retrospectacle
Posts by this author
February 10, 2007
Your results:You are Poison IvyPoison Ivy 74%Dr. Doom 71%Magneto 65%Mystique 64%Catwoman 63%The Joker 60%Apocalypse 59%Riddler 57%Green Goblin 52%Lex Luthor 51%Dark Phoenix 51%Two-Face 48%Mr. Freeze 46%Venom 39%Kingpin 39%Juggernaut 36%You would go to almost any length for the protection of the…
February 10, 2007
Huffing, or inhalant abuse, is a significant problem among young people and the homeless due to the habit being cheap and easily accessible legally. It involves the concentration and inhalation of chemicals that are found in many household cleaners, solvents, glue, paint, etc, which result in the…
February 9, 2007
Dr. Irene Pepperberg has recently published an interesting paper in Language Sciences, regarding the ability of grey parrots to learn new words for unfamiliar objects using phonemes they already know. But, intuitively, the ability to create new words out of known phonemes would require that a…
February 8, 2007
The Association for Research in Otolaryngology (ARO) is about to commence its annual Mid-Winter Meeting, which is the largest scientific meeting in my field. Otolaryngology is an unwieldy word, but simply stands for "oto" --ear-- "laryng"--throat--"ology"---study of. Most of the research deals with…
February 8, 2007
Researchers have recently discovered that male chimps routinely physically abuse female chimps, sometimes even using branches as weapons. But, why would they do that?
Chimps don't form monogamous pairs; rather, mating is dictated by the females' estrus cycles. During estrus, the competition for…
February 7, 2007
This week I've been talking a bit about deafness and human hearing. A human cochlea is tiny, and is located in a bony stucture near in the skull called the bulla of the temporal bone. The temporal bone is oft said to be the hardest bone in the body. Predictably, almost all other mammals share this…
February 7, 2007
A research project commissioned by Bausch and Lomb, and headed by Nathan Efron, Professor of Clinical Optometry at the University of Manchester, tried to reduce the "beer goggles effect" down to an equation. No college student is unfamiliar with beer-goggling: that regrettable effect that alcohol…
February 6, 2007
All of cellular biology in a nutshell. Some interesting aspects of mammalian cell biology in slick animated form. Beautiful and informative.
February 6, 2007
Yeah, I know what you must be thinking: What a weird and ridiculous title. However, trust me, it actually does make sense. In yesterday's basic concepts post on Hearing, I explained that sound is transduced in the inner ear by hair cells in the cochlea. Specifically, that the deflection of hair…
February 5, 2007
Many of my SciBlings have been doing posts on "basic concepts" in their fields of expertise. As I am studying hair cell regeneration as a therapy for hearing impairment, I thought I might do a 'basic concepts post' on what hearing is, how humans hear, and why we lose it sometimes.
The most…
February 4, 2007
So this blog, along with a large cohort of others, has signed up for the first ever Week of Science Challenge (TM). What is said challenge? Simple: We have to post about science, and naught else. So, this week I'll try to stay on-topic and explore a bit into my areas of study (neuroscience, hearing…
February 2, 2007
A British woman is facing eviction from her apartment over the "persistent and serious noise nuisance and anti-social behaviour" of her African Grey parrot, Sparky. Apparently the bird is fond of saying "show me your knickers" and other raunchy phrases. (Continued under the fold...)
Hey baby, I'm…
February 2, 2007
In the February issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, U-M researcher Liangyou Rui, Ph.D. and his team report their findings on a protein called SH2B1, a protein in brain cells may act as a linchpin in the body's weight-regulating system. It seems to play a key role in signaling in regards…
February 1, 2007
Talk about a cool party trick. Notice how he lovingly refers to the roach as "she."
February 1, 2007
Last night I became embroiled in an interesting discussion: is the survival of a species (or, insert word here) inherently valuable, in and of itself? Does the fact that it currently exists *right now* somehow entitle it to preservation, or at least restraint when it comes to its demise?
The…
February 1, 2007
I've covered the water intoxication death of Jennifer Strange, first describing it here, with an update here. Her death was the result of a water-drinking contest organized by a radio station in Sacramento, with the prize being a Nintendo Wii. to date, the DJ's in charge of the stunt have been…
January 31, 2007
In the comments of the Gene Jeans post, Robster from Wonkabout made me this cool picture, which I think deserved a post. Thanks Robster!
January 31, 2007
Scientific American has a "Ask the Expert" series, and someone asked why it was impossible to tickle yourself.
The answer lies at the back of the brain in an area called the cerebellum, which is involved in monitoring movements. Our studies at University College London have shown that the…
January 30, 2007
How nerdelicious-cool are these "genes?" I want some! These are the "Recessive" variety.
Sadly, they're quite expensive. Small price to pay for a double-helix on your butt, I say.
Read about the brand here.
January 30, 2007
Long nights, sitting at the microscope, slide after slide.......don't you just wish you had a beer? Slurp slurp. Ahhhh, thats better. Wait, I wonder what *beer* would look like under the microscope! Let's try it!
I think thats what someone at Florida State thought when they decided to start this…
January 30, 2007
Nancy Pelosi apparently had a Q&A session with a few dozen bloggers after being sworn in as House Speaker, and has hired a full-time staff member who's job is blogger outreach!! This is big--the Speaker of the House is conferring a sense of legitimacy to bloggers as a news source and important…
January 29, 2007
A law and economics professor at Vanderbilt, Dr. Joni Hersch, has recently published an interesting paper comparing the incomes of 2,084 legal immigants to the USA to their skin tone. Perhaps unsurprisingly, persons with lighter skintones were found to make more money on average than darker-skinned…
January 29, 2007
I was in kindergarten when the Challenger......"happened." Its hard to know what to say to describe it: "malfunctioned" sounds so mechanical and impersonal, "exploded" sounds vulgar......what then? As a 6 year old, I certainly didn't know or comprehend, and 21 years later I really haven't come up…
January 29, 2007
If you won a million dollars, what would you do?
This is a common and fun daydream to have which represents freedom to most people--being independently wealthy is the American dream. Would you share that wealth or hoard it greedily? I think most people would like to believe that if they received a…
January 26, 2007
This weekend at UM Neuro, we're getting our first group of interviewees to the PhD program. I usually volunteer to host a "recruit" because, not only do you get to meet interesting people, you get a slew of fancy dinners all paid for by the program! Woohooo! It is a bit intensive for the host…
January 26, 2007
AIDS groups are complaining that Viagra promote unsafe sex, but I wonder what they'd think about these official NYC condoms? What seems like a funny concept is actually part of Mayor Bloomberg's initiative to reduce the spread of STDs by giving free condoms. And we *all* know that its the…
January 25, 2007
This is just strange. How did it go on for so long?
An investigation of suspected brain harvesting within Maine's medical examiner's office has ended without any criminal charges, state and federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
At least 99 brains were sent from the medical examiner's office to the…
January 24, 2007
Japanese marine biologists came across a rare frilled shark, which was sick and had moved to shallow waters. These sharks are considered "living fossils" as they haven't changed much for millions of years. They usually live around 2000-3000 feet deep, and this is the first time a live one has been…
January 24, 2007
The first time I went to SFN (Society for Neuroscience meeting), I was in awe of the "rep section" in the enormous conference center. An area the size of a football field was filled with over-educated salespeople trying to entice researchers to peruse their wares: the newest microscope, RNAi…