retrospectacle | June 12, 2006Adventures in Science and Ethics suggested a getting to know you meme that looks fun, so here goes.3 reasons you blog about science
1. To break up the lab day but still look busy
2. To better inform myself about interesting developments in science, and then relay that
3. To interact with other scientists who I may never meet in real life, and share ideas
Point at which you would stop blogging:
If i won the lottery and moved to a paradise isle with no internet access.
1 thing you frequently blog besides science:
Energy issues
4 words that describe your blogging style:
Accessible, Informal,…
retrospectacle | June 12, 2006A common question I am asked, on my blog and in real life, is what is the "trick" to getting into a good graduate program (for the sciences). The trick is that there is no trick, but there are a few preparatory steps that *do* make all the difference in the application process. And no, it isn't all about GPA. Cause I didn't even have one. The first ten in this post, the next ten will follow. (More under the fold....)
1. Spend your spare time doing research.
This one should be a no-brainer, so to speak. If you want a career in research, you need to show your committment early on. Also, as…
retrospectacle | June 12, 2006As a newly-minted ScienceBlogger, now I get to chime-in on all the fun "Ask A ScienceBlogger" questions. This week's question is:
"Assuming that time and money were not obstacles, what area of scientific research, outside of your own discipline, would you most like to explore? Why?"
As an undergrad, I had a pretty hard time choosing a major. This wasn't due to my lack of finding something I liked to do, I just didn't want to choose between a lot of fascinating fields. Finally I settled on what I considered the "final fronteir" in medical science: neuroscience, and neither time nor money (…
retrospectacle | June 10, 2006If you read the 'About' page, or anything about me, you probably noticed that I work on hair cell regeneration in the cochlea. But, perhaps, some readers are not familiar with the machinations of the inner ear. So, I'll make a quick post with some relavent info to help in understanding future hearing and ear-related postings.
The sense of "hearing" refers to the detection of sound waves in our environment. Humans are able to distinguish a lof of information out of these waves: direction (due to fact we have two ears!), loudness, pitch, timbre, and frequency. Waves are "collected" by the…
retrospectacle | June 9, 2006Cocaine abuse is a major public health issue, with estimations of as high as 1% of the US population over 12 as abusers. Addiction to cocaine, and most substances for that matter, results in physical modifications in your brain which are persistant, and detrimental to many mental fuctions like learning. During and following cocaine addiction, changes occur in a brain region called the nucleus accumbens (NAc), which is important in natural reward pathways. It is a key player in the reinforcement of drug-taking.
A recent brief communication in Nature Neuroscience (Martin et al. 2006) describes…
retrospectacle | June 9, 2006
Welcome, readers old and new alike, to my new abode here at ScienceBlogs. My name is Shelley, and I can't tell you how excited I am to be a part of such a distinguished cohort. I'm still tweaking the way this page looks and feels, so don't be surprised if it looks a little different down the road (blogs evolve too!). I'm still getting used to the Moveable Type platform, but ANYTHING is better than Blogger, so no worries there.
Although I hope that you read my "About" page (tab at the top), let me say a few words about myself anyway. I'm a 26 year-old Neuroscience PhD candidate at the…
retrospectacle | June 6, 2006Sometimes by serendipity, we have the ability to meet people who have paved the way for us. Today, I was able to briefly meet Gerry Fox, a concerned citizen and lobbyist who was primarily responsible for the inception of the NIDCD (who funds us).
There are many division of the National Institute of Health (NIH), and one of these funds the type of work I do, the National Institute for Deafness and Communication Disorders (NIDCD). This wasn't always the case, though; prior to the existence of the NIDCD, all hearing-related research petitioned for funding from National Institute of Neurological…
retrospectacle | June 6, 2006
As I live in the isolated, educated, and overly-pampered environs of Ann Arbor, sometimes I forget that such a place as Detroit lurks only 30 minutes away.
But then, I have the Detroit News to remind me, with chilling stories such as this. Over 30 people in Detroit have died in the last week of fentanyl overdosing, the most recent death being a Wayne State film student. He was found in the mens' bathroom, a syringe by his side.
This highlights a disturbing new trend in drug abuse, especially bad in the Detroit area: dealers are spiking heroin or cocaine with fentanyl to give the drugs a…