Reality is always more complicated than you think.
Profile
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.
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Aminals:
Electric fish, Brienomyrus brachyistius, produce tiny electric signals from an organ in their tails that can be used to communicate and convey social status. They can also be used attract a mate, as reported in a study by Wong and...
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Posted on June 21, 2007 10:42 AM • 1 Comments •
Research in army ants has shown that they will plug holes in the road using an interesting technique: Certain army ants in the rainforests of Central and South America conduct spectacular predatory raids containing up to 200,000 foraging ants. Remarkably,...
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Posted on May 30, 2007 10:06 AM • 1 Comments •
The Freakonomics guys have a simply hysterical article in the New York Times magazine about monkey economics. The article discusses how monkeys possess the mental apparatus for economic valuation including the use of money. They train the monkeys to use...
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Posted on May 2, 2007 11:13 AM • 18 Comments •
I don't know if you have been following this story, but there have been massive honey bee die-offs recently in the United States. Considering that honey bees are the primary pollinators for many of the crops grown here, this is...
Posted on April 25, 2007 9:33 AM • 4 Comments •
Outcast chimp prefers humans to other chimps: We all know not to feed the animals when visiting the zoo. Now the Antwerp Zoo has urged visitors to, please, stop staring at the chimpanzees. New rules have been posted outside the...
Posted on April 19, 2007 10:41 AM • 1 Comments •
You know, waiting might have been just as effective: It took a Coast Guard helicopter to rescue a man and his pet cockatoo from the heights of a pine tree after he got stuck trying retrieve the $2,000 bird. William...
Posted on April 5, 2007 10:35 AM • 1 Comments •
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 on March 28, 2007 9:20 AM • 4 Comments •
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 on March 5, 2007 4:38 PM • 1 Comments •
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...
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Posted on March 2, 2007 11:15 AM • 4 Comments •
A damn-building mammal...get your mind out of the gutter: Beavers grace New York City's official seal. But the industrious rodents haven't been spotted here for as many as 200 years -- until this week. Biologists videotaped a beaver swimming up...
Posted on February 27, 2007 9:25 AM • 3 Comments •
A squirrel running around the innards of the plane grounded a Dallas-Tokyo flight: An American Airlines flight made an unscheduled landing after pilots heard something skittering about in the wire-laden space over the cockpit. The airline blamed the emergency landing...
Posted on February 19, 2007 9:40 AM • 5 Comments •
I know that a bunch of other people covered this story, but I managed to find a video of it so I thought I would post it anyway. Researchers working in Ivory Coast have found remnants of a chimpanzee habitation...
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Posted on February 16, 2007 9:38 AM • 2 Comments •
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...
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Posted on January 31, 2007 11:12 AM • 6 Comments •
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...
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Posted on January 29, 2007 11:04 AM • 2 Comments •
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 on January 25, 2007 11:31 AM • 0 Comments •
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...
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Posted on January 23, 2007 10:48 AM • 1 Comments •
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 on January 17, 2007 2:45 PM • 6 Comments •
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 on January 10, 2007 12:18 PM • 2 Comments •
There you go, lemurs! Way to speciate: The number of known species of the mouse lemur, the world's smallest primate, has increased by 25% with the description of three new species, bringing the total to 15. Mouse lemurs are wide-eyed...
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Posted on November 28, 2006 12:23 AM • 0 Comments •
This was forwarded to me in an email, and it is just too "dam" funny for me not to post. It is a letter that was sent to a man named Ryan DeVries by the Pennslyvania Department of Environmental Quality...
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Posted on November 26, 2006 6:11 PM • 2 Comments •
Sounds like the kids I used to babysit: Panbanisha the bonobo is up to her tricks again. For the second time in as many months, the ape triggered a fire alarm at the Great Ape Trust of Iowa research center....
Posted on November 17, 2006 3:17 PM • 5 Comments •
Wow. That is not something you hear everyday: Australian scientists unveiled three test-tube koala joeys on Monday as part of an artificial insemination program to preserve the vulnerable mammal. The scientists said the program would lead to the creation of...
Posted on November 7, 2006 10:14 AM • 1 Comments •
Previously, not cute. Now, cute. Let the swooning media attention begin....
Posted on October 14, 2006 8:18 AM • 1 Comments •
CNN is reporting that mammals have been sighted in Europe: Using DNA testing, scientists have discovered what is believed to be the first terrestrial mammal found in Europe in decades: a mouse with a big head, ears, eyes and teeth...
Posted on October 13, 2006 10:25 AM • 5 Comments •
There are intruders invading from our Southern border! No, not illegal immigrants -- jaguars. Having not been seen in the Southwest for some time, some of them have started to filter in from Mexico. The NYTimes reports: Using the same...
Posted on October 12, 2006 12:51 PM • 0 Comments •
Conservationists have discovered a new species of bird in the cloud forests of Colombia: A colorful new bird has been discovered in a previously unexplored Andean cloud forest, spurring efforts to protect the area, conservation groups said Monday. The bright...
Posted on October 11, 2006 2:03 PM • 2 Comments •
Scientists in FL are trying to make a prosthetic tail for a dolphin, Winter, who lost hers after getting tangled in a fishing line: Winter learned how to swim without her tail, amazing her handlers with a combination of moves...
Posted on September 26, 2006 9:07 AM • 1 Comments •
Did you know that ants snap their mandibles together so fast that they can throw themselves in the air? Check out this (click on the video link to watch it): When trap-jaw ants need to get out quick, they use...
Posted on August 23, 2006 11:09 PM • 0 Comments •
That's a lot of Panda: A giant panda in China has given birth to the heaviest cub born in captivity after the longest period in labor and elsewhere twin pandas each gave birth to twins, Xinhua news agency reported. Six-year-old...
Posted on August 8, 2006 10:24 PM • 1 Comments •
There is a manatee in the Hudson; which is interesting because I had always associated the Hudson with industrial waste, bad smells, the periodic dead person, and kayakers who seem to have no problem floating amongst those things: Over the...
Posted on August 8, 2006 1:34 PM • 0 Comments •
