retrospectacle | March 5, 2008 At the beginning of my adventures in blogging (circa 2006) I wrote a short piece for the news site "Mixeye" about the drug fentanyl, and was reminded of it after having a discussion about the drug with some friends. Fentanyl is an extremely potent painkiller, which has unsurprisingly led to its widespread abuse (especially in my neck of the woods, towards Detroit). However, after re-reading my write-up, I was reminded of why I thought this drug was particularly interesting: it has been used in some high-profile bioterrorism strikes and was, for a while, pursued as a chemical weapon by…
retrospectacle | March 4, 2008 Looking outside my window, across the snow-cover vista otherwise known as Ann Arbor, it amazes me that anything can live (or, even thrive) in such a frozen environment. Since I was a kid I was fascinated with animals, such as the snowshoe hare, that can change the color of their fur from brown in the summer to white in the winter. The process occurs over about 10 weeks, with the white fur appearing first on the ears and feet and gradually moves towards the body. During the spring, brown fur replaces the white fur in the reverse process.
Certainly this increased camouflage provides the hare…
retrospectacle | March 3, 2008
A few weeks ago Andrew from Zooillogix suggested that we jointly interview entomologist Justin O. Schmidt, creator of the infamous 'Schmidt Pain Index.' Both Andrew and I had found the index fascinating since it cataloged in (literally) excruciating detail the subjective feeling of being stung by a bevy of venomous insects, rating them on a scale from 0 to 4. We were finally able to track Dr. Schmidt down and send him a few quick questions to pick his brain about venoms, pain, his work at the Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Tucson. Thanks very much to Dr. Schmidt for being such a great…
retrospectacle | March 3, 2008 Welcome to the birth of a new blog, with Steve and I as the happy and glowing parents! Despite the labor pains and the fears that it wouldn't be perfectly normal, we've decided to love it anyway and do our best to raise it into a healthy, dysfucntional adult.
The idea for "Of Two Minds" began when Steve and I went out drinking in Lexington, Kentucky right after the holidays last year. I was bemoaning the amount of time I spent blogging, and Steve had just lost Sandra as a coblogger, so the merger seemed to make sense. Despite being a bit tipsy that night, the idea of a 'superblog' withstood…
retrospectacle | March 2, 2008Retrospectacle has been a wonderful hobby and outlet for my writing for almost three years. I started writing at Blogspot for a few reasons- to critically report science news, to convert the tomes of science to layperson-speak, to attempt to educate and entertain myself as well as my audience (hopefully). I think that it has been a terrific success. As of this posting, which will be my last here, there are 837 entries and 6912 comments which marks at least *some* kind of contribution to the "conversation about science" we're all trying to have here at ScienceBlogs. I sincerely thank all of…
retrospectacle | February 14, 2008A Valentine to all Scienceblogs readers, from Pepper!
(Thanks to Aaron for the picture!)
retrospectacle | February 11, 2008Ok, ok, I know I'm supposed to be on hiatus here. But how could I resist posting this adorable plush neuron? Waaaaay better than a teddy bear, in my opinion.
I must resist the urge to make cuddly neural nets out of dozens of them...
via ModCloth (and Giant Microbes)
retrospectacle | February 10, 2008As you all know, Steve and I are merging blogs into the aptly-named 'Of Two Minds' blog. We're going live on March 1st, and since we have a lot of work to do to get it ready and pretty (new banners in the works!) I decided to go on blogging hiatus here a few weeks early. Plus, I'm heading to Phoenix next week to present research at the Association for Research in Otolaryngology meeting and will be there a week. So, the timing seemed right. Don't worry, I'll be posting a reminder as March 1st gets close so you can all update your links and join me at the new digs with Steve.
Until then, check…
retrospectacle | February 6, 2008Sound can have very powerful effects on people, but can it really get you high? Thats what makers of the application I-Doser would have you believe---or specifically, that different 'biaural beats' can mimic the effects of alcohol, cocaine, heroin and other drugs (although, legally and harmlessly.) Obviously, I had to test this.
The makers of I-Doser allow free downloads of the program plus the 'alcohol' beat, and charge for the other intoxicating tunes. I downloaded the program. The 10 best sellers, according to the above page, are: Peyote, Ecstasy, Trip, Marijuana, Orgasm,, Lucid Dream, LSD…
retrospectacle | February 5, 2008As you all know by now, Steve and I are merging blogs (starting March 1) and asked all of your to come up with some most excellent ideas for names.
Well, after much gnashing of teeth we finally settled on "Of Two Minds" as our final answer. A close second was "Viva Las Vagus" but as PZ correctly pointed out, it sounded like we thought of it while inebriated, and Greg Laden mentioned that it reminded him of those creepy Viagra commercials (Viva Viagraaaaa!). Anyway, hope you all like the new name as much as we do.
The winner is 'speedwell' and s/he will be contacted shortly for their address…
retrospectacle | February 4, 2008
Along with Shelley, I am a graduate student in the Neuroscience Program at UM. The last three years my friends and I have made a trilogy of satirical neuroscience posters (see the first one here) poking mild fun at the mystical art of brain science. Also in any spare time remaining I have punished myself with some rather difficult neural engineering experiments.
Year 1, on the Stock Market and Rat Neurons, is already posted on Shelley's blog here.
Year 2, on "How many Neurons Must One Man Have, before You Call Him a Man" will be posted shortly, as the story is unfinished on that bit of…
retrospectacle | February 3, 2008Oh. my. goodness. This ode to the PCR ("When you need to find out who's your daddy") is just about the most hilarious thing I've ever seen. Ever. Kudos BioRad, I salute you! (Hat tip John PIBS)
Who ever said that conducting public psychology experiments required pants? Thats right. None. (Hat tip Lisa)
Alvaro at SharpBrains has a new newsletter out, summarizing brain fitness in the news and other neurosciency links.
Wanna write for the Darwin Awards? There's a call for good science writing here. (Hat tip Charlie)
This blog is way too good for Livejournal (scoff scoff). Check out the Fengi…
retrospectacle | February 2, 2008The contest to name that blog is closed, and Steve and I are perusing the many entries now. Stay tuned for the big announcement!
retrospectacle | January 31, 2008Just a quick reminder that Friday (tomorrow) is the last day to submit the potentially prize-winning entry to name the brand new blog that Steve and I are starting quite soon. Read more about the prizes here, and leave your ideas in the comments here or in the other post. Don't you want to receive some mail from me over-flowing with sciency goodness? Then name name NAME!
retrospectacle | January 31, 2008Brenden Maher at Nature emailed me this morning to clue me in on an anonymous survey that their editors are doing on the topic of cognitive enhancers (a spawn of the commentary piece on the same subject a few weeks back.)
If you'd like to take the survey, check it out here.
retrospectacle | January 31, 2008The following is a guest post by Joshua Hartshorne at the Cognition and Language Lab.
The first scientific paper I wrote states, in the second paragraph, that "language depends on two mental capacities with distinct neurocognitive underpinnings": vocabulary and grammar. To understand cats are mammals, all you need to know are the definitions of CATS, ARE and MAMMALS, plus the grammar involved. This was how I was trained to think about language. I knew that there were probably some other aspects of language (like phonology), but they seemed peripheral.
That worked well enough until I came…
retrospectacle | January 30, 2008I'm already so excited to read and review this!
Irene Pepperberg's memoir, tentatively titled "Alex and Me," covers her 30 years with the parrot that could count to six, identify colors and even express frustration with repetitive scientific trials. It will be released this fall by Collins, an imprint of HarperCollins.
In a statement Thursday, the publisher called the book a story "of bonds built over time that transcend species barriers," and how Alex and Dr. Pepperberg "battled against the prejudices of the academic establishment, which debated rigorously the ability of any other species to…
retrospectacle | January 30, 2008Cochlear implants are true cyborg technology. They stimulate the auditory nerve of deaf individuals to allow them to interact with the sounds of the world again--although those new sounds are at first alien and foreign. A few months back I posted here about Michael Chorost, a science writer and recipient of a cochlear implant, who wrote a terrific piece about his quest to experience his favorite piece of music, "Bolero," once again. We made contact after that, and Michael was kind enough to send me his book, which I read as well as my friend who researches new applications for cochlear…
retrospectacle | January 29, 2008People, I need to say this. Its never a good idea to stick things--including Q-tips--in your ears. Despite the illusion of 'cleaning' your ear canal, often Q-tips just shove the ear wax further into the canal, or worse, can cause permanent damage by rupturing an eardrum. However, I had no idea that occasionally the cotton tip could lodge into your ear canal, causing temporary (but very real) deafness.
A boy from Haverfordwest, England, can hear on one side for the first time in nine years after a cotton wool bud suddenly popped out of his ear.
Jerome Bartens, 11, was diagnosed deaf in his…
retrospectacle | January 29, 2008Wouldn't it be great if there was some magical institution which mapped out the developmental expression of mouse genes, and then made it freely available on the internet? And wouldn't it be cool if all that data was compiled in an easily-searchable database that was being constantly updated with new genes and new experimental data?
Well, dream no more, because the folks at Department of Molecular Embryology at the Max-Planck Institute of Experimental Endocrinology have done just that by creating GenePaint. If there was a "You Might Be a BioDork If..." list, I think up there on the list…