Now on ScienceBlogs: Falling into a Black Hole sucks!
Jake Young is a MD/PhD student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC getting a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience. He holds a BS and MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. If a volcano were to erupt Pompei-style in Central Park, his body would be preserved in a scoliotic posture over his lab desk. Archeaologists would later conclude that he spent most of his day training rats to perform tricks, until he went blind building electrical equipment by hand using a dissecting microscope. But, still, he died happy...because science is cool.
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.
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. They do not represent the views of SEED magazine or the educational establishments I currently attend or attended in the past.
March 29, 2007
Category: Learning and Memory
This is interesting. Researchers at Columbia have established that restricting neurogenesis in the hippocampus improves working memory: New research from Columbia University Medical Center may explain why people who are able to easily and accurately recall historical dates or long-ago...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 10:39 AM • 2 Comments •
March 28, 2007
Category: Sex
This is not just videos of hairy, fat people having sex. This is actual panda porn we are talking about: Chuang Chuang the panda has been spending his days in front of a big-screen television watching panda porn. Authorities at...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 9:20 AM • 4 Comments •
March 27, 2007
Category: Neuroscience
If you are like me, you spend a lot of time not thinking about anything in particular. You read a couple papers, get a little work done, and then you stare off into space for a period of pleasant mindlessness....
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 1:08 PM • 3 Comments •
March 26, 2007
Category: Medical School
This is absolutely ingenious: Patients rely on their physicians to recognize signs of trouble, yet for common heart murmurs, that ability is only fair at best. Fortunately, the solution is simple: listening repeatedly. In fact, intensive repetition -- listening at...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 10:35 AM • 1 Comments •
March 15, 2007
We're on vacation, so no posts until the 25th of March. Check back then....
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 10:34 AM • 0 Comments •
March 13, 2007
Category: Haha, a funny
I love the comedian Eddie Izzard. This is primarily because he is one of the few I have ever seen that even tries to make relatively intellectual jokes about history and science. Anyway, enjoy this video about physics and Pavlov's...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 4:06 PM • 8 Comments •
March 12, 2007
Category: Academia
David Ignatius has a great column about the underestimated power of American education. American-style education is being rapidly exported all over the world, and foreign students are lining up to attend American universities at both a graduate and undergraduate level....
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 11:16 AM • 12 Comments •
Category: Media
David Wallis, writing in SFGate, has a very interesting article about politics and political cartoons. I like all the historical background, although I don't entirely buy the one-sidedness of the censorship he seems to suggest: Adolf Hitler understood the power...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 10:45 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Neuroscience
Jeffrey Rosen has an excellent piece in the NYTimes magazine about the increasing use of neurological arguments in the courts: One important question raised by the Roper case was the question of where to draw the line in considering neuroscience...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 10:41 AM • 2 Comments •
March 11, 2007
Category: Poems
The Bistro Styx by Rita Dove She was thinner, with a mannered gauntness as she paused just inside the double glass doors to survey the room, silvery cape billowing dramatically behind her. What's this, I thought, lifting a hand until...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 1:38 PM • 0 Comments •
