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.
June 30, 2008
Category: Learning and Memory
A lot of people have read The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki. In the book, he gives an example of a group of people forced to estimate the weight of a cow. (This was actually an experiment that geneticist...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 1:17 PM • 4 Comments •
June 27, 2008
Category: Neuroscience
There is a must-read paper in Nature about the limits of functional MRI as an experimental tool by one of its pioneers, Nikos Logothetis. (Also discussed by Jonah and Vaughan.) This paper is pretty technical, but Logothetis hits the important...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 3:47 PM • 7 Comments •
June 25, 2008
Category: Drugs
There was a very sad article in the NYTimes about the regular practice in some long-term care facilities of treating demented patients with anti-psychotic medications like Risperdal, Seroquel and Zyprexa: The use of antipsychotic drugs to tamp down the agitation,...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 11:57 AM • 10 Comments •
June 24, 2008
Category: Other People's Work
Presh has a great post on game theory and voting power using nominations to the Israeli Supreme Court as an example. Take homes: Here is what you can take away when creating your own voting structures: 1. Vote size does...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 1:17 PM • 0 Comments •
Category: Teaching
This is a bit old, but in case you haven't seen it... A few weeks ago, Jake wrote a post about the importance of teaching during grad school. I couldn't agree more--some of my best experiences in grad school to...
Posted by Kara Contreary at 10:51 AM • 8 Comments •
June 23, 2008
Category: Psychology
PsyBlog is soliciting your favorite psychobabble. Head over there to give your favorite instance of the complete misinterpretation of psychology in pop culture. My favorite is number one on their list of examples: "Their brains lit up in the scanner."...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 11:45 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Carnivals
Encephalon is up at Neuroanthropology....
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 11:28 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Energy Policy
Two great articles on energy policy. 1) One of the major points of resistance to carbon taxes or caps is that developing countries won't have similar quotas giving them a comparative advantage in the production of goods. However, some economists...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 10:56 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Haha, a funny
George Carlin died yesterday. I always loved his comedy, but more important to me Carlin affirmed my atheism at a time in my life when I didn't really know anyone else who felt that way. He poked fun at religion,...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 7:35 AM • 40 Comments •
June 19, 2008
Category: Healthcare
Well that is not good: In a survey last year of nearly 2,400 physicians conducted by a physician recruiting firm, locumtenens.com, 3 percent said they were not frustrated by nonclinical aspects of medicine. The level of frustration has increased with...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 12:49 PM • 7 Comments •
PZ Myers 11.19.2009
PZ Myers 11.20.2009
Ed Brayton 11.20.2009
Ed Brayton 11.20.2009
Tim Lambert 11.18.2009
