In this post: the large versions of the Medicine and Health, Brain and Behavior and Technology channel photos, comments from readers, and the best posts of the week.
Medicine and Health. From Flickr, by sevenbirches
Brain and Behavior. From Flickr, by Mandroid
Technology. Control electronics for the sidereal tracker stepper motor. From Flickr, by PhliarShamim
Reader comments of the week:
Things got a little sexy at Scienceblogs over the last few weeks with both the Brain and Behavior and the Medicine and Health channels looking at a subject Scienceblog readers are all too familiar with: masturbation. Neurotopia v 2.0 kicks off the onanism-fest with Screw the sudafed: When your nose ain't great, masturbate!. Turns out a new paper in The Journal of Medical Hypotheses claims that ejaculation eases nasal congestion caused by the common cold. Great. Now when I'm sick I'll go through tissues twice as fast.
Blogger Scicurious urges her readers onto self-love for the sake of science:
And if a guy can keep his nose clear for life, what about us ladeez? My allergies bother me, too, you know. I think this needs to be tested, both on men and women. So I want to hear back from all of your whether it worked. Wait 'til the hay fever sets in, go at it like rabbits, and then leave a comment with whether or not it worked.
Right on cue, Scicurious' readers began to, ahem, experiment on themselves, but with mixed results. Reader broklynite responded:
::checks:: newp, no difference. Nice idea tho. Odd how theoretically this is proposed but the scientist couldn't find one single person to try it out before publishing?
Over at the Frontal Cortex Johan Lehrer asks Is Porn Adultery? Reacting to an Atlantic Monthly article on the same topic, Lehrer comes down decidedly on the "no" side of the question:
In other words, all this talk of continuums is bunk. After all, somewhere between 10 and 40 percent of male dreams feature some sort of sexual activity. Does that mean I'm committing adultery in my sleep? In the end, morality is about the decisions we make that affect other people. The thoughts I think to myself are not relevant.
However, reader Eve finds another problem with the article, namely the sexist attitude that assumes porn is for men only:
This pretention that it's "something all men do and all women need to live with" is yet another way of saying that women are cold fish, isn't it? Haven't we agreed already that women get aroused by porn, just as men do? We need pornographic equality, golldarnit! :D
Meanwhile, the Technology channel sticks with masturbation of the mental variety with Matthew C. Nisbet of framing science questioning the story Adviser Says McCain Invented the BlackBerry.... Nisbet notes that:
this one has the potential to be a major campaign gaffe, a mistake that the Obama team has already reinterpreted as part of their master narrative about McCain.
But reader Bob O'h says it goes even father:
It gets funnier. McCain also (when suitably spun) invented Wifi. Whilst receiving donations from a Wifi company.
Some other Medicine and Health posts we thought were cool this week were:
Chelation study for autism tossed on the dustbin
What makes these quacks different from all other quacks?
A Forensic Pathologist Provides Insight into the Human Bodies Exhibit
And from the Brain and Behavior channel:
Fearless mice are neglectful mothers but social butterflies
Cognitive Dissonance and Politics
A simple toy, and what it says about how we learn to mentally rotate objects
And from the Technology channel:
Spaceship toilet — how does it work?
The Internet Changes Financial News
Think Mininote: $120.00 laptop available for $98.00
Technology Adoption and The Elite
Look for highlights from other channels coming up!
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