Much Ado About Footbaths
Category: U of M
Footbaths are being installed to accomdate Muslim university students. Is it legal?
Posted by Shelley Batts at 9:00 AM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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Shelley Batts is a Neuroscience PhD candidate at the University of Michigan. She studies hair cell regeneration in the cochlea, and is just embarking on that quixotic quest called 'thesis.' She lies awake at night pondering how science intersects with politics, culture, policy, money, medicine, and religion in an attempt to be more than just a niche scientist sitting in the oh-so-lovely ivory tower. Follow me and my parrot on the quest to get funded, get a PhD, and stay sane.
Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth, are never alone or weary of life. ~Rachel Carson
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Recent Posts
- The End of 'Retrospectacle', the Beginning of 'Of Two Minds'
- Parrots Need Valentine Love Too!
- Get Your New Neurons Here! (In Plush)
- Blog Hiatus Until March 1st
- Now, Take Your Drugs Aurally
- And the Winner is......
- Fake Poster Trilogy: Cingular Theory of Unification
- A Heartfelt Ode to the PCR (and More)
- 'Name That Blog' Contest Closed
- Last Day To Play 'Name That Blog'
Recent Comments
- Dr P V Ramana on Brain Hydatid Cyst (with Surgical Video)
- Peter Fremming on Science Vault: Coffee As Treatment For the Plague
- film izle on Thoughts About the Scholarship Contest From the Contestants
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- Hank Roberts on Q-Tips Ravage Another Young Life
- Andreas on Hair Cell Regeneration as a Therapy for Deafness
- Sam Wise on The End of 'Retrospectacle', the Beginning of 'Of Two Minds'
- Leland on Manatees To Stay Protected in Florida, For Now
- Shelley Batts on The End of 'Retrospectacle', the Beginning of 'Of Two Minds'
- David on The End of 'Retrospectacle', the Beginning of 'Of Two Minds'
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Highlights from Retrospectacle
Cochlear Hair Cell Regeneration
Interview With Dr. Irene Pepperberg
On Religion and Taking the 'Red Pill'
Neuroscience of Cocaine Addiction
Parrots Have Object Permanance
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Commenter Policy
I love constructive comments! However, I reserve the right to delete comments that abuse this forum. Voicing your opinions is great, just be respectful. :DOther Information
August 31, 2007
August 29, 2007
Ali G Interviews Kent Hovind
Category: YouTube Obsessions
Science: is it whack???? Whats the difference between homosexuals and homosapiens?
Posted by Shelley Batts at 9:09 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Contemplating Staying Up To See the Eclipse...
Category: Space Stuff
Sleep? Bah, who needs it when there's an eclipse to be spied!
Posted by Shelley Batts at 2:51 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 28, 2007
Beethoven Died of Inadvertent Lead Poisoning?
Category: History of Science
Was the composer poisoned by his doctor?
Posted by Shelley Batts at 4:17 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Suicide By Ballpoint Pen
Category: Weird Science
An unfortunate, but amazing case: a 25-year-old schizophrenic man shoved a 14.5-cm-long ballpoint pen through his eye socket, all the way to his cerebellum (in the rear of the brain). Hospital staff found him lying in a pool of...
Posted by Shelley Batts at 9:50 AM • 33 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 27, 2007
PRISM: Something Wicked This Way Comes?
Category: The War on Science
As noted around the science blogosphere, something wicked this way comes. PRISM, or the Partnership for Research Integrity in Science and Medicine (created by the Association of American Publishers), is setting up a strawman argument against Open Access publications, claiming...
Posted by Shelley Batts at 9:49 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 26, 2007
The Science of the Ultimate Jello Shot
Category: Weird Science
How much alcohol can you add to a Jello shot before it collapses?
Posted by Shelley Batts at 9:27 AM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 24, 2007
How the Cone Snail Devours Prey
Category: YouTube Obsessions
Last week I blogged about the unique properties of cone snail venom. Now take a took at that venom put to use: I wish I could slow it down enough to see the moment where the snail impales the fish...
Posted by Shelley Batts at 2:38 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 23, 2007
Yet More LOLParrots!
Category: LOLStuff
The LOLParrots Strike Back!
Posted by Shelley Batts at 11:00 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Braaaaaiiins in the Age of Egyptian Mummies
Category: Tastes Like Neuroscience
Popular legend tells us that during the process of mummification, the ancient Egyptians removed the vital organs, including the brain, and placed some of them in jars. The earliest known mummies date to around 3300 BC in Egypt. During...
Posted by Shelley Batts at 9:46 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 22, 2007
Alzheimer's Vaccine Effective in Preventing Tau Tangles
Category: Tastes Like Neuroscience
New vaccine prevents abnormal tau tangle formation in mammals.
Posted by Shelley Batts at 11:39 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 21, 2007
Over My Dead Body
Category: Memes
$4375.00The Cadaver Calculator - Find out how much your body is worth. From Mingle2 - Free Online DatingMingle2 - Dating Site Maybe I should have done comparisons of before and after this weekend, and seen how my body depreciated in...
Posted by Shelley Batts at 10:39 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
ScienceBlogger Meetup Report, For Realsies
Category: Blogging
What happens when you have 35 nerds in NYC, and then add booze?
Posted by Shelley Batts at 9:35 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 20, 2007
New York ScienceBlogging Debacle, I Mean, Meetup
Category: Blogging
So by now some of you may have heard that SEED threw a nice bash for us ScienceBloggers, and a gaggle of us went up to New York City to do whatever it is that online bloggers do when they...
Posted by Shelley Batts at 11:29 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 16, 2007
Why Is the Cochlea A Spiral?
Category: Inner Ear Biology
Why is the cochlea snail-shaped?
Posted by Shelley Batts at 9:09 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 15, 2007
Bariatric Surgery: Types of Obesity Surgery, Explained
Category: Health Care
What are the most common types of bariatric surgery? Part one in a series on surgical treatments for obesity.
Posted by Shelley Batts at 9:11 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 13, 2007
Science Vault: Coffee As Treatment For the Plague
Category: Science Vault
[This is part of a series I'm doing here on Retrospectacle called 'Science Vault.' Pretty much I'm just going to dig back into the forgotten and moldering annuls of scientific publications to find weird and interesting studies that very...
Posted by Shelley Batts at 1:00 AM • 22 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 10, 2007
Follow up to the Neuroscience of ADHD Discussion
Category: Tastes Like Neuroscience
The post I wrote last week on the neuroscience of ADHD generated a lot of interest and comments, with one of the main questions in the comments being 'what are the testable neurological correlates' of the condition. Joseph of Corpus...
Posted by Shelley Batts at 5:41 PM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 9, 2007
Snail Venom A Cocktail of Neurotoxic Peptides
Category: Tastes Like Neuroscience
Cone snail shells are beautiful, but their venom is a potent cocktail used to paralyze passing fish. The venom is a witch's brew of hundreds of novel compounds, many more than are found in snake venom (which has been used...
Posted by Shelley Batts at 9:00 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 8, 2007
The Cross-Cultural Meanings of a Smile
Category: Psych Out
If I'm on a date (which believe me, doesn't happen often) I can usually tell how its going by how, and how much, my date is smiling. Is the smile genuine or forced? Polite or flirty? Or worse yet, not...
Posted by Shelley Batts at 8:48 AM • 14 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 6, 2007
The Reason For Rosecea Solved
Category: Disease
If you aren't personally affected by the skin condition rosacea, you might not even know what it is. However, it affects over 45 million people worldwide, mostly fair-skinned people of European descent. At first, it is characterized by blotchy flushing...
Posted by Shelley Batts at 8:37 AM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 4, 2007
Gene Doping: The Next Big Thing in Cheating
Category: Genetics
As evidenced by the Tour de France's continuing troubles with chemical and blood doping, many professional athletes (but by no means all) are willing to take drastic measures to get an "edge." Blood doping involves strengthening a person's endurance by...
Posted by Shelley Batts at 9:33 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 3, 2007
Geeky Panties
Category: Fun
How about some Nintendo underwear? Continued below the fold.......
Posted by Shelley Batts at 2:42 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 2, 2007
Grad Student Pens Parrot Training Book
Category: Birds
Rebecca O'Connor, graduate student at the University of California- Riverside, knows why parrots screech and bite and it has a lot more to do with human behavior than the bird's. She's written a book incorporating animal-training techniques, detailing how...
Posted by Shelley Batts at 8:54 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 1, 2007
Implanted Electrodes Boost Brain Activity to Cortex
Category: Tastes Like Neuroscience
The current issue of Nature has a fascinating study regarding how implanted electrodes helped a minimally-conscious man to regain many cognitive functions lost during a traumatic injury. Patients in a minimally-conscious state only very low and sporadic levels of awareness,...
Posted by Shelley Batts at 4:52 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
When Mental Patients Get Lost in the System
Category: Health Care
There's an interesting article up at CNN today regarding families who have "lost" loved ones in mental institutions over the years. One in particular is making a movie about the little sister he thought was gone. One day in 1957,...
Posted by Shelley Batts at 12:45 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
