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At Science, More Calls for a Focus on Framing

In a Policy Forum article published this week at Science, MIT Professor of Management John Sterman reports on an experiment that shows just how self-defeating it is to continue to overburden the public with technical and science-laden explanations of climate change, especially when the communication goal is to catalyze public demand for policy action. In the experiment, MIT students with advanced training in either the sciences or economics were asked to read descriptions from the IPCC summary for policymakers that depicted the long term accumulation of C02 in the atmosphere. When asked then…

Poll: 50% Never Heard of Nanotech, 90% Synth Bio

A news release on a new survey from the Woodrow Wilson Center's project on nanotechnology: Washington, DC -- A groundbreaking poll finds that almost half of U.S. adults have heard nothing about nanotechnology, and nearly nine in 10 Americans say they have heard just a little or nothing at all about the emerging field of synthetic biology, according to a new report released by the Project and Peter D. Hart Research. Both technologies involve manipulating matter at an incredibly small scale to achieve something new.... Synthetic biology is the use of advanced science and engineering to…

Cute robots on a mission (to prove that people are nice after all).

This is kind of cute. But also interesting since Kacie Kinzer, the artist responsible, asks: Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal. Here it is in action: The bigger question at stake here, was how would this cute if somewhat dispensible robot do in its mission. After all, It would need to rely on kindness of strangers…

Engineers and poetry

Friend of the Fair Oronte Churm has a note on engineers over at The Education of Oronte Churm, "The Engineers Think On It." Eating at a diner with a book of poetry in hand, he posits the engineer's quest for utility--and for order and rationality, it seems--over poetry and spirit (or so my own poetic license has it, from reading his post). I'd say his interpretation is not of any engineers I know, though they do exist in lore and in lonely corners at Virginia Tech. They had a job to do, but they weren't going to rush it. There was pleasure in the food, companionship, and the pause, but…

5 Reasons Luke Skywalker Is a Complete Idiot

I'm just the messenger. Given Dave's Jedi kid post, I figured what the hell. Link to the original at Topless Robot, via The Morning News. 4) Refusing to Listen to the Only Living Jedi in the Galaxy Luke gets a vision of his dead mentor Obi-Wan telling him to go to Dagobah to get training from the Jedi Master, Yoda. Luke obeys, goes out to Dagobah, finds Yoda, and then proceeds to ignore him at every important turn. Yoda tells him not to go into the scary cave with weapons, Luke doesn't listen. Yoda gives him a lesson about overcoming great obstacles, and Luke doesn't take it to heart, can't…

In which I reveal my secret identity and announce a radical change

Three and a half years is a pretty decent lifespan for a cuttlefish. The Cuttlefish Poet started out as a joke. I had posted about Cephalopod Awareness Days, including a cephalopod poetry contest, and just for fun, added a handful. I have my reputation to think of, so a quick nom de tentacle change was required. I honestly thought that would be the end of it. But then, Gary Aldridge made the news, and in the ensuing respectful, solemn thread, I was struck with a rhyme. So… why not let "Cuttlefish" make another appearance? So he did. This time, though, the reaction was overwhelmingly…

Food security in my neck of the woods, Richmond, Vancouver, British Columbia

Food is a big issue these days - none more so than where I live in Richmond (at this very moment). - - - To: GCL Public Hearings, Richmond, BC Attn: Richmond City Clerk Re: Public hearing on the Garden City Lands, 5555 No. 4 Road, Richmond To whom it may concern This letter is to state my personal opposition to the City of Richmond's block application to remove the Garden City Lands from the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR). This, I feel, is currently the preferred mechanism that will segue into the allowance of a urban agricultural space to be created - a space that can provide communal,…

Nation's ecological scientists weigh in on biofuels

The 10,000 member Ecological Society of America released a position statement "that offers the ecological principles necessary for biofuels to help decrease dependence on fossil fuels and reduce carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global climate change." Supplying the emerging biofuels industry with enough biomass to meet the U.S. biofuel energy target - replacing 30 percent of the current U.S. petroleum consumption with biofuels by 2030 - will have a major impact on the management and sustainability of many U.S. ecosystems. Biofuels have great potential, but the ecological impacts of…

Cell phone tattoo that runs on blood glucose

That is amazing: The basis of the 2x4-inch "Digital Tattoo Interface" is a Bluetooth device made of thin, flexible silicon and silicone. It's inserted through a small incision as a tightly rolled tube, and then it unfurls beneath the skin to align between skin and muscle. Through the same incision, two small tubes on the device are attached to an artery and a vein to allow the blood to flow to a coin-sized blood fuel cell that converts glucose and oxygen to electricity. After blood flows in from the artery to the fuel cell, it flows out again through the vein. On both the top and bottom…

Did T. Rex have a phallus?

Evolutionary biologist Olivia Judson imagines that they may have. As she writes, there are scant signals cluing us in to the sexual life of the male T. Rex. Did he have a penis? Or perhaps just a cloaca, which avians, amphibians, and reptiles use to excrete waste, semen, or eggs (should he actually be a she) and secrete attractive scents from a little gland tucked away inside the cloaca. While male birds lack intromittent organs,* reptiles such as crocodiles have a penis hiding inside their cloaca. It's so well-hidden, in fact, that it's difficult to identify the sex of a crocodile without…

Last day of the Dublin conference

Since I'm lazy and occupied, I'll just link to Rorshach's account of the last day of the event. I'll just say…Maryam Namazie was awesome. I am so glad she was the last speaker of the weekend, because if she'd gone first, the rest of us would have had to sit quietly and simply refer everyone to her. She made a fierce, impassioned, reasoned criticism of Islamism and it's degradation of humanity — she was wonderfully clear and humane. I also got into a brief argument with Hamza Andreas Tzortzis, the Muslim creationist. Picture the unholy progeny of a union between Ken Ham and William Lane Craig…

Saturday Football

It's that time of the week again: time for that rollercoaster ride that is ASU football. Today the team (4-3, 1-3 in conference) travel to Washington to take on the Huskies (4-4, 2-3) at home for the first time since 1999. Last year, ASU won 44-20 on a 401-yard 3-TD performance by Rudy Carpenter. Doubt we will be so lucky today. Update: Not ASU related, but Oregon State are leading USC 16-10 at the half, and should be up by more had they been able to capitalize on USC turnovers. Once again, USC demonstrate that they dont know how to play the first half of a game.  (7:10 EST) OSU hold on to…

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall, Who's the Nerdiest One of All?

A lot of ScienceBloggers in these parts have been getting their panties and manties in a wad over who's the nerdiest nerd of all. There has been some some excellent hand-flailing-at-the-head-of-the-class-type posturing (myself included). To recap the nerd highlights: Tim Lambert (Nerd God like me) of Deltoid assembled all the SciBlogger's Nerd Scores together. Janet of Adventures in Science and Ethics gives props to the female geeks among us. Pink pocket-protectors anyone? Orac of Respectful Insolence insolently suggested that I be disqualified, but I quickly forgave once I observed his…

JonBenet Killer Finally Found?

I've always had a passing interest in the JonBenet Ramsey case. Mostly because I thought her parents were demonized by the media, driving then from their home in Colorado, and her mother to an early grave. Now, it seems they have perhaps found the true killer years later, in Thailand. A law enforcement source identified the suspect as 41-year-old John Mark Carr, a one-time school teacher. Carr was arrested Wednesday morning and has confessed to certain elements of the crime that are unknown to the general public, KUSA reported. JonBenet's father, John Ramsey, told 9NEWS in Denver, Colorado…

X Axis: Happiness, Y Axis: Acceptance of Evolution ?

John over at Stranger Fruit has posted an infogram from Science, which ranks 34 countries acceptance of evolution. I have hijacked it below: John notes that only Turkey has beaten us in evolutionary ignornace. But I immediately was struck by how similar this list looks to one I posted about last week regarding the happiest countries in the world! To summarize: The 20 happiest nations in the World are: 1. Denmark 2. Switzerland 3. Austria 4. Iceland 5. The Bahamas 6. Finland 7. Sweden 8. Bhutan 9. Brunei 10. Canada 11. Ireland 12. Luxembourg 13. Costa Rica 14. Malta 15. The Netherlands 16.…

How the NIDCD Was Won

Sometimes 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…

The Last Post

Hi everyone, I apologize for my long hiatus from blogging. Things have just been crazy at work lately. All the same it has given me some time to think about what I want from blogging, and where I see myself in the next several years. For those of you who don't know I am an MD-PhD student which means that when I finish my PhD -- hopefully in about a year -- I will return to medical school. Anyone who has written a dissertation or gone through 3rd of medical school will tell you that neither are particularly conducive to large amounts of free time. So looking forward I have to take into…

Alt Med does harm

I always hear this argument that, well, maybe those herbs and enemas don't help that much, but they don't hurt, and they make people feel better, so get off alternative medicine's back. Right. Because distractions from real medicine don't affect the legitimate work being done. You might want to read this criticism of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Paul Offit’s editorial in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA. 2012;307(17):1803-1804.) goes through the history of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine(NCCAM) and nicely…

News Mags Ad Revenue Suffers; Celebrity Mags Thrive

Pew has posted advertising revenue analysis for major magazines over the past year. Not surprisingly, the "big three" news magazines continue to suffer, other mags such as The New Yorker hold steady, while the celebrity magazines continue to thrive. As Pew reports: It's been a rough year for the three major U.S. newsweeklies and a boom year for the celebrity/gossip magazines, according to the most recent advertising numbers released by the Publishers Information Bureau (PIB), measuring ad pages in about 250 titles. The 2007 ad pages are down substantially at the two biggest newsweeklies. Time…

NEW REPORT: Framing Poverty & Low Wage Work

It's going to be a busy 24 hours. On Wednesday evening I will be at the Center for Inquiry-NYC for the latest in our Speaking Science 2.0 tour. Then I will head back to DC for a Thursday morning press conference where I will be talking about a report that argues for new directions in communicating about poverty and low wage work. Sponsored by Inclusion and the Joyce Foundation, details are posted below. I will have much more to say about the report later this week. Directly after the press conference, I drive to Bucknell University where I will meet back up with Chris Mooney for a Thursday…

Major implications from our analysis of 20 yrs of global warming perceptions

Here are the major implications from our study analyzing twenty years of American public opinion data on global warming: 1. Global warming skeptics continue to make an impact on public opinion. As we describe in the article, although a strong majority of Americans say that they believe that global warming is real, that temperatures are rising, and that the release of carbon dioxide is a cause, the public remains relatively uncertain about whether the majority of scientists agree on the matter. As long as the public remains confused about where the experts stand, public support for policy…

When Climate Change Hits the Sports Beat

In a fragmented media system, not only do people choose among news outlets and stories based on their ideology and partisanship, but also based on their preference, or lack thereof, for public affairs-related content. It is very easy for the majority of the public to completely select themselves out of the news audience, paying almost exclusive attention to celebrity culture, entertainment, sports, or other diversionary topics. The challenge then is to think about angles on an issue like climate change that generate coverage in a non-traditional beat like the sports pages, thereby…

Flip-Flopping, John McCain, and Creationism

With their short term focus on the state primaries, GOP candidates are jockeying for favor from the right wing of the Republican party, and somewhere Democratic strategists are probably smiling. It all adds up to major framing ammo for the general election, especially on the dimension of credibility, a theme that the GOP has long used against Democratic candidates like John Kerry, Al Gore, and Bill Clinton. As an example of the self-inflicted wounds that GOP candidates are scoring, consider John McCain. I like the Arizona Senator, and I admire his leadership on climate change, but you have…

In Latest Survey, Only 23% of College Educated Republicans Believe Global Warming Is Caused By Human Activities

I've noted in recent presentations and posts the strong role of partisanship in how Americans view the science and relative urgency of global warming. Yet according to a Pew survey released this week, the divide runs deeper and more complex. Pew reports striking educational differences in partisans' views of global warming. According to the survey analysis, among Republicans, higher education is linked to greater skepticism about global warming -- fully 43% of Republicans with a college degree say that there is no evidence of global warming, compared with 24% of Republicans with less…

Original Sin Genomics

Before I moved the Loom to this address earlier this year, I got a fair amount of comments on my blogs about evolution from creationists. (See this entry, for example.) They fell off after the move, but now they're back in fine form. Today we are joined by Kevin Anderson, editor-in-chief of the Creation Research Society Quarterly. Here's a little background: last week I wrote here about stumbling across a radio show put out by the Institute of Creation Research. It claimed that recent research on the human genome supports Young Earth creationism. Dr. Anderson spoke on the program about how…

Musings on the life academic

One of the things which I think I'm going to do here which I didn't do at my old blog is write a little about academic life. As a scientist, I am in the relatively unusual position of not actually teaching "real" science classes - by that I mean the courses, while dealing with science, are more humanistic, historical and philosophical than scientific. Given that, however, I try and teach my students - particularly those who are science-phobic - some basic scientific ideas and ways of thinking. This semester I'm teaching two courses. The first is an Origins, Evolution and Creation course that…

The DANA Guide to Brain Health: a quick book review

If you haven't checked out the DANA Foundation, well, you should. The DANA Foundation and DANA Alliance for Brain Initiatives are dedicated to providing up-to-date scientific information to the public, as well as supporting research and the arts. And they do a heck of a good job at laying out new findings in a very accessible fashion. I wanted to take a quick moment to plug their book The DANA Guide to Brain Health: A practical family reference from medical experts. This book and CD-ROM, with over 100 scientists and clinicians contributing to the contents, is an excellent primer in a whole…

Just Give 'em Some Nyquil While You're At It

I know Tara is going to kick me for this post, because as one of the resident D.I.N.K.s here at ScienceBlogs my parenting advice doesn't extend into the realm of "ethical" so much as "practical". Specifically, I've advised her on numerous occasions to just give the toddlers a "pharmacological sleep aid" of sorts. Ok, ok, so my suggested "sleep aid" usually takes the form of whiskey or Nyquil, but I'm not adverse to Benadryl either. After all, diphenhydramine is actually recommended by pediatricians to help kids sleep. Surely it is just as efficacious as my other suggestions, if a little…

Is Play "Rational?" Toys and Ambiguous Causal Structure

Play is more often simply observed than studied scientifically - play behaviors occur unpredictably and, when they do occur, are highly chaotic, making it very difficult to study them in the laboratory. Despite these challenges, new work is beginning to make play accessible from a rigorous scientific framework. For example, a recent article by Schulz & Bonawitz takes Piaget's notion of play as a mechanism for understanding causal relationships and recasts it into a testable prediction: children should be more likely to play with an object about which they have incomplete or confounded…

Short Bowel Syndrome - And the Potential Benefits of Omega-3's

A long story short... My PhD advisor, a developmental psychologist, recently had her first baby - unfortunately, this baby was born with the long-segment form of Hirschsprung's Disease. This means that Max has only 25 cm of ganglionated intestine; to survive he needs to mainline fatty acids a couple times per day. Such complete IV nutrition is typically supplied in the form of Omega-6's, which are massively damaging to the liver. This means nearly every baby with a short-gut is soon on a liver transplant list. (Needless to say, this treats the symptom, not the cause; intestinal transplants…

Two Maps, One Territory? Parietal vs Hippocampal Representations

Though widely separated in terms of both neuroanatomical location and evolutionary development, there are surprising parallels between parietal cortex and the hippocampus: - Both structures are important for spatial cognition, although parietal cortex is thought to maintain a "self-centered" map of the environment (i.e., where locations are represented relative to the direction of gaze) whereas hippocampus may maintain a "world-centered" or allocentric map (i.e., where locations are represented with respect to landmarks or surrounding geometry). - Both structures are thought to represent…

Which cult is the funniest?

I often write about "cult medicine", that is, medical practices that share many characteristics of cults: they are based on faith, they follow charismatic leaders, they separate people from their money---you know, like The Church of Scientology. The COS has everything going for it---a religious arm, a health care arm (the Citizens Commission on Human Rights), and an educational arm. In fact, the more I learn about these wackos, the scarier (and funnier) they seem. You see, it turns out that these folks have a lot of front organizations. Unlike more traditional religions, that are happy to…

Muscle Aging in American Quarter Horses

Skeletal muscle function and structure change as we age. Humans typically experience a loss of muscle mass or muscle weakness which can greatly reduce mobility and stability. While much is known about aging skeletal muscle in humans and rodents, less is known about horses, which are rather athletic animals that are living longer due to advancements in veterinary care and retirement programs. Researchers from the University of Florida decided to explore how aging effects skeletal muscles of horses. To do this, they examined gluteus medius (speed and locomotion) and triceps brachii (mainly…

Why so many of us sleep

A special thank you to reader Dr. Barbara Goodman, Professor of Physiology at Sanford School of Medicine of the University of South Dakota who sent me a story from The Scientist about sleep in animals complete with footage of a dolphin that was seen apparently "sleeping" (video posted on YouTube): Why do animals sleep? This is a question with many potential answers. It is known that birds and mammals experience slow-wave and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep patterns. During the first pattern, slow waves with high amplitudes can be seen if measuring electrical activity (EEG) in the cortex.…

Whose DNA is that?

Official New York City Subway Map Dr. Christopher Mason (Weill Cornell Medical College, Manhatten, NY) decided to sequence DNA found in NY subway stations...468 of them to be precise. At each station, his research team collected DNA samples by swabbing the kiosks, turnstiles, benches, railings, trash cans as well as the subway cars. Along with finding abundant Pseudomonas bacteria (also found on our skin) they discovered that the DNA at each of the stations reflected the amazing diversity of the local residents and what they were eating such as pizza, cucumbers, and chickpeas, which may…

African rodent species resist scarring

You might be familiar with tissue regeneration in amphibians and reptiles where limbs can be fully regenerated following an injury. Until now, tissue regeneration following a wound was thought to be limited in mammals (ex: deer shed and regrow their antlers annually; some mice can regrow the tips of their fingers). Researchers discovered that African spiny mice are able to regrow skin, complete with hair follicles, after an injury. We are not talking about simple wound healing, but actual skin regeneration without scarring. Researchers suspect this unique ability may have evolved to help them…

Springtime, when a young woman's thoughts turn to...rearranging furniture

It happens like clockwork: as spring approaches, I get hit with the uncontrollable urge to rearrange my office. Maybe this is my really bizarre method of "spring cleaning". All I know is that once spring hits, I decide that I simply! can't! work! in my office as it's currently set up, and that it's high time to move some furniture around. I guess in a way this is healthy---new surroundings mean that you're taking away the familiar, forcing your brain to pay attention and fire new synapses and whatever it is that brains do when they have to "think differently". And that can only be good for…

Thoughts on student plagiarism

On an intellectual level (and a good friend reminded me of this a few days ago), I realize that when students plagiarize or otherwise cheat in a course, it has nothing to do with me. On an emotional level, it still stings. It's hard to dissociate the action/intent from the personal. I'm currently dealing with a particularly tricky and trying case. Bright kid, tons of potential, can definitely do the work and excel at the work, but ... repeat offender. I can't help but think, "why?" On a practical level: why did the student go to the lengths she (I'm just going to use "she" for simplicity)…

Helping scientists deal with the onslaught of shady-sounding CFP

Many/most/all (?) scientists and engineers who have ever published anything anywhere are now being inundated with calls for papers (CFP).  At least 3 have made it to my desk in the past month, forwarded from my colleagues who are curious and want to know more about the publisher. Two of these were precisely the same e-mail, with just names and article titles changed. That was enough that I spent a few minutes to create an internal wiki page as a guide to authors. I'm not going to share the whole thing, but I'll sketch out some points. I started out by trying to make the point that whether or…

U of Akron Requires DNA from Potential Employees; Feds Open Public Comment Period on Federal Law Protecting DNA

Inside Higher Ed just reported that an adjunct instructor at the University of Akron quit when he was told that he had to submit to DNA testing. "It's not enough that the university doesn't pay us a living wage, or provide us with health insurance," the instructor said, "but now they want to sacrifice the sanctity of our bodies. No." He was right to question their policy: The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 specifically states: It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any employee, or otherwise to discriminate…

The (snake) charms of India

In India snakes charm you. Yes, they do, especially if you are a legislator in Orissa state assembly. Have time to hear a personal anecdote of the charms of snakes? Here we go. When I was about 6 or 7, I used to roam around the fields in my mother's native village (google map). There were two rocky mounds, each about the height of a four storey building covering perhaps five football fields. It was a magical space for young children. At times, the magic would be enhanced by a fight between a snake and a mongoose (mongoose eats snakes, there were days as a child when I wanted to be one). So…

Indira Nath: India's top scientist and the fight against leprosy

One of the India's eminent female scientists Indira Nath is to be named World's top women scientists by UNESCO. From Telegraph In her role as Director of the LEPRA - Blue Peter Research Centre in Hyderabad (built with money raised through an appeal on the BBC children's programme) she works at the fore of India's fight against leprosy. Of the numerous people who may contract the leprosy bacillus, not all of them develop the same form of the disease. Among those who develop lepromatous leprosy, its most serious form, Professor Nath identified a deficiency in the immune response system that…

Shark has a perfect immune system?

I was at the hospital the other day for our daughter's vaccination. On a TV mounted on the wall, a lady in white lab coat was explaining how massaging the baby increases skin tone (it doesn't). Being a new parent, I was paying careful attention to gather useful information and there seemed to be some of it forthcoming from the TV. Immediately after lady peddling the baby oil went away, this appeared on the screen: Did you know that Sharks do not get any disease because they have a perfect immune system? What? I was taken aback by this enthusiastic display of stupidity for wider public…

What if we jump where there's no gravity?

The wife asked, what if we jump and there's no gravity? You are the science dude. Extrapolate. Well, that's a great question (and you are very pretty, of course). A small correction to the question. There is no place where there's zero gravity. If there is such a place it is infinitely far away and we'll never get there. The place with no gravity is infinitely far away because the force of gravity - although it weakens as we get far away from its source - never becomes zero. However, there are places with very very weak gravity. So, what if we jump where there's very very weak gravity? If we…

Rove Suggests Palin's Resignation a Ploy to Run

There has been much speculation as to why Sarah Palin announced her sudden decision to withdraw as Governor of Alaska Friday. Nate Silver at 538.com speculates: There seem to be three* basic theories to explain why Sarah Palin decided to quit: 1. She's simply burned out; 2. There's some kind of "other shoe dropping"; 3. She's so crazy she thinks this could actually help her for 2012, 2016, etc. On FOXNews today Karl Rove stated: Everybody's going to want to have her come campaign, or appear or make speeches and she no longer has the useful excuse of saying, 'Look, I would love to help you on…

Torture as learned helplessness, or how to make prisoners really sick on purpose

Amid my flu frenzy I missed Vaughn Bell's excellent consideration of CIA psychology through the declassified memos: I've been reading the recently released CIA memos on the interrogation of 'war on terror' detainees. The memos make clear that the psychological impact of the process is the most important aim of interrogation, from the moment the detainee is captured through the various phases of interrogation. Although disturbing, they're interesting for what they reveal about the CIA's psychologists and their approach to interrogation. As Vaughn notes, A couple of the memos note that the…

Troublesome Worms Denude Forests in U.S. Great Lakes Region: Scientific American

A European nightcrawler, ready to make trouble Eartthworms, it seems, are the new decimator, at least in Midwestern hardwood forests . Scientific American has the story: Long considered a gardener's friend, earthworms can loosen and aerate the soil. But the story is different in the Great Lakes region. The last Ice Age wiped out native earthworms 10,000 years ago, and ever since the Northeast forest has evolved without the crawlers, Hale says. But now earthworms are back, a product of fishers who toss their worms into the forest, of off-road vehicles and lumber trucks that carry them in the…

Maybe the government CAN read your mind!

There's nothing a good Sci-Fi thriller, conspiracy theorist, or high-tech spy movie loves more than the idea of using a computer to read someone's mind. It's the ultimate way of attaining information. A person won't tell you who they work for? Just hook up some wires and find out for yourself! Well, we may just be headed to a place where we can do just that. A new study published in Science has found a neural footprint for speech recognition, and they can determine not only what was said, but who said it. The study used a combination of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a…

Holy purple tomatoes!

One way to get people 'eating healthy' is to make food healthier - and that is exactly what european researchers have done by genetically modifying a tomato (published in Nature Biotechnology). They inserted two snapdragon genes, allowing the fruit to over-express anthocyanins, which have beneficial effects against a host of human diseases, including cancer. Of course, there was one side effect: anthocyanins are pigment molecules, so the tomatoes turned purple. Anthocyanins are a kind of flavonoid, a group of chemicals most commonly known for their antioxidant activity. Anthocyanins from…

The neuroscience of why dumb people love Britney Spears and Paris Hilton

Yeah you heard me right... there is no good reason why Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, or any of the other tabloid celebs are so paid attention to. They contribute nothing to society - and they aren't even that attractive. Dr Torkel Klingberg and Fiona McNab have come up with a potential explanation as to why these celebrity vampires have come to take over the press - inability to filter out irrelevant stimuli. Basically... the U.S. is undergoing a pervasive bout of ADHD. Here's some of the study details from BBC news (which of course overblows the significance of this research just like I…