Vision
neurophilosophy | May 27, 2008New research shows that a protein found in green algae can partially restore visual function when delivered into the retina of blind mice, taking us one step further towards genetic therapy for various conditions in which the degeneration of retinal cells leads to imapired vision or complete blindness.
Normally, light entering the eye falls upon the rods and cones at the back of the retina. These are the photoreceptors: they are packed with a light-sensitive protein called rhodopsin, which initiates an electrical signal when struck by photons (the particles which carry light).
The signals…
omnibrain | May 15, 2008 Well I'm finally done with VSS it was long and stressful... but mostly fun. Here's a couple pictures...
After all this fun I had to get my game face on and do a talk. I've given a lot of talks in classrooms and even at a conference but after I saw the size of the room and how many people were going to be in it I was a weeee bit intimidated. After letting the stress stew for a couple days I finally gave my talk on Wednesday. I think it went well :) At least people complemented me on it. If you're interested in seeing what I presented with no explanation feel free to download the…
omnibrain | May 12, 2008Right now I'm about to, or already am, standing at a podium to give a talk at the Vision Sciences Society annual meeting (better known as VSS) in Naples Florida.
Wish me luck!
Here's the exciting abstract:
Popping in and out of existence: The effect of gradual and abrupt occlusion on object localization.
J. Stephen Higgins1,2, Daniel Simons1,2, Ranxiao Wang1,2
1Department of Psychology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
2Beckman Institute, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
The human visual system typically tracks the position of objects as they move. However, when disruption…
bleimanb | April 22, 2008It is common knowledge that Andrew and I have a thing for mantis shrimps. Simply put, they are sweet. Andrew even has a poster of a mantis shrimp on the ceiling in his bedroom.
New research in a recent issue of Current Biology indicates that these amazing creatures are even MORE incredible than we thought. Not only do they have ridiculous coloration, the same super creepy appearance and the fastest/most powerful strike of any animal in the kingdom, but now it would seem, they have the most complex eyes as well.
I see London, I see France...
As explained by our good buddies at Science Friday…
omnibrain | April 14, 2008Sexing chicks is a very difficult task for naive people. Expert chick sexers are over 98% successful while the naive sexers can only do it with slightly above chance performance. Are you sufficiently confused/pissed yet?
Ok ok... here's what's really going on:
When chickens are born the chicks are examined by experts to determine what sex they are. This important task is performed in order to save money in feed costs and avoid conflict between the male and female chicks (the men are selfish and don't let the females eat or drink). What they do with the male chickens I'm not entirely sure.…
edyong | March 21, 2008Eagles may be famous for their vision, but the most incredible eyes of any animal belong to the mantis shrimp. Neither mantises nor shrimps, these small, pugilistic invertebrates are already renowned for their amazingly complex vision.
Now, a group of scientists have found that they use a visual system that's never been seen before in another animal, and it allows them to exchange secret messages.
Mantis shrimps are no stranger to world records. They are famous for their powerful forearms, which can throw the fastest punch on the planet. The arm can accelerate through water at up to 10,000…
omnibrain | March 3, 2008
So how does Superman do it! He can see through buildings and clothing (he checks out Lois Lane's underwear in Superman 1 - more on this later). Many have attempted to answer this question of the ages yet few have explored this in as much depth as J.B. Pittenger who published a study in the journal Perception back in the stone ages (1983) entitled "On the plausibility of superman's x-ray vision"
But first, before we get into the meat of the paper, lets see what others around the InterWebs have said about Superman's amazing seeing through underwear powers.
In Correcting Misconceptions…
neurophilosophy | February 2, 2008John Pezaris emailed me yesterday to say:
Last spring, you were kind enough to write an article for your Neurophilosophy blog covering my research into restoring sight to the blind, following the publication of our scientific paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Your article was one of the best ones written: I was really impressed at how accurately you summarized our work.
I'd like to bring to your attention that the project has been named one of the 10 finalists for the Saatchi and Saatchi Award for World Changing Ideas.
Congratulations to John Pezaris and…
bleimanb | January 28, 2008Great video of cooped up dolphins blowing underwater bubble rings to pass the time. Before we get all out of sorts that this is some sort of compulsive, depressive behavior from being locked up, note that this been observed in the wild as well.
I just can't help but look at that and wish that I still smoked cigarettes. I used to be an epic ring blower. Andrew and I actually knew a kid named Michael Northrope who could blow smoke squares. It was awesome! No joke! We were like 13 and he was 16. But I digress...
One bubble ring to bind them...
Researchers posting on Deep Ocean explain the…
omnibrain | January 21, 2008For all of you Illusion Junkies out there:
**** THE FOURTH ANNUAL BEST VISUAL ILLUSION OF THE YEAR CONTEST****
http://illusioncontest.neuralcorrelate.com
*** We are happy to announce the world's 4th Annual Best Visual Illusion of
the Year Contest!!*** The deadline for illusion submissions is February
15th, 2008!
The 2008 contest will be hosted by Stuart Anstis and held in Naples, Florida
(Naples Philharmonic Center for the Arts, http://www.thephil.org) on Sunday,
May 11th, 2008, during the week of the Vision Sciences Society conference
(VSS). The Naples Philharmonic Center is an 8-minute…
bleimanb | January 17, 2008You'd have to be mentally deficient to believe Japan's claims that their hunting of 900 whales is being done for "research" purposes. But how far should people go to stop the slaughter? The Australian government has condemned the killing. People have waged protests. But it seems nothing can stop those wacky Japanese from persisting with the hunt.
Enter Sea Shepherd, an organization dedicated to protecting our large baleened friends from commercial and "scientific" whaling at all costs. Run by the infamous Captain Paul Watson, Sea Shepherd has resorted to some hard line tactics such as…
bleimanb | January 15, 2008Any snail enthusiast knows that their favorite creatures' shells follow certain stead-fast rules: They are cone shaped, right handed, and spiral on a single axis logarithmically. Well, let me just tell you what a shock it was to the snail community when scientists recently discovered the Opisthostoma vermiculum in Malaysia. The snail version of James Dean, the Opisthostoma vermiculum's shell breaks all the rules and answers to no one. Do you think you're the boss of it? You're not.
What a Hell's Angel's shell would look like if he wore one...
Seen in the picture above the Opisthostoma…
grrlscientist | January 15, 2008tags: researchblogging.org, blind cave fish, Astyanax mexicanus, evolution, fish, genetics
Blind cave fish, Astyanax mexicanus.
Image: Orphaned. Please contact me for proper credit and linkage.
Do you keep tropical freshwater fishes? I have kept tropical fishes for most of my life and was always intrigued by the so-called "blind cave fish", Astyanax mexicanus, that were sometimes offered for sale to the public. These fish evolved from a sighted species that live in surface streams, but since the blind cave fishes lived in caves since the mid-Pleistocene or earlier, they were not exposed…
omnibrain | January 13, 2008This has to be the coolest face out of art I've ever seen.
-Via Neatorama-
omnibrain | January 10, 2008
This is a good collection of illusions, some of which I haven't seen before. I'm not so sure why they had to include a stupidtramp sound track though.
Here's another collection with some overlap and a techno soundtrack:
bleimanb | January 9, 2008Why do some creatures forgo their own reproduction to help their relatives survive and reproduce? While we all might like to believe that naked mole rats really do care and are thus willing to sacrifice their creepy little lives for the good of the colony, the true answer probably has more to do with gene frequency across generations and evolution.
A scene from the 2003 ant remake of "Saving Private Ryan". Needless to say, it did not fare well at the box office.
Since the late 1950's, the idea of 'kin selection' has been the most widely accepted explanation for such bizarre behavior in…
omnibrain | December 23, 2007I've entitled this illusion 'The Purple Nurple' Exciting eh? I haven't actually seen this particular one before today so I thought I'd throw it up.... so here it is:
I've finally figured out where the heck this illusion has come from! It is actually called "Sea Sickness" and is by Walt Anthony.
sb admin | December 21, 2007Since you've all been clamouring to see it, here's my new tattoo, and a video clip of the work in progress. It's an intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cell, my favourite type of neuron. The artist was Gordon at Brain Drops, highly recommended. :)
Enjoy your holidays!
sb admin | December 13, 2007 December 13 is my birthday! Yippee, you say, how old am I? Old enough to not say... I will shamelessly mention the Amazon wish list linked from my contact page, and remind you that Omni Brain has a tip jar in the sidebar (shared with Steve). But I'm not desperate for anything and there are plenty of deserving charities who need your money (I recommend UNIFEM). I'm thankful they are helping people in a more direct way than I can.
Anyway. I'm celebrating aging with a new tattoo, and am very excited about it! I've been interested in intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs…
omnibrain | November 28, 2007Just because animals doing human things are funny I give you an elephant throwing darts:
-via Neatorama-