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Posts

April 30, 2013

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10:00 AM | To Know A Fly – Platypalpus apterus
Stop me if you’ve heard this one, but what do you call a wingless fly? Apterous of course! Proving once and for all that taxonomists do indeed have a sense of humour, meet Platypalpus apterus De Freitas & Ale-Rocha.   Winglessness has independently evolved more than a hundred times across the order Diptera, but as this [...]

De Freitas-Silva R.A.P. & Ale-Rocha R. (2013). A new apterous species of Platypalpus Macquart (Diptera: Hybotidae, Tachydromiinae) from Ecuador, Zootaxa, 3636 (4) 590-596. DOI:

Biodiversity in Focus
Biology | Evolution
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8:37 AM | Toddlers are afraid of falling but not of heights
When we adults are confronted by a bridge, we're concerned not just by its width and sturdiness, but also by the height of the drop beneath. If there's a deep canyon, we'd usually rather the bridge was mighty strong and wide. If there's but a short drop, we'll happily jaunt along the narrowest, flimsiest of crossings - after all, it won't matter much if we fall. Infants - those aged 11 to 14 months - are different. They don't want to fall, so they're wary of narrow bridges. But the height of […]

Kretch, K. & Adolph, K. (2013). No bridge too high: Infants decide whether to cross based on the probability of falling not the severity of the potential fall, Developmental Science, 16 (3) 336-351. DOI:

BPS Research Digest
Neuroscience | Psychology
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6:54 AM | Adult females lack oocyte-forming stem cells
Many researchers have claimed in the past that some of the eggs (oocytes) formed by mammals may actually originate from stem cells. In turn, this gave hope for a new possible source of stem cells that could be used to treat infertility and perhaps other diseases. Unfortunately, a new study by two researchers reveals that mice and probably humans don't use stem cells to produce eggs. Read More

Lei, L. & Spradling, A. (2013). Female mice lack adult germ-line stem cells but sustain oogenesis using stable primordial follicles, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI:

Stem Cells Freak
Clinical Research | Health
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3:30 AM | The Dirac Equation, Spin, and Open Access to the Royal Society Transactions and Proceedings
Hans Bethe on spin implied by angular momentum commutatorHere's a cool thing about spin and the Dirac equation I hadn't seen until I read Hans Bethe's book "Intermediate Quantum Mechanics".  Commuting the Hamiltonian of the Dirac equation with the orbital angular momentum of a particle indicates that total angular momentum isn't conserved[2].If you're new to, or not in quantum mechanics, the commutator determines how two quantities behave in a multiplication when the order of the multiply […]

Dirac P.A.M. (1928). The Quantum Theory of the Electron, Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 117 (778) 610-624. DOI:

Copasetic Flow
Physics
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April 29, 2013

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7:11 PM | Functional Compartmentalization and Viewpoint Generalization Within the Macaque Face-Processing System
One thing humans, and in fact all primates can do with remarkable ease compared to computers is face recognition, especially across a range of viewing conditions.  At her lab at Caltech, Doris Tsao tries to explore the way the brain does this.  In her recent Science paper, she explored view invariance in the recently discovered [...]

Freiwald W.A. & Tsao D.Y. (2010). Functional Compartmentalization and Viewpoint Generalization Within the Macaque Face-Processing System, Science, 330 (6005) 845-851. DOI:

UCSD Neurosciences
Biology | Neuroscience
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2:54 PM | 'Invasive Blastocystis' in ECCMID 2013
ECCMID - the annual European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (hosted by ESCMID) is currently taking place in Berlin. This year, I'm not attending, but I've been scanning the abstract book for 'Blastocystis', and it appears that an oral presentation was scheduled for yesterday in the "Emerging Infectious Diseases" section: First of all: it's great to see fellow researchers screening larger (i.e. hundreds) of faecal DNAs by PCR for Blastocystis. I wish more […]

Alfellani MA, Stensvold CR, Vidal-Lapiedra A, Onuoha ES, Fagbenro-Beyioku AF & Clark CG (2013). Variable geographic distribution of Blastocystis subtypes and its potential implications., Acta tropica, 126 (1) 11-8. PMID:

Stensvold CR (2013). Comparison of sequencing (barcode region) and sequence-tagged-site PCR for Blastocystis subtyping., Journal of clinical microbiology, 51 (1) 190-4. PMID:

Stensvold CR, Suresh GK, Tan KS, Thompson RC, Traub RJ, Viscogliosi E, Yoshikawa H & Clark CG (2007). Terminology for Blastocystis subtypes--a consensus., Trends in parasitology, 23 (3) 93-6. PMID:

Blastocystis Parasite Blog
Biology | Microbiology
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2:37 PM | Essential Tremor as a Risk Factor for Parkinson's Disease
The number people suffereing from Parkison's disease in the United States is estimated to be between 500,000 and 1,000,000.The key symptoms of Parkinson's disease include tremor and slowed movement or bradykinesia.Known risk factors for Parkinson's disease include advanced age, male gender, family history of Parkinson's disease and exposure to pesticides.Of note, smokers appear to have a reduced risk of Parkinson's disease although the mechanism for this protective effect is unknown.Romero and […]

Romero JP, Benito-León J & Bermejo-Pareja F (2012). The NEDICES Study: Recent Advances in the Understanding of the Epidemiology of Essential Tremor., Tremor and other hyperkinetic movements (New York, N.Y.), 2 PMID:

Brain Posts
Medicine | Neuroscience
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2:02 PM | Autism and the folding placenta
Men don't generally talk about placentas it has to be said. But today, in the name of blogging, I'm going to.I'm going to start by telling you how the placenta really is a marvel of biological engineering. An absolutely vital part of our existence in-utero that nourishes us and protects us during our earliest days living in the amniotic sac. Little wonder that whole nations have come to revere the placenta as mother, sibling even doubles of ourselves (see here). Although I have to say I do […]

Walker, C., Anderson, K., Milano, K., Ye, S., Tancredi, D., Pessah, I., Hertz-Picciotto, I. & Kliman, H. (2013). Trophoblast Inclusions Are Significantly Increased in the Placentas of Children in Families at Risk for Autism, Biological Psychiatry, DOI:

Questioning Answers
Psychiatry | Psychology
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7:47 AM | "Wish you were here!" - how a postcard can help attract the best talent
In 2004, in Silicon Valley, Google posted a huge billboard ad featuring a mathematical problem. The answer led to a web address with yet another puzzle to crack. People who successfully followed this intellectual treasure hunt ended up being invited in for a job interview. This is an extreme example of a recruitment  principle spelled out in a new article by psychologists in Belgium. They say that distinctive recruitment procedures are the secret to attracting more and better job […]

Cromheecke, S., Van Hoye, G. & Lievens, F. (2013). Changing things up in recruitment: Effects of a ‘strange’ recruitment medium on applicant pool quantity and quality, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, DOI:

BPS Research Digest
Neuroscience | Psychology
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6:24 AM | Mesenchymal stem cells against cancer
Generally, the results from studies examining the effects of stem cells in treating cancer are mixed. Other studies indicate that stem cells promote tumour growth by forming new blood vessels while others suggest that stem cells halt tumour growth. Now, a new study on mice indicates that its all about "timing". The study was conducted by a collaborative team of researchers from the Université Joseph Fourier and the CHU de Grenoble hospital, both located in France.Read More

Michelle Kéramidas, Florence de Fraipont, Anastassia Karageorgis, Anaïck Moisan, Virginie Persoons, Marie-Jeanne Richard & Jean-Luc Coll and Claire Rome (2013). The dual effect of MSCs on tumour growth and tumour angiogenesis, Stem Cell Research & Therapy,

Stem Cells Freak
Clinical Research | Health
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5:51 AM | School Choice Is Associated With More Student Engagement
One thing I harp on a fair amount is that it’s a shame the concept of school choice has been bound to divisive rhetoric about competition and free markets. Every student is different, and therefore the presence of more choices always makes it more likely that a student will find a school that meshes with [...]

Vaughn, M. & Witko, C. (2013). Does the amount of school choice matter for student engagement?, The Social Science Journal, 50 (1) 23-33. DOI:

Peer-reviewed by my neurons
Education | Psychology
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April 28, 2013

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2:00 PM | Am I Sexy Now? Vocal Cues To Body Size Sound Attractive
Our voices communicate information far beyond what we say with our words. Like most animals, the sounds we produce have the potential to convey how healthy we are, what mood we’re in, even our general size. Some of these traits are important cues for potential mates, so much so that the sound of your voice [...]

Xu Y., Lee A., Wu W.L., Liu X. & Birkholz P. (2013). Human Vocal Attractiveness as Signaled by Body Size Projection, PLoS ONE, 8 (4) e62397. DOI:

Science Sushi
Evolution | Conservation
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11:50 AM | Want to remember something? Clenching your fist doesn't help!
Image Credits: fist and brain.You might have seen this news story the other day:Want to remember something? Clench your fists!Giving a speech and need to remember what to say? Just clench your right fist while rehearsing. Then, when it's time to give the speech, clench your left fist, and voila, you’ll recall what you rehearsed! That's what a new study found, which was published April 24 online at PLOS ONE. Sounds too easy now, doesn't it? And if you're exclaiming, "that's just too […]

Propper, R., McGraw, S., Brunyé, T. & Weiss, M. (2013). Getting a Grip on Memory: Unilateral Hand Clenching Alters Episodic Recall, PLoS ONE, 8 (4) DOI:

Tulving E, Kapur S, Craik FI, Moscovitch M & Houle S (1994). Hemispheric encoding/retrieval asymmetry in episodic memory: positron emission tomography findings., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 91 (6) 2016-20. PMID:

The Neurocritic
Neuroscience | Psychology
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8:22 AM | Devil Dispatch: MHC the Key to Contagious Cancer Vaccine?
The contagious cancer currently ripping through Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) populations has captivated public attention and imagination. The reasons for this are understandable. First, in a world where cancer kills 7.6 million people every year, just the idea of tumor cells that can be passed along between individuals like a cold or flu is a horrific notion to contemplate—a concept straight out of a cheap thriller novel. Also, the irascible Tasmanian devil has a sort of […]

Siddle HV, Kreiss A, Tovar C, Yuen CK, Cheng Y, Belov K, Swift K, Pearse AM, Hamede R, Jones ME & Skjødt K (2013). Reversible epigenetic down-regulation of MHC molecules by devil facial tumour disease illustrates immune escape by a contagious cancer., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110 (13) 5103-8. PMID:

Endless Forms
Ecology
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April 27, 2013

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11:51 AM | A Year of Blogging
Exactly one year ago, The Beast, the Bard and the Bot were born. Time for some reflection. But first, a bit of numerical material (current at the time of writing). Some Numbers Posts: 96, including this one. Total views: 19672 Max views on single day: 631 Top 5 countries providing visitors: United States (8264) United [...]

Fausto, S., Machado, F., Bento, L., Iamarino, A., Nahas, T. & Munger, D. (2012). Research Blogging: Indexing and Registering the Change in Science 2.0, PLoS ONE, 7 (12) DOI:

Shema, H., Bar-Ilan, J. & Thelwall, M. (2012). Research Blogs and the Discussion of Scholarly Information, PLoS ONE, 7 (5) DOI:

The Beast, the Bard and the Bot
Biology | Evolution
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11:28 AM | The Science of Guns and Violence in America
I read a Nature News article recently about gun control in the USA that horrified me so much that I now have to write a bit about this horrifying topic myself. It goes without saying that there is a huge … Continue reading →

Wintemute GJ (2013). Tragedy's legacy., The New England Journal of Medicine, 368 (5) 397-9. PMID:

mmmbitesizescience
Cell Biology | Microbiology
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10:37 AM | A vaccine for autism symptoms? Not exactly
"Vaccine". "Autism".I'm struggling to think of two words in combination which, in modern times, are any more likely to stir up emotion, debate and even argument. Indeed in these times of measles outbreaks and seemingly daily news reporting on the very, very strong requirement for vaccination to protect against the disease, it is coincidental that two research papers should now land in my inbox which mention both of those words in the title.Paradise in Zakynthos @ Wikipedia  The […]

Pequegnat B, Sagermann M, Valliani M, Toh M, Chow H, Allen-Vercoe E & Monteiro MA (2013). A vaccine and diagnostic target for Clostridium bolteae, an autism-associated bacterium., Vaccine, PMID:

Questioning Answers
Psychiatry | Psychology
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9:34 AM | The climate scientist whose world spun on through war
Milutin Milanković calculated his way through imprisonment and bombings to show how Earth’s movement helped drive ice ages, revealing how far we’ve strayed from the path we should be following into the next global freeze.

Petrović, A. & Marković, S. (2010). Annus mirabilis and the end of the geocentric causality: Why celebrate the 130th anniversary of Milutin Milanković?, Quaternary International, 214 (1-2) 114-118. DOI:

Simple Climate
Climate Science
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6:44 AM | How stores trick our senses to make us buy more (Part 4 of 5: Smell)
(Read the previous posts in this series: taste, sight, and touch).Grocery shopping is a real chore (at least, in my mind).It takes planning, list-making, and coupon clipping. One spends an hour ambling up and down twenty aisles, eventually shelling out a hundred dollars or so. Then there are heavy bags to carry into the house, in pairs—and then these items have to be put away. Phew.For many, this is a weekly, repetitive torture. But for me, there is one upside. No matter […]

Rabin MD & Cain WS (1984). Odor recognition: familiarity, identifiability, and encoding consistency., Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition, 10 (2) 316-25. PMID:

Gaines, on Brains
Neuroscience | Health
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12:20 AM | Patenting Genes: Human Invention or Product of Nature?
Leading up to the debate on gene patenting, this week marks the 60th anniversary of the discovery of the DNA double helix. On April 25th, 1953 the work of James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, Rosalind Franklin and other colleagues on the structure of DNA was published in Nature. Without this milestone achievement, we wouldn’t ...

Hall JM, Lee MK, Newman B, Morrow JE, Anderson LA, Huey B & King MC (1990). Linkage of early-onset familial breast cancer to chromosome 17q21., Science (New York, N.Y.), 250 (4988) 1684-9. PMID:

WATSON JD & CRICK FH (1953). Molecular structure of nucleic acids; a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid., Nature, 171 (4356) 737-8. PMID:

EpiBeat
Biology | Biotechnology
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April 26, 2013

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7:46 PM | North Korea and the USA can indeed unite: in the battle against TB.
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by a bacterium. It spreads through cough or sneeze from subjects with an active infection. While in most cases the disease is asymptomatic, a minority of latent infections does become active (i.e. the subject develops symptoms), and when it does, if left untreated, the disease can be deadly. According to the CDC one third of the world's population are infected with TB, and while in the US the incidence of the disease has been declining over […]

Stone, R. (2013). Public Enemy Number One, Science, 340 (6131) 422-425. DOI:

CHIMERAS
Biology
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4:43 PM | This Month in Blastocystis Research (APR 2013)
I have been extremely bored all day writing up my evaluation of a (not so interesting) PhD thesis, and I thought I'd spice up my day by introducing a new series of posts on this blog inspired by so many other blogs, namely: This Month in Blastocystis Research! A place for me to go through some of the most recent papers on Blastocystis. There is paper out by Gould and Boorom who look at the stability of Blastocystis surface antigen over time. They show that detection of Blastocystis […]

Gould R & Boorom K (2013). Blastocystis surface antigen is stable in chemically preserved stool samples for at least 1 year., Parasitology research, PMID:

Dogruman-Al F, Simsek Z, Boorom K, Ekici E, Sahin M, Tuncer C, Kustimur S & Altinbas A (2010). Comparison of methods for detection of Blastocystis infection in routinely submitted stool samples, and also in IBS/IBD Patients in Ankara, Turkey., PloS one, 5 (11) PMID:

Alfellani MA, Stensvold CR, Vidal-Lapiedra A, Onuoha ES, Fagbenro-Beyioku AF & Clark CG (2013). Variable geographic distribution of Blastocystis subtypes and its potential implications., Acta tropica, 126 (1) 11-8. PMID:

Alfellani MA, Jacob AS, Perea NO, Krecek RC, Taner-Mulla D, Verweij JJ, Levecke B, Tannich E, Clark CG & Stensvold CR & (2013). Diversity and distribution of Blastocystis sp. subtypes in non-human primates., Parasitology, 1-6. PMID:

Abdulsalam AM, Ithoi I, Al-Mekhlafi HM, Khan AH, Ahmed A, Surin J & Mak JW (2013). Prevalence, predictors and clinical significance of Blastocystis sp. in Sebha, Libya., Parasites & vectors, 6 86. PMID:

Clark CG, van der Giezen M, Alfellani MA & Stensvold CR (2013). Recent developments in blastocystis research., Advances in parasitology, 82 1-32. PMID:

Malheiros AF, Stensvold CR, Clark CG, Braga GB & Shaw JJ (2011). Short report: Molecular characterization of Blastocystis obtained from members of the indigenous Tapirapé ethnic group from the Brazilian Amazon region, Brazil., The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene, 85 (6) 1050-3. PMID:

Blastocystis Parasite Blog
Biology | Microbiology
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3:03 PM | The Shambulance: Reflexology and Other Stories
The Shambulance is an occasional series in which I try to find the truth about bogus or overhyped health products. Helping me keep the Shambulance on course are Steven Swoap and Daniel Lynch, both biology professors at Williams College. Sticking a Q-tip up one’s nose is not the source of many great insights. Yet it’s how an American doctor in the early 20th century developed the theory that became modern reflexology. He would be proud—though maybe a little confused—to see people […]

Ernst, E., Posadzki, P. & Lee, M. (2011). Reflexology: An update of a systematic review of randomised clinical trials, Maturitas, 68 (2) 116-120. DOI:

Inkfish
Biology
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2:51 PM | MRI Biomarker for Parkinson's Disease Progression
Brain Putamen Highlighted in OrangeThe search for biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease is very active.  I have summarized some of the relevant Alzheimer's biomarker research here and here.Biomarker research in Parkinson's disease has been less active.However, a recent research study published in Plos One demonstrated the potential for brain magnetic resonance imaging in Parkinson's disease.Miguel Ulla and colleagues in France conducted a prospective MRI study of 27 subjects with Parkinson's […]

Ulla M, Bonny JM, Ouchchane L, Rieu I, Claise B & Durif F (2013). Is R2* a new MRI biomarker for the progression of Parkinson's disease? A longitudinal follow-up., PloS one, 8 (3) PMID:

Brain Posts
Medicine | Neuroscience
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11:00 AM | TMI Friday: Vacuum Cleaners Suck
When you look at a vacuum cleaner, what do you see ? A tool perhaps, to help you deal with the crisps trodden into the carpet from a party the night before. A way to keep armies of dust from taking over your house and to frighten your pet dog.  But there are some people (Who am I kidding, It's men.) who look at vacuum cleaners in a different way. Who observe the coquettish expression on a Henry vacuum cleaner and contemplate a universe of intimacy. Not much is known about these […]

C. Benson R. (1985). Vacuum cleaner injury to penis: A common urologic problem?, Urology, 25 (1) 41-44. DOI:

Memoirs of a Defective Brain
Microbiology | Biology
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10:12 AM | Feathers stem cells provide new insight into the morphogenesis process
A new study by researchers at the University of Southern California (USC), led by Professor Chuong Cheng Ming, reveals how stem cells contribute to the unique and complex patterns bird feathers have. Surprisingly, the study has implications in the field of regenerative medicine, say the researchers.Read More

Lin, S., Foley, J., Jiang, T., Yeh, C., Wu, P., Foley, A., Yen, C., Huang, Y., Cheng, H., Chen, C. & Reeder, B. (2013). Topology of Feather Melanocyte Progenitor Niche Allows Complex Pigment Patterns to Emerge, Science, DOI:

Stem Cells Freak
Clinical Research | Health
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8:45 AM | The Information Available in Pictures
I've become fascinated with the problem of pictures and how they relate to the things they are pictures of. One reason is the regular use of pictures of objects to study how the affordances of those objects might ground cognition; this, I think, is a major problem. A more positive reason is that, like language, pictures contain information about something they themselves are not (see Sabrina's information taxonomy). I have a hunch that an ecological study of picture perception might help […]

Gibson, J. (1971). The Information Available in Pictures, Leonardo, 4 (1) 27. DOI:

Notes from Two Scientific Psychologists
Philosophy | Psychology
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April 25, 2013

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5:35 PM | New Fatigue Model Leads to Energy-Efficient Ships
Heikki Remes at the Aalto University School of Engineering, Department of Applied Mechanics, has developed a model that makes it possible to find out how exactly fatigue sets in with various welded steel materials. The model allows for the development of lighter structures, and as a consequence, more energy-efficient ships. Read more »

Remes, H. (2013). Strain-based approach to fatigue crack initiation and propagation in welded steel joints with arbitrary notch shape, International Journal of Fatigue, 52 114-123. DOI:

The Daily Fusion
Environment | Energy
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3:15 PM | Brain White Matter Changes in Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a disabling brain disorder characterized by psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions.Schizophrenia has a prevalence rate of about 1% of the population with relatively stable rates across nations and cultures.Early brain imaging studies focused on regional evidence of brain atrophy primarily in brain gray matter.  However, with the development of diffusion tensor imaging, there is a growing body of research examining white matter changes in schizophrenia. […]

Alba-Ferrara, L. & de Erausquin, G. (2013). What does anisotropy measure? Insights from increased and decreased anisotropy in selective fiber tracts in schizophrenia, Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 7 DOI:

Brain Posts
Medicine | Neuroscience
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2:00 PM | Novel industrial applications from salt loving extremophiles
This blog will review two recent publications that explore environmentally friendly advances in biotechnology by exploiting halophilic organisms from the family Halobacteriaceae. Halophiles are found in all kingdoms of life. They employ two different survival mechanisms to cope with their typically inhospitable environment. … Continue reading →

Karan R., Capes M.D., DasSarma P. & DasSarma S. (2013). Cloning, overexpression, purification, and characterization of a polyextremophilic β-galactosidase from the Antarctic haloarchaeon Halorubrum lacusprofundi, BMC Biotechnology, 13 (1) 3. DOI:

Zhao D., Cai L., Wu J., Li M., Liu H., Han J., Zhou J. & Xiang H. (2013). Improving polyhydroxyalkanoate production by knocking out the genes involved in exopolysaccharide biosynthesis in Haloferax mediterranei, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, 97 (7) 3027-3036. DOI:

Biochem Blog
Biology | Chemistry
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