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I'm spending most of the week in Fresno, California, at the Cordilleran Section meeting of the Geological Society of America. Yesterday, in one of the preliminary field trips for the event, I joined a party of 25 to visit the fossil collection from the Fairmead Landfill project a few miles north of town. For 20 years, paleontologists from Fresno have been picking over the ground excavated by the landfill operators. The fossils represent a community of grazers: 60 percent of them are horse
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Years and years: but who's counting?Breaking news! As reported by the BBC ("Retirement Harmful to Health"): "...the chances of becoming ill appear to increase with the length of time spent in retirement." Even more astonishing, the effect is the same for men and women. The study, published by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a think tank, found that retirement results in a "drastic decline in health" in the medium and long term.The IEA said the study suggests
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Many of us carry a computer in our pocket that’s as powerful as the supercomputers of the late 1980′s. Many of us also mostly use that revolutionary device to slingshot cartoon birds at evil pigs. Smartphones have undoubtedly improved and changed our lives in many different ways, yet the potential of these mobile computers to […]
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Şerban Procheş and Syd Ramdhani. Journal of Biogeography (early access): DOI:10.1111/jbi.12125. Eighty-three lineages that took over the world: a first review of terrestrial cosmopolitan tetrapods. I really don’t know how I feel about this paper; I found the introduction the most interesting part because it introduced me to many things I never think about. The authors […]
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This well-constructed and engaging "flap book" is interesting, accurate and highly interactive -- a wonderful introduction to space for young children. Do you like flaps in your books? Even though I am an adult, I really like books with flaps. So knowing that, it's almost a foregone conclusion that I'd really enjoy Rob Lloyd Jones's new children's book, Look inside space [Usborne Publishing, 2012; Amazon UK; Amazon US]. That this is a children's science book makes it even better. Have you
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In the past 5 years or so, there has been a huge increase in lifestyle use of prescription drugs that can enhance cognitive function in various ways. These so-called “smart drugs” include the stimulants methylphenidate (better known by its trade name, Ritalin), which is used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and modafinil (also known […]
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I noticed during Peter Ralph and Graham Coop’s Ask Me Anything about their new paper, The Geography of Recent Genetic Ancestry across Europe, someone brought up the effects of plague. Recall that ~1/3 of Europe’s population died during the Black Death. And population size reductions on the order of ~50% due to epidemics are not [...]
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If you were one of the 14 (a made-up number) people who read this back when LWON was publishing wonderful posts but was otherwise just a baby staggering around on inept little feet, we apologize for repeating ourselves. Anyway, you probably weren’t. One of the 14. Several superb posts on one of my favorite [...]
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Publication of US psychiatry's updated diagnostic code has provoked renewed debate in recent weeks over the extent to which mental illness ought to be framed as a psychosocial or a biological problem. The answer of course is that it is both. A new Canadian study captures this interplay, showing how close friendships appear to mitigate the risk for girls whose genes mean they are more vulnerable than average to depression.
Mara Brendgen and her colleagues studied 294 pairs of twins aged ten […]
Brendgen, M., Vitaro, F., Bukowski, W., Dionne, G., Tremblay, R. & Boivin, M. (2013). Can friends protect genetically vulnerable children from depression?, Development and Psychopathology, 25 (02) 277-289. DOI: 10.1017/S0954579412001058
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In light of a new report due to be published on the issues surrounding neurotechnology applications by the Nuffield Council of Bioethics, OBR examines the current uses for non-pharmaceutical brain therapies, and where the field is heading. [2] Here we look at Deep Brain Stimulation technologies. The field of neuroscience has long remained an arena [...]The post Stimulating The (Nervous) Senses: Technologies For The Brave New Brain appeared first on Oxbridge Biotech.
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Dancing on the Ceiling The room in the video actually rotates as a unit, and all of the furniture is nailed to the walls and ceiling. Also, the camera remains attached to the rotating room, making it appear as though the dancers are defying gravity. Famed Broadway dancer Fred Astaire popularized this method in a [...]
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Challenge, don’t worship, the chiefs and high priestesses of science This is a piece from the Guardian published last week, and I was intrigued: I perk up a bit whenever I see a mention of high priests or priestesses, or any intimation of science as a religion. Such a straw man is often a beacon [...]
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Nowadays, most public connotations of ‘Big Pharma’ have become synonymous with ‘Bad Pharma’. Undoubtedly the pharmaceutical industry is historically laden with scandals of questionable ethics, dishonesty and the promotion of bad science. Due to their prominent role in the health care system, this industry is under constant scrutiny and criticism, and it has become a [...]The post The ‘Big Bad Pharma’ Wolf: Is It As Bad As The Media Say? appeared first on Oxbridge Biotech.
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Model organisms play a central role in scientific research as they allow us to manipulate, analyse and understand a huge assortment of variables in an in vivo setting. Model organisms generally possess three main characteristics: rapid growth and short generation time, minimal creation and maintenance costs, and ease of manipulation. In scientific research a wide [...]The post Science’s Unsung Heroes: The Importance Of Model Organisms appeared first on Oxbridge Biotech.
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I'm gonna try and be fairly brief in this post on the paper by Valerio Napolioni and colleagues* (open-access) looking at plasma cytokine profiles in cases of autism and their asymptomatic siblings. Brief because (a) the paper is open-access and (b) the participant groups (autism: n=25; sibling controls n=25) were relatively small so one has to be quite careful in extrapolating the findings with any large degree of confidence.Siblings by Paul Klee @ WikiPaintings Just in case you are […]
Napolioni V, Ober-Reynolds B, Szelinger S, Corneveaux JJ, Pawlowski T, Ober-Reynolds S, Kirwan J, Persico AM, Melmed RD, Craig DW & Smith CJ (2013). Plasma cytokine profiling in sibling pairs discordant for autism spectrum disorder., Journal of neuroinflammation, 10 38. PMID: 23497090
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Innsbruck physicists led by Rainer Blatt and Peter Zoller experimentally gained a deep insight into the nature of quantum mechanical phase transitions. They are the first scientists that simulated the competition between two rival dynamical processes at a novel type of transition between two quantum mechanical orders.
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That naturopathy is a veritable cornucopia of quackery mixed with the odd sensible, science-based suggestion here and there is not in doubt, at least not to supporters of science-based medicine (SBM). However, what naturopaths are very good at doing is representing their pseudoscience as somehow being scientific and thus on par with actual SBM. So…
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Australasian gannets were the topic last week at the National Aquarium Royal Society lecture by Dr. Gabriel Machovsky- Capuska, research fellow in Nutritional Ecology at Sydney University. Australasian gannets occur in southern Australia and New Zealand.
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On 16th May, the OneStart competition came to a close with a gala dinner at The Grand Connaught Rooms in London; the winner was announced along with a surprise from the judges. From around 100 initial entries, 35 teams were selected to attend the semi-finalist’s biotech bootcamp in March, where teams were provided with the knowledge [...]The post OneStart Winner Announced! appeared first on Oxbridge Biotech.
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We’ve written many times about clinical trials on this blog. Trials tell us which treatments work, and their results boost the progress we’re making in helping to improve cancer survival. We’re writing about them again now because today is International … Continue reading →
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After six weeks of ploughing through over 100 entries for this year’s science writing competition, the Roundtable Review (RR) is pleased to announce the 10 finalists and the winner! The science writing competition was a huge success with the entries representing 10 countries, 19 cities, and 30 separate academic and industrial institutions. The quality of [...]The post Science Writing Competition Winner Announced! appeared first on Oxbridge Biotech.
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If Germany can phase out nuclear power and still thrive, why would other nations pursue a uranium-fuelled future, wonders Jochen Flasbart
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Here are some academic papers, articles, and blog posts I have put into my reading queue over the past few weeks that I have found interesting and/or comment-worthy. I have organized them into threads (e.g. streams of consciousness) here:Short thread on cell biology and genomics:[1] Xie, J. et.al Autocrine signaling based selection of combinatorial antibodies that transdifferentiate human stem cells. PNAS, doi:10.1073/pnas.1306263110 (2013).[2] Williams, R.B.H. et.al The influence
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That Google I/O hangover can be a real killer, but there are still untold multitudes of apps being added to Google Play all the time. This is no time to take a break! It's time for the Google Play App Roundup where we bring you the best new and newly updated apps on Android. Just click the app name to head right to the Play Store.This week we look at Google's new chat service, check out a great tower defense game, and experience a classic.HangoutsGoogle Talk has been a part of Android since its
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1. Call For Pitches: Write an article for Issue 25!
Seasoned and aspiring science writers and bloggers alike: we want to hear your ideas! Submit pitches for the Fall 2013 Issue by Friday, June 7th.
Guidelines for submitting a pitch can be found here and, in case you're looking for inspiration, our editorial staff maintains a list of story ideas just for you.
Send pitches or any questions to sciencereview@gmail.com.
2. Join us as an editor or layout designer!
Editors work directly with […]
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Mars gives up its secrets through the unseen colors of its rocks.
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Not the cheeriest of titles for a Monday morning, but an important topic non the less. I came across this article over the weekend via Twitter and as someone who has carried out numerous interviews in my career, and provided advice to people about preparing for interviews I thought it summed up some of the key reasons why people don't succeed when they go along for that all important job interview.
The article goes into more detail but it highlights the top 3 reasons why people […]
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LANDSAT and the power of Google allow us to see the planet age before our eyes. See the desert bloom and the forest decay. This post is in French with an English version below it. Le programme LANDSAT a été créé par la NASA au milieu des années 60 à des fins civiles d’observation de [...]Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)The post La Terre, elle aussi, vieillit ! / The Earth is growing old too! appeared first on AoB Blog.
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Maine’s guidelines for overseeing restaurant safety were quietly scaled back last year, even as the number of health-related complaints about Maine restaurants has been on the rise. An investigation by the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram has found that restaurant … Continue reading →
