November 6, 2009
Category: The Buzz
This week, Jessica Palmer of Bioephemera posted an illuminating report on the politics that govern—and often hamper—scientific research for drug abuse treatment. In her post, Jessica points out, "research to help [cigarette] smokers quit is generally portrayed as necessary and important," but the media, politicians, and society at large view research for treatment of other drug addictions as "a waste of money." She posits that these "cheap shots" are easy to take because many people find it difficult to relate to drug addicts, resulting in a "knee-jerk lack of sympathy." In the following days, ScienceBloggers joined Jessica in expressing their outrage. Janet D. Stemwedel of Adventures in Ethics and Science responded, saying, "I'd rather we be a society that stands ready to help people change...It's not just in their interest, but in ours, too." DrugMonkey also responded, posting talking points from the Coalition to Protect Research's alert on "a growing strategy to bash drug-abuse science." Ultimately, Jessica, along with her blogger cohorts, placed emphasis on the importance of this research concluding that addiction to "crack, meth, etc. utterly destroys families and communities."
Links below the fold.
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Posted by Erin Johnson at 11:58 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 5, 2009
Category: Science Communication • The Buzz
In the past five years, technology has played a major part in influencing the way we functions, even in the least mechanical of human behaviors--like socializing. Today, ScienceBloggers are taking a close look at how the social media explosion is affecting the world. On The Primate Diaries, Eric Michael Johnson reports on anthropologist Stefana Broadbent's surprising theory suggesting that social media is "promoting greater intimacy between people." Abel Pharmboy of Terra Sigillata shares with readers a flattering e-card he received marketing a pharmaceutical, sent only a week before the FDA holds a hearing on "Promotion of FDA-Regulated Medical Products Using the Internet and Social Media Tools." Matthew C. Nisbett covers Repower America's new social media ad campaign for their new feature, "The Wall," on Framing Science. On The World's Fair, David Ng posts a video from TEDx featuring a talk on how "advances in technology have provided increased collaboration on scientific research and scholarly publications," particularly in light of the H1N1 pandemic.
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Posted by Erin Johnson at 12:33 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 3, 2009
Category: Activism • Education • News • Politics • Sex • The Buzz • Wildlife
Last week, Dan Delong, an English teacher at Southwestern High School in Piasa, Illinois was suspended for allowing students to read an article on homosexuality in the animal kingdom. The article in question, "The Gay Animal Kingdom," was written by ScienceBlogger Jonah Lehrer of The Frontal Cortex, and published by Seed magazine in 2006. Mr. Delong faced a school board hearing on Monday and stood to lose his job over the incident. Jonah, along with many other ScienceBloggers, rallied support for Mr. Delong, as well as science education and literacy everywhere. Mike Dunford of the Questionable Authority pointed out that "the content was an optional, extra-credit assignment," and provides readers with the email contact for the school's superintendent. Greg Laden of Greg Laden's Blog spoke out along with Jonah and Mike, urging readers to check out the Facebook page replete with comments of support from Mr. DeLong's former students. In the end, the effort was worthwhile—Mr. DeLong returned to his classroom this morning.
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Posted by Erin Johnson at 1:26 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 2, 2009
Category: Biology • Design • Microbiology • Things We Like
What if your clothes grew themselves in response to your body's temperature, becoming thicker in areas that needed more insulation and thinner in areas that were warm enough?
Sounds pretty much ideal. No worrying about whether you're going to need a scarf later in the evening or if a down parka was maybe not the right choice. But what if the clothing in question was made up of bacteria? Specifically, the bacteria on your own skin?
Austrian designer Sonja Bäumel envisioned this most organic of textiles in "Crocheted Membrane," one in a four-part series of experiments exploring the relationship between the self and the environment. She spent ten days at Wageningen University in the Netherlands learning about microbiology, investigating whether bacteria might interact with textile fibers in a way that could lead to the eventual growth of such clothing. While Bäumel's concept has "a long way" to go before reaching reality, it's interesting to think of all the textile waste that could be avoided if it were ever to become de rigueur (the fashion industry, to be sure, might pose some objections).
If nothing else, it could give costume designers on futuristic movie sets a nice alternative to this.
We've seen enough of that, already.
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From ecouterre
Posted by Erin Johnson at 5:28 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: History • Silliness • The Buzz
In honor of Halloween this weekend, we scared up some classic spooky ScienceBlogs posts. Brian Switek of Laelaps discusses ghosts, UFOs, psychics, witchcraft and other "paranormal rot" many people use to explain "rather ordinary phenomena." On SciencePunk, Frank Swain contemplates the mathematical improbability of vampires due to sure vampire population explosion. However, Frank also points out "Efthimiou's conjecture doesn't rule out the possibility of vampires--just that the outbreak hasn't happened yet." The not-so-obvious origins of witches flying on broomsticks is covered on Terra Sigillata, where Abel Pharmboy explains how witches of the Middle Ages administered hallucinogenic concoctions to "mucus membranes of the rectum or vagina" using a broomstick. Witches' ability to "fly" originated from the hallucinogens that "tended to cause sleep, but with dreams that involved flying, 'wild rides,' and 'frenzied dancing.'" Neurophilosophy writes about the mysterious phenomenon behind "a thousand new cases of zombification reported every year" in Haiti, and describes the ethno-botanic makeup of "coupe poudre," a white powder Haitian and Creole folklore attributes to "zombification."
Links below the fold...
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Posted by Erin Johnson at 12:26 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 30, 2009
Category: Neuroscience • Photography • Things We Like
Photo Credit: Herederos de Santiago Ramón y Cajal
Recently, ScienceBlogger Mo Costandi of Neurophilosophy penned a photo essay for MIT's Technology Review magazine, taking readers on a visual tour of the history of brain imaging, from the first Purkinje cells viewed through a light microscope to fluorescently tagged neurons in "Brainbow" mice showing the connections between the different cells.
The collection is an illuminating look at how far neuroscience has come in the last 100 years, and how new technologies have enabled us to better understand the intricate architecture of our brains. Check out the full essay at Technology Review, and read Mo's write-up on Neurophilosophy.
One more pic below the fold...
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Posted by Erin Johnson at 12:02 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 29, 2009
Category: Biology • The Buzz
In honor of Halloween this week, ScienceBloggers are offering some creepy crawlies to intrigue and frighten you. Ed Yong of Not Exactly Rocket Science began spinning the spider web with his fascinating coverage of the Bagheera kiplingi, a "mostly vegetarian" jumping spider found throughout Latin America. Days later, he reported on the recently discovered Nephila kowaci, the world's largest known web-spinning spider, along with a photo of the South African spider at work. And Tuesday, Ed wrote about Evarcha culicivora, an East African species of spider that feasts on mammalian blood--albeit indirectly--by preying on blood-engorged female mosquitoes. Ed reports that University of Canterbury researchers have found "the blood isn't just a meal for the spiders, it's an aphrodisiac too."
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Posted by Erin Johnson at 1:28 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 27, 2009
Category: Medicine • News • Public Health • The Buzz
President Obama declared the swine flu epidemic a national emergency on Saturday, after more than 1,000 US deaths--over 100 of them children--were confirmed as linked to the virus. The Centers for Disease Control report that this is purely a step towards preparedness, but many are wondering how effective this measure will be in preventing the spread of H1N1 in light of recent vaccine shortages. David Dobbs of Neuron Culture points out why the current chicken egg-based system of engineering vaccines is "too slow, too glitchy--and apparently, not terribly accountable." The White Coat Underground reported on the first round of H1N1 vaccines to hit his county and the "chaotic hodge-podge" of public health infrastructure. Over on Effect Measure, Revere covers the nationwide hysteria linked to the swine flu, including the CDC's warning of "swine flu parties" despite unsubstantiated evidence, and CBS's poorly-aimed spin and bad reporting around H1N1 virus testing.
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Posted by Erin Johnson at 4:12 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 26, 2009
Category: Psychology • Technology • The Buzz
How do we remember, collect, and recognize faces, and do sex and race have any role in how we process and treat faces, and ultimately people? On Collective Imagination, Peter Tu writes about how researchers can use differing theories of facial recognition to further developments in digital security technologies, citing that "this knowledge captured from this domain is so ancient and convoluted that it may not readily yield the practical insights that we seek." Over on Cognitive Daily, Dave Munger discusses a study looking at how we process masculine versus feminine faces, reporting that "sex clearly plays a role in face recognition and processing, but some aspects of face processing are independent of the sex of the face being processed." And Ed Yong of Not Exactly Rocket Science covers a paper examining whether or not there is a link between "poorer facial discrimination and greater racial discrimination."
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Posted by Erin Johnson at 1:05 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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