycles, shoes,...
Posted by Jake Young at 10:28 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Technology
When I was a kid my Mom would always set the clock in the car forward about 15 minutes arguing that if she did that she would never be late. First of all, we were always early -- sometimes ridiculously...
Posted by Jake Young at 10:23 AM • 0 Comments •
January 28, 2007
Category: Poems
The Age Demanded by Ernest Miller Hemingway The age demanded that we sing And cut away our tongue. The age demanded that we flow And hammered in the bung. The age demanded that we dance And jammed us into iron...
Posted by Jake Young at 10:14 AM • 0 Comments •
January 25, 2007
People can be really, really dumb sometimes: Reports about a study that found microwave ovens can be used to sterilize kitchen sponges sent people hurrying to test the idea this week -- with sometimes disastrous results. A team at the...
Posted by Jake Young at 11:37 AM • 1 Comments •
Category: Aminals
German scientists are having trouble getting their sloth to work: Scientists in the eastern German city of Jena said Wednesday they have finally given up after three years of failed attempts to entice a sloth into budging as part of...
Posted by Jake Young at 11:31 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Perception
The binding problem is one of the great mysteries of modern neuroscience. Briefly, we know from a variety of studies in humans and primates that the specific features of the sensory world -- particularly the visual world -- are broken...
Posted by Jake Young at 11:22 AM • 2 Comments •
January 24, 2007
Category: Funding
Ronald Bailey at Reason has an interesting theory: Federal funding drives out private funding for research resulting in a net loss (or at least no change) for researchers. His best example is what has happened during the ban on Federal...
Posted by Jake Young at 1:02 PM • 7 Comments •
Category: Sex
It would appear that today will be Sex Day at Pure Pedantry. So be it. I didn't know this but mouse and rat sperm have funny shaped hooks at their tips. To the right is a picture of sperm from...
Posted by Jake Young at 10:45 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Sex
Researchers have discovered a way to prevent premature ejaculation. You just cover your penis in lidocaine, the stuff the dentist uses to numb your face: Patients with premature ejaculation who used a topical anaesthetic spray were able to delay ejaculation...
Posted by Jake Young at 10:12 AM • 6 Comments •
January 23, 2007
Category: Haha, a funny
Anyone who has ever had an annoying child sit behind them in the plane will crack up at this: AirTran Airways on Tuesday defended its decision to remove a Massachusetts couple from a flight after their crying 3-year-old daughter refused...
Posted by Jake Young at 7:40 PM • 25 Comments •
Category: Politics
I have to admit I was a little skeptical of this argument, but it is growing on me. Basically, he is saying that executives are paid ungodly amounts because people are willing to pay them that. If it isn't my...
Posted by Jake Young at 11:35 AM • 10 Comments •
Category: Eating Disorders
Recently this model, Gisele Bundchen, speculated that the fashion industry is not to blame for anorexia. Rather parents are to blame: Gisele Bundchen has entered Brazil's growing debate over anorexia, saying families are to blame _ not the fashion industry....
Posted by Jake Young at 11:18 AM • 3 Comments •
Category: Earth Science
I saw this press release and for one brief happy instant I thought it might be about the band Scorpions and their hit Winds of Change. Sadly, it was just about wind direction changing over the last 30,000 years. Boo....
Posted by Jake Young at 10:56 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Aminals
The terror bird or Titanis walleri was a flightless, carnivorous bird present in North America. Researchers at the University of Florida have determined that it was probably present in North America prior to the formation of the land bridge that...
Posted by Jake Young at 10:48 AM • 1 Comments •
January 22, 2007
Category: Geek News
This guy made his home theater look like the bridge of the Enterprise on Star Trek. Check out this picture (click to enlarge): There are many more pictures on his site. Wow. I don't really know whether to be impressed...
Posted by Jake Young at 10:21 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: History
The Nation has an interesting review about a book on the history of vegetarianism. The book is The Bloodless Revolution by Tristram Stuart. It argues that vegetarianism is important not only as an ethical stance but because it became entangled...
Posted by Jake Young at 10:16 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Technology
I got into science because I like knowledge, but I also got into science because we get the absolute best toys. Railguns, particle accelerators, rapid gene sequencers -- these things still make drool come out my mouth. Anyway, I am...
Posted by Jake Young at 10:05 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Politics
Michael Barone argues in his column that one of the problems with our political process is the way in which we pick our President: The single most glaring defect in our mostly admirable political system is the presidential selection process....
Posted by Jake Young at 9:59 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Poems
The Labyrinth by W.H. Auden Anthropos apteros for days Walked whistling round and round the Maze, Relying happily upon His temperament for getting on. The hundredth time he sighted, though, A bush he left an hour ago, He halted where...
Posted by Jake Young at 12:59 AM • 0 Comments •
January 19, 2007
Category: Drugs
The Eli Lilly leaked documents story has exploded. Just to recap, on Dec. 17th last year the NYTimes reported on documents leaked from Eli Lilly that show that the company tried to play down the side effects of Zyprexa, a...
Posted by Jake Young at 10:53 AM • 3 Comments •
January 17, 2007
Category: Aminals
Why do I love stories about monkeys so much: An escaped chimpanzee at the Little Rock Zoo raided a kitchen cupboard and did a little cleaning with a toilet brush before sedatives knocked her out on top of a refrigerator....
Posted by Jake Young at 2:45 PM • 6 Comments •
January 16, 2007
Category: Neuroscience
The Stanford Prison experiment was a very famous -- now infamous -- experiment in social psychology that was conducted in 1971 by Dr. Phillip Zimbardo, Stanford psychology professor. You probably remember him if you took a high school or college...
Posted by Jake Young at 12:12 PM • 5 Comments •
Category: Global Warming
The global warming debate has been going for a long time, and both sides have become deeply entrenched. Unfortunately, this polarization is beginning to impede the achievement of any reasonable solution. Further, the proponents of steps to fight global warming...
Posted by Jake Young at 11:38 AM • 10 Comments •
Category: Blogging
Our own Bora Zivkovic, proprietor of A Blog Around the Clock, has been editting an anthology of the best science blog posts of 2006. Yours truly was lucky enough to be included for this post on Floyd Landis several months...
Posted by Jake Young at 10:00 AM • 0 Comments •
January 15, 2007
We've been chatting in the ScienceBlogs forum about doing some posts about basic concepts in science -- short articles for people who don't necessarily have lots of background but would like to get some. Anyway, Chad is inquiring from his...
Posted by Jake Young at 10:01 PM • 4 Comments •
Evolgen has a hysterical post on the evolution of zombie populations....
Posted by Jake Young at 9:01 PM • 0 Comments •
Category: Poems
The Hymn of a Fat Woman by Joyce Huff All of the saints starved themselves. Not a single fat one. The words "deity" and "diet" must have come from the same Latin root. Those saints must have been thin as...
Posted by Jake Young at 3:22 PM • 0 Comments •
Category: History
Most of us probably haven't read the whole speech, but we should. I hadn't remembered this part: But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of...
Posted by Jake Young at 3:10 PM • 1 Comments •
Category: Technology
Check this out: Troy Hurtubise, the Hamilton-born inventor who became famous for his bulky bear-protection suit by standing in front of a moving vehicle to prove it worked, has now created a much slimmer suit that he hopes will soon...
Posted by Jake Young at 3:00 PM • 15 Comments •
Category: Carnivals
Encephalon 14 is up at Mixing Memory....
Posted by Jake Young at 2:43 PM • 0 Comments •
Category: Global Warming
The Economist has an interesting article on ideas for cooling the planet directly -- in manners other than CO2 emissions reductions -- and how they are being received: This gloomy outlook has encouraged new interest in a technological fix. A...
Posted by Jake Young at 2:42 PM • 5 Comments •
January 12, 2007
Category: Evolution
From the NY Times: An international team of researchers reported yesterday that the age of the South African skull, which they dated at about 36,000 years old, coincided with the age of the skulls of humans then living in Europe...
Posted by Jake Young at 9:29 AM • 2 Comments •
Category: Obesity and Heart Disease
Greg Beato in Reason: "It will take a grassroots effort of doctors, community leaders and consumers to force the government and the food industry to get those sugary foods out of mainstream American diets" [Robert] Lustig [of UCSF] told the...
Posted by Jake Young at 9:15 AM • 3 Comments •
January 11, 2007
Category: Sex
Ouch. I know I am going to catch hell for posting this, but it is too interesting to pass up. Devendra Singh from UT performed a search of British literature from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. The only consistently...
Posted by Jake Young at 11:59 AM • 4 Comments •
January 10, 2007
I just wanted to plug something else on ScienceBlogs really quick. Chris Chatham at Developing Intelligence is running a multi-part series on the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that is responsible for what...
Posted by Jake Young at 12:28 PM • 0 Comments •
Category: Sex
It's all about the serotonin: In a relatively small study, 68 young men and women were surveyed about recent headaches and sexual desire. Migraine sufferers reported levels of sexual desire 20 percent higher than those suffering from tension headaches. Overall,...
Posted by Jake Young at 12:20 PM • 5 Comments •
Category: Aminals
Everyone hates on the Ig Nobel awards, but I think they are pretty cool. It is a lot of science that would go totally unrecognized. Just because it has no practical relevance whatsoever doesn't mean it isn't cool. Take this...
Posted by Jake Young at 12:18 PM • 2 Comments •
Category: Obesity and Heart Disease
I knew the children were up to something -- with their beady little eyes: Adults who live with children eat more fat, and more saturated fat, than those who do not, according to a new study. The report, published online...
Posted by Jake Young at 12:06 PM • 3 Comments •
Category: Earth Science
Geologists are using computer models to speculate where the continents are going to go in the next 100 million years. Their conclusion: the continents may again rejoin into a new Pangea -- Pangea Ultima: Today, some of his most ambitious...
Posted by Jake Young at 12:02 PM • 2 Comments •
January 9, 2007
Category: Academic Bias
Shocking: The study, published by the Public Library of Science online journal PLoS Medicine, echoes other findings that show industry-funded research on drugs is more likely to be favorable to the drugs than independent research. Ludwig's team reviewed 111 studies...
Posted by Jake Young at 11:20 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Cancer
Evidence has been found for the stem cell theory of cancer development. For those of you not aware of this theory, it holds that cancers originate from cells that have inadequately differentiated from their stem cell origins. This would contrast...
Posted by Jake Young at 11:11 AM • 1 Comments •
January 8, 2007
Category: Politics
Daniel Kahneman and Johnathan Renshon, writing in Foreign Policy, put forward a fascinating thesis that because of the way human beings are organized psychologically we are prone to be more hawkish. Basically the thrust of their argument is that social...
Posted by Jake Young at 11:27 AM • 4 Comments •
January 6, 2007
Category: Poems
Two poems for this week because they are short. Conscientious Objector by Edna St. Vincent Millay I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death. I hear him leading his horse out of the stall; I...
Posted by Jake Young at 9:21 AM • 1 Comments •
January 4, 2007
Category: Haha, a funny
Hahaha!!! You have to see this short film. Hat-tip: Crooked Timber....
Posted by Jake Young at 8:04 PM • 0 Comments •
Category: Aging and Longevity
This is the question that I get all the time in family gatherings. Well, maybe not in those words. Usually it is phrased as "How can I not get Alzheimer's? Because that would be a bummer...for me..." People are concerned...
Posted by Jake Young at 12:23 PM • 8 Comments •
January 3, 2007
Category: Pop culture
A UK charity called Sense About Science is taking on celebrities who misrepresent scientific reality: MELINDA MESSENGER, TV PRESENTER "Why should I allow my body or my children to be filled with man-made chemicals, when I don't know what the...
Posted by Jake Young at 1:54 PM • 0 Comments •
Pat Robertson is up to his old fun: In what has become an annual tradition of prognostications, religious broadcaster Pat Robertson said Tuesday God has told him that a terrorist attack on the United States would result in "mass killing"...
Posted by Jake Young at 1:04 PM • 2 Comments •
Category: Science journalism
Grrrr. Tell me if this article bugs you as much as it does me: Social Dementia' Decimates Special Neurons By Michael Balter Being human has its pluses and minuses. Our cognitive powers are superior to that of other animals, and...
Posted by Jake Young at 11:41 AM • 4 Comments •
Category: Cancer
Men with no sons have an increased risk of prostate cancer in relation to those with at least one son: The researchers in the Mailman School's Department of Epidemiology analyzed the relative risk of prostate cancer by the sex of...
Posted by Jake Young at 11:31 AM • 0 Comments •
January 2, 2007
Category: Poems
Cartoon Physics, part 1 by Nick Flynn Children under, say, ten, shouldn't know that the universe is ever-expanding, inexorably pushing into the vacuum, galaxies swallowed by galaxies, whole solar systems collapsing, all of it acted out in silence. At ten...
Posted by Jake Young at 10:36 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Prion diseases
Prion diseases such as mad cow disease or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) are caused when normal proteins adopt an adverse conformational state. The protein sequence is the same as a normal protein; it has just adopted a conformation that causes...
Posted by Jake Young at 10:35 AM • 3 Comments •
Category: Medicine
Who knew: While public perception may frame surfing as a dangerous sport, new research begs to differ. In the first study of its kind, researchers have computed the rate of injury among competitive surfers and found they are less prone...
Posted by Jake Young at 10:06 AM • 1 Comments •