retrospectacle
Posts by this author
December 5, 2007
...unless it occurs in Oregon Trail. Then its hilarious.
You too can proclaim your malady to the world via Tshirt, here.
(Hat tip darkman, who has a raging case of dysentery)
December 5, 2007
Some interesting research is being reported in the mainstream media: that buckwheat honey can reduce coughing and soothe sore throats as well as over-the-counter cough syrup (dextromethorphan), in children. ABC News specifically reported that, in comparison to baseline levels, coughing children…
December 3, 2007
There's an article in the Washington Post by the chief officer of the AAAS and editor of 'Science' which can be summed up here:
We simply cannot invest all our hopes in a single approach. Federal funding is essential for both adult and embryonic stem cell research, even as promising alternatives…
December 1, 2007
While not as shockingly unusual as the knitted teratoma I reported on a while back, this knitted brain (located at the awesomely-titled 'Museum of Scientifically Accurate Fabric Brain Art') is equally amazing. Regions are knitted with varying colors, and the corpus callosum is a zipper!
Here's a…
November 30, 2007
Time has a great article about the recent breakthrough in stem cell research (that certain types of skin cells can regain pluripotency)--specifically on whether this so-called resolution to the stem cell debate might help the GOP.
Stem cell research has been the albatross around the neck of…
November 29, 2007
Worrisome news: A Cairo human rights activist and blogger, Wael Abbas, posted videos of torture by Egyptian police on YouTube. YouTube received some "complaints" about the material and responded by suspending Abbas' account there, citing his material was "inappropriate." One of these videos…
November 29, 2007
During the Thanksgiving break, a friend of mine took this great photo of a cuttlefish at the New England Aquarium.
A few days ago, a really cool website called Digital Cuttlefish was brought to my attention by a comment someone left here. This blog epitomizes something I really like and admire--…
November 28, 2007
Gene therapy is the isolation of a gene, which is then packaged into a vector for introduction into the body in hopes that it can correct some aspect of genetic disease. Often this "vector" is a type of virus which had been specifically engineered to be safer than its original version. This usually…
November 27, 2007
In a response to a "What are You Thankful For" request by ABC4.com, a rare and interesting neurological case study was described: penetration of the brain by a deer antler. CNN.com also has a video describing the event and the injury. In a nutshell, 5-year-old Connor Schick found a deer antler…
November 27, 2007
The Scientist has a fastastic illustrated feature on the workings of cochlear hair cells in their current online issue. In addition to pointing out the different cell types in the inner ear, there are a few informative blurbs about mechanotransduction and how stereocilia are organized and linked.…
November 26, 2007
Well I arrived back in Michigan after a deep-fried Thanksgiving in Florida, hope you all had an as opulently greasy and delicious a meal as I did. I have to share a funny anecdote from my drive to the airport yesterday. My parents drove me to the Orlando airport, and we had to drive through the now…
November 22, 2007
The South is a great place to spend Thanksgiving. There's pecan pie and fried ocra, green-bean casserole, and ham AND a turkey, and lots and lots of gracious hospitality.
Except for my parents, my entire extended family lives in the epicenter of small-town Florida, surrounded by the orange groves…
November 21, 2007
A Japanese whaling fleet recently set sail amidst much local fanfare, but Greenpeace is yet again determined to interfere with the hunt by placing themselves in between the whales and the Japanese harpoons. Unlike some other whaling protest groups, Greenpeace relies strictly on peaceful non-violent…
November 20, 2007
I have a love-hate relationship with Florida. The "hate" part of the equation comes from their shameful treatment of the manatee issue, their conservative Republican politics, their wanton destruction of the Everglades, and now, giving consideration to putting intelligent design in schools. As a…
November 19, 2007
In the fair use story that just won't die, my internet romp over the use of a figure from the Journal of Science of Food and Agriculture was mentioned in this story on Newsweek now. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, this article in The Scientist describes that incident factually. The…
November 19, 2007
Didn't go to the Society for Neuroscience conference, but still want to know what happened (and in an English accent, no less)?
Then check out this new NeuroPod podcast from Nature, where Kerri Smith talks about the highlights from SFN.
"Find out what computers can do for brains, find two ways to…
November 18, 2007
Looking for an unusual brain atlas for that very special neuroscientist in your life? This one is a bit non-traditional, but...wow....
By Sam Brown, 2007
The above map's original data was created from a reference photo of a real human brain which was used to build the 3d terrain. This digital…
November 16, 2007
He might present this at the next meeting:
And have you heard about B.E. Smalls? I hear he's made a breakthrough:
And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the eminent Dr. Dre's work (coauthor, Eminem):
If you aren't familiar with the Unified Theory of Everything (no, not *that* one), you might do…
November 15, 2007
This trend has continued until the present.
Despite the NIH's budget remaining stagnant for years, not even compensating for inflation, Bush has decided to wield the presidential veto against an increase in just $1 billion for the next fiscal year. The bill also contained new open-access…
November 14, 2007
By Dr. Sonja Pyott
Department of Biology and Marine Biology
University of North Carolina, Wilmington
Wilmington, NC, USA
Specimen: Cochlea and Hair Cells
Technique: Confocal
This confocal microscopy image of the organ of Corti is just stunning. Judges at the Olympus Bioscapes Digital Imaging…
November 13, 2007
Well, apparently you make it *pink.* This is just weird.
"We wanted to make sure that it was something that people were comfortable carrying and didn't make it look like they were 'Dirty Harry,'" said Tom Smith, the company's co-founder and board chairman, referring to the Clint Eastwood movie.
"…
November 12, 2007
Whoever said that you can't learn anything useful from TV? A Harvard research team, headed by Jeff Lichtman, has duplicated the way that a television monitor uses varying amounts of just three colors (red, blue, green) to produce a huge array of resultant hues. They have applied this technique in…
November 10, 2007
Perhaps one of the most frustrating parts of science is inadvertantly destroying the thing which you study in the pursuit of knowledge. Its unfortunate, and sometimes unavoidable, as in the case of these marine biologists who hauled an ancient ocean quahog out of Icelandic waters.
The group from…
November 9, 2007
The University of Michigan just started a new blog on the topic of how to handle the academic interview. What kinds of questions do you fear, and how should they be handled? How do you prepare for the interview?
In general the four primary topical areas of any interview, especially early in the…
November 9, 2007
Its hard to find a more stereotyped relationship than that of the cat and mouse. The cat hunts the mouse, and the mouse fears and runs from the cat. An innate fear response can be replicated in mice just but introducing it to feline urine, which contains olfactory clues which give the mouse…
November 6, 2007
The New York Times has an interesting piece up about Antony Flew, formerly vocal atheist and revered philosopher, who's been co-oped by the Intelligent Design brigade in his dotage. In 1950, Flew published a discourse on atheism "Theology and Falsification" which pointed out something quite astute…
November 5, 2007
There are a few plants and fungi that rely on extremely offensive odors to attract insects and spread its pollen or spores. These odors, to people, stink like decomposing, rotten meat, but to flies they are highly attractive.
The stinkhorn is a phallus-shaped mushroom which produces a sticky spore…
November 4, 2007
Scientists, read this statement.
A new era has dawned for those who fund the abusers and raise funds for them to murder animals with. You too are on the hit list: you have been warned. If you support or raise funds for any company connected with Huntingdon Life Sciences we will track you down, come…
November 2, 2007
Just a few days after Halloween, and who could have thought the inner ear could be so terrifying? Uzumaki by Junji Ito is a magna that I recently picked up, which describes a town whose inhabitants are becoming infected with an obsession with spirals. Although I've only read the first of three…
November 1, 2007
Sure, you've seen the cockatoo that gets down to the Backstreet Boys, but have you seen the African Grey that tears it up to techno?
The Techno Parrot - Watch more free videos
I don't understand this dancing bird phenomonon. Don't parrots dance to any *decent* music? Pepper doesn't like really loud…