neurophilosophy
Posts by this author
September 3, 2007
Abdel Monim Mahmoud, an Egyptian journalist and blogger, has identified (in Arabic and English) a prison officer who allegedly tortured him for 13 days at a state security headquarters back in 2003.
27-year-old Mahmoud is a member of Ikhwan Muslimin (the Muslim Brotherhood, MB). The MB is the…
September 3, 2007
The current issue of Chemical & Engineering News contains a series of articles by Sophie L. Rovner on memory:
Hold that thought is a comprehensive piece about what is known of the cellular and biochemical bases of memory formation.
Molecules for memory discusses the ethical issues…
September 3, 2007
The question of how birds migrate long distances has long baffled researchers, and there are various hypotheses about which navigational cues birds use when migrating. Over the years, it has been suggested that migrating birds use smell, visual cues such as the position of the sun, the geomagnetic…
September 3, 2007
French researchers have demonstrated for the first time that embryonic cells grafted into the brains of mice with damaged motor cortices can re-establish damaged connections precisely, so that disrupted neural circuitry is reconstructed.
The findings raise the possibility that cell-based therapies…
September 2, 2007
On Saturday I mentioned that submissions are being accepted for Open Lab 2007.
Bora has now posted links to the 100+ posts that have been submitted so far. The book, which is to be edited by Reed Cartwright, will contain 50 of the best science blog posts from 2007, so Bora's list contains plenty…
September 2, 2007
These illustrations by Jacques Fabien Gautier d'Agoty are part of a collection which is to be auctioned off at Christie's in New York on October 5th.
The auction, which is called Anatomy as Art: The Dean Endell Medical Collection, has 229 lots, including the first edition of De Humani…
September 1, 2007
Yesterday I wrote about the use of microfluidics chips for imaging neuronal activity and the behaviour correlated with it in the nematode worm C. elegans, without going into too much detail about exactly what microfluidics is.
Microfluidics is a multidisciplinary field - a combination of…
September 1, 2007
Registration for the 2nd Science Blogging Conference is now open. The conference, which is the brainchild of the tireless Bora Zivkovic, will be held at Research Triangle Park in North Carolina on Saturday, January 19th, 2008. Here's the conference program. If you'd like to attend, fill out the…
August 31, 2007
Update: Below are the lyrics for the song.
Verse 1:
Neocortex, frontal lobe,
Brain stem, brain stem,
Hippocampus, neural node,
Right hemisphere,
Pons and cortex visual,
Brain stem, brain stem,
Sylvian fissure, pineal,
Left hemisphere,
Cerebellum left, cerebellum right,…
August 31, 2007
A fundamental question for neuroscientists is how the activity in neuronal circuits generates behaviour. The nematode worm Caenhorhabditis elegans is an excellent model organism for studying the neural basis of behaviour, because it is small, transparent, and has a simple nervous system consisting…
August 30, 2007
A caricature of me, aged about 4, by Bahgat Osman (1931-2001).
Osman was Egypt's most prominent political cartoonist during the 1960s and '70s. He was a close friend of my father's, and I have vivid memories of him from my early childhood in Cairo. I even vaguely remember posing for this…
August 30, 2007
I was contacted by Craig J. Phillips earlier this year, but neglected to mention the comment he posted at my old blog. Craig posted this comment here several days ago:
I am a traumatic brain injury survivor and a master's level rehabilitation counselor. I sustained an open skull fracture with…
August 29, 2007
This mechanical prosthetic arm, developed by Michael Goldfarb and his colleagues of the Center for Intelligent Mechatronics at Vanderbilt University, is powered by a pencil-sized rocket that burns pressurized liquid hydrogen peroxide. The reaction, which is catalyzed by iridium-coated alumina…
August 29, 2007
Beliefnet.com has an interview with Martin Seligman. (Don't click on the link if you can't bear promises of finding "eternal joy with Jesus' word," or - worse - ads for live psychic readings.)
Seligman is a highly influential psychologist. A former president of the American Psychological…
August 29, 2007
Alzheimer's Disease is the most common form of age-related dementia, affecting an estimated 25 million people worldwide.The pathological hallmarks of this condition, which were described 100 years ago by the German pathologist Alois Alzheimer, consist of plaques of amyloid beta protein and…
August 29, 2007
This paper appeared in the February 1999 issue of the Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences:
Phantom erection after amputation of penis. Case description and review of the relevant literature on phantoms.
Fisher C. M., Neurology Service, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston 02114, USA…
August 28, 2007
To celebrate the fast-approaching 500,000th reader comment, ScienceBlogs is running a contest.
To enter, all you need to do is post a comment on any of the blogs in the SB network, using a valid email address. Alternatively, you can sign up to the new weekly newsletter.
When the 500,000th comment…
August 28, 2007
(Fleur Champion de Crespigny)
Researchers at the University of Exeter have found that female bruchid beetles (Callosobruchus maculatus, above) mate when they are thirsty.
Evolutionary biologist Martin Edvardsson kept some female bruchids with, and others without, access to water. All…
August 28, 2007
Multitasking refers to the simultaneous performance of two or more tasks, switching back and forth between different tasks, or performing a number of different tasks in quick succession. It consists of two complementary stages: goal-shifting, in which one decides to divert their attention from one…
August 28, 2007
In his Channel 4 documentary The Enemies of Reason, Richard Dawkins attacks what he rightly regards as an epidemic of irrational thinking, or, as he puts it, humanity's "retreat into the fog of the superstitious past."
He notes, for example, that 25% of the British population believe in astrology…
August 27, 2007
For some inexplicable reason, Bertalan Mesko wanted to interview me about blogging.
August 27, 2007
(Image: Roberto Sozzani)
Russian researchers affiliated with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute have developed a red fluorescent protein that is 7-10 times brighter than any other red fluorescent protein currently being used for imaging.
The protein, which has been named Katushka, is…
August 27, 2007
The final post at Neurofuture is a fantastic 30th edition of Encephalon, which, as usual, includes good stuff from the best neuroscience and psychology blogs on the web.
The next edition of the carnival will be hosted by Dr. Deb Serani on September 10th. If you'd like to contribute, email…
August 26, 2007
I start my M.Sc. in neuroscience in about a month's time. The recommended text is Principles of Neural Science, by Kandel, Schwartz and Jessel. It's a great book that I'll get round to buying one day, but, because I'm on a limited budget, I'll have to make do with the abridged version…
August 24, 2007
This year, several research groups have used bacterial proteins called channelrhodopsins to develop a technique with which light can be used to control the activity of nerve cells or the behaviour of small organisms.
For example, Ed Boyden's group at the MIT Media Lab used the method to activate…
August 24, 2007
Zooillogix is the latest addition to ScienceBlogs.com. It's chock full of weird and wonderful stuff from the animal kingdom, like the Peter's elephant nose fish, which detects prey using electrical fields emitted from its chin.
August 23, 2007
Olaf Blanke, of the Federal Polytechnic of Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, explains how it was done:
Read more about the study at New Scientist and Ars Technica.
August 23, 2007
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a psychiatric condition which is characterized by intrusive thoughts and ritualized and repetitive behaviours, such as excessive hand-washing, which are performed in order to neutralize the obsessions. OCD is one of a spectrum of disorders that includes…
August 22, 2007
Somatopsychic is a relatively new blog, by Mitch Harden, a graduate student in the Behavioral Neuroscience program at the University of Missouri, St. Louis.
August 22, 2007
Reuters reports that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just approved the use of the antipsychotic drug Risperdal to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in children and teenagers.