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.
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 Jake Young 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 Jake Young 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 Jake Young 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 Jake Young 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 Jake Young 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 Jake Young 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 Jake Young 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 Jake Young 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 Jake Young 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 Jake Young at 1:38 PM • 0 Comments •
March 9, 2007
Category: Alzheimer's
We all know that inhaled anesthesia is over the short-term impairs neurological function; that is sort of the point using it for surgery. However, a debate exists about whether inhaled anesthetics have long-term neurological consequences as well. In light of...
Posted by Jake Young at 11:30 AM • 2 Comments •
Category: Haha, a funny
First a German man sues three teenagers for making his ostrich impotent, now another is quite literally dividing the possessions in his divorce: A 43-year-old German decided to settle his imminent divorce by chainsawing a family home in two and...
Posted by Jake Young at 10:27 AM • 1 Comments •
March 7, 2007
Category: Academia
Steven Levitt from the Freakonomics blog has started a discussion about whether the tenure system is worth it. His argument is that the tenure system supports the mediocre and should be scrapped: If there was ever a time when it...
Posted by Jake Young at 4:31 PM • 27 Comments •
March 6, 2007
Category: Law
Stuart Taylor has an interesting article on Supreme Court predictions in the National Journal. He doesn't see a dramatic shift rightward happening: Abortion. The Roberts Court has already voted in a big abortion case, on the constitutionality of the federal...
Posted by Jake Young at 11:50 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Neuroscience
I posted a couple months ago about neuron to glia (in this case oligodendrocyte) synapses in the hippocampus, and how researchers had shown that these synapses were capable of LTP. This was an example of two themes 1) the brain...
Posted by Jake Young at 11:43 AM • 1 Comments •
March 5, 2007
Category: Aminals
Not the kind of story you read everyday: Three teenagers may be on the hook for a hefty fine if a court decides that their festive firecrackers outside an eastern German farm scared the libido right out of an ostrich...
Posted by Jake Young at 4:38 PM • 1 Comments •
Category: Evolution
The NYTimes magazine has an excellent article on the controversy within science as to the meaning of God. This is different from the cultural controversy as to the validity of Revelation because it is concerned with why religion may have...
Posted by Jake Young at 10:36 AM • 1 Comments •
March 4, 2007
Category: Poems
When Ecstasy is Inconvenient by Lorine Niedecker Feign a great calm; all gay transport soon ends. Chant: who knows -- flight's end or flight's beginning for the resting gull? Heart, be still. Say there is money but it rusted; say...
Posted by Jake Young at 11:36 AM • 0 Comments •
March 2, 2007
Category: Teaching
I don't know if you have ever seen this show on Animal Planet -- Meerkat Manor. It is disgustingly cute. It is about a family of meerkats that were followed over several years. Anyway, I love that show, so lately...
Posted by Jake Young at 11:15 AM • 4 Comments •
