Posts

May 20, 2013

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7:35 PM | Why don't men understand women?

Men might have found themselves an excuse not to listen to women. New research suggests that men have twice more difficulty reading emotions in women than in men. This may not sound surprising, but evidence that men have trouble understanding women is, at best, scarce.Being able to guess someone else’s thoughts, feelings and intentions is […]

Schiffer B., Pawliczek C., Müller B.W., Gizewski E.R., Walter H. & Krueger F. (2013). Why Don't Men Understand Women? Altered Neural Networks for Reading the Language of Male and Female Eyes, PLoS ONE, 8 (4) e60278. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0060278.g003

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6:40 PM | Shale Gas Fracking Has No Impact on Groundwater in Arkansas, Study Concludes

A new study by scientists at Duke University and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) finds no evidence of groundwater contamination from shale gas production in Arkansas. “Our results show no discernible impairment of groundwater quality in areas associated with natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing in this region,” said Avner Vengosh, professor of geochemistry and water quality at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment. Read more »

Warner, N., Kresse, T., Hays, P., Down, A., Karr, J., Jackson, R. & Vengosh, A. (2013). Geochemical and isotopic variations in shallow groundwater in areas of the Fayetteville shale development, north-central Arkansas, Applied Geochemistry, DOI: 10.1016/j.apgeochem.2013.04.013

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5:23 PM | Epilepsy Service Organization in Countries with Limited Resources

tumblr: bellapaige88On average, 9.5/1000 population has epilepsy in Low and Middle Income Countries (LAMIC). A research which has resulted in the global campaign against epilepsy has shown, the gap between treatment need and the treatment provision worldwide is approximately 70% [1]. This large ‘treatment gap’, i.e., lack of appropriate treatment for a large number of patients with epilepsy, due to a number of causes including inability to identify cases, inability to deliver adequate […]

Mbuba CK, Ngugi AK, Newton CR & Carter JA (2008). The epilepsy treatment gap in developing countries: a systematic review of the magnitude, causes, and intervention strategies., Epilepsia, 49 (9) 1491-503. PMID: 18557778

Pal, D., Das, T. & Sengupta, S. (2000). Case-control and qualitative study of attrition in a community epilepsy programme in rural India, Seizure, 9 (2) 119-123. DOI: 10.1053/seiz.1999.0357

Mani KS, Rangan G, Srinivas HV, Srindharan VS & Subbakrishna DK (2001). Epilepsy control with phenobarbital or phenytoin in rural south India: the Yelandur study., Lancet, 357 (9265) 1316-20. PMID: 11343735

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3:55 PM | Epidemiology of Childhood Brain Disorders: ADHD and Autism

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has published a comprehensive summary of the epidemiology of childhood brain disorders in the most recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.This report produced some sensationalized headlines that up to 20% of children suffer from a mental disorder. However, I was more interested in looking at the prevalence estimates for some of the individual disorders from the report.The report collates data collected from a variety of surveys and data sets […]

Perou R, Bitsko RH, Blumberg SJ, Pastor P, Ghandour RM, Gfroerer JC, Hedden SL, Crosby AE, Visser SN, Schieve LA & Parks SE (2013). Mental health surveillance among children - United States, 2005-2011., Morbidity and mortality weekly report. Surveillance summaries (Washington, D.C. : 2002), 62 (2) 1-35. PMID: 23677130

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12:00 PM | Baby geniuses: young guppies show number skills

I have vague memories of the first time I counted to a hundred. It felt like one of those landmarks like tying your shoes for yourself the first time, or riding the bicycle more than a few feet without the training wheels or dad holding you up. Of course, I don't come anywhere near Adam Spencer: Once when I was about 7, I counted to 10,000 just to check the numbers didn't run out before then #NerdConfessions Counting large numbers is not something that comes easily for us humans. A new paper […]

Piffer L., Miletto Petrazzini M.E. & Agrillo C. (2013). Large number discrimination in newborn fish, PLOS ONE, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0062466

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11:00 AM | The Earlier discovery of Antibiotic Resistance

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how quickly penicillin resistance was discovered not long before it was distributed to the public, and how even Alexander Fleming noted his worries over penicillin resistance in the closing of his Nobel prize acceptance speech. But even in the process of researching this article, I realised that I was merely scratching the surface. You see penicillin was not the first antibiotic discovered. If I want to talk about the first discovery of antibiotic […]

Bentley R. (2009). Different roads to discovery; Prontosil (hence sulfa drugs) and penicillin (hence β-lactams), Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology, 36 (6) 775-786. DOI: 10.1007/s10295-009-0553-8

Macleod C. & Daddi G. (1939). A ''Sulfapyridine-Fast'' Strain of Pneumococcus Type 1, Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, 41 69-71. DOI: 10.3181/00379727-41-10575P

Cokkinis A.J. (1938). SULPHONAMIDE CHEMOTHERAPY IN SURGICAL INFECTIONS--I, BMJ, 2 (4059) 845-847. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.2.4059.845

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9:57 AM | Sesgos cognitivos y errores en el diagnóstico médico

La medicina ha experimentado avances espectaculares en las últimas décadas. Sin embargo, muchas de las tecnologías y procedimientos que emplea dependen, en última instancia, del factor humano. Y no hay […]

Phua DH & Tan NC (2013). Cognitive aspect of diagnostic errors., Annals of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore, 42 (1) 33-41. PMID: 23417589

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8:10 AM | Stand by me: Close friendships appear to counteract genetic vulnerability to depression in girls, but not boys

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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7:59 AM | Autism, plasma cytokines and siblings

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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3:52 AM | Blood magic: old blood ages the young

“Our ancient countess was refused her desires will To bathe in pure fresh blood She’d peasant virgins killed Elizabeth, in the chasm where was my soul Forever young, Elizabeth Bathorii in the castle of your death You’re still alive, Elizabeth” -“Elizabeth”, Ghost As folklore has it, Elizabeth Bathorii, Countess of Hungary, often […]

Villeda SA, Luo J, Mosher KI, Zou B, Britschgi M, Bieri G, Stan TM, Fainberg N, Ding Z, Eggel A & Lucin KM (2011). The ageing systemic milieu negatively regulates neurogenesis and cognitive function., Nature, 477 (7362) 90-4. PMID: 21886162

Loffredo FS, Steinhauser ML, Jay SM, Gannon J, Pancoast JR, Yalamanchi P, Sinha M, Dall'osso C, Khong D, Shadrach JL & Miller CM (2013). Growth Differentiation Factor 11 Is a Circulating Factor that Reverses Age-Related Cardiac Hypertrophy., Cell, 153 (4) 828-39. PMID: 23663781

Zhang G, Li J, Purkayastha S, Tang Y, Zhang H, Yin Y, Li B, Liu G & Cai D (2013). Hypothalamic programming of systemic ageing involving IKK-β, NF-κB and GnRH., Nature, 497 (7448) 211-6. PMID: 23636330

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3:45 AM | Natural algorithms and the sciences

Today, I am passing through New York City on my way to Princeton’s Center for Computational Intractability for a workshop on Natural Algorithms and the Sciences (NA&S). The two day meeting will cover everything from molecular algorithms for learning and experiments on artificial cells to bounded rationality in decision-making and the effects of network topology […]

Chazelle, B. (2012). Natural algorithms and influence systems, Communications of the ACM, 55 (12) 101. DOI: 10.1145/2380656.2380679

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May 19, 2013

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9:13 PM | Reflecting on Applied Animal Behavior

Time for reflection (By Wieselblitz)Hi Mia! Love the lavender research! Learning that dogs show different behaviors when exposed to different scents could help us prime environments to be associated with particular dog behaviors and moods (you noted that exposure to peppermint and rosemary are associated with activity and barking while exposure to lavender and chamomile bring out resting). At the Horowitz Dog Cognition Lab, we have a new paper coming out soon in Learning and Motivation -- the […]

Mason G., Clubb R., Latham N. & Vickery S. (2007). Why and how should we use environmental enrichment to tackle stereotypic behaviour?, Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 102 (3-4) 163-188. DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2006.05.041

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7:48 PM | A deeper look at the geology of diamonds

The geology of diamonds is fascinating in itself, but they also give insights into wider geological processes and history. Up until 1725, diamonds were only known from India. That all changed when Brazilians panning river sediments for gold, instead found diamonds. Recent … Continue reading →

Harte, B. & Richardson, S. (2012). Mineral inclusions in diamonds track the evolution of a Mesozoic subducted slab beneath West Gondwanaland, Gondwana Research, 21 (1) 236-245. DOI: 10.1016/j.gr.2011.07.001

Harte, B. & Cayzer, N. (2007). Decompression and unmixing of crystals included in diamonds from the mantle transition zone, Physics and Chemistry of Minerals, 34 (9) 647-656. DOI: 10.1007/s00269-007-0178-2

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4:10 PM | Shrinking Alligator Penises: Using Wildlife Models to Study How Chemical Contaminants May Affect Human Reproductive Systems (Guest Post)

Erin on the side of a river somewhere in western NC, hard at work study obviously. Erin Abernethy is a Master’s student in the Odum School of Ecology at the University of Georgia, where she is studying scavenging ecology in Hawaii. Before coming to Athens, Erin lived in North Carolina earning her BS in Biology at Appalachian State. For that degree,

Guillette Jr., L., Pickford, D., Crain, D., Rooney, A. & Percival, H. (1996). Reduction in Penis Size and Plasma Testosterone Concentrations in Juvenile Alligators Living in a Contaminated Environment, General and Comparative Endocrinology, 101 (1) 32-42. DOI: 10.1006/gcen.1996.0005

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3:50 PM | The extinction of the Irish brown bear

A new study by Saoirse Leonard and co-authors from the Institute of Zoology, London and the University of Liverpool model the potential survival of brown bears in an Irish glacial refugium. The study has just been published in Biology Letters, and … Continue reading →

Leonard, S., Risley, C. & Turvey, S. (2013). Could brown bears (Ursus arctos) have survived in Ireland during the Last Glacial Maximum?, Biology Letters, 9 (4) 20130281-20130281. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2013.0281

Edwards, C., Suchard, M., Lemey, P., Welch, J., Barnes, I., Fulton, T., Barnett, R., O'Connell, T., Coxon, P., Monaghan, N. & Valdiosera, C. (2011). Ancient Hybridization and an Irish Origin for the Modern Polar Bear Matriline, Current Biology, 21 (15) 1251-1258. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2011.05.058

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May 18, 2013

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10:20 PM | Some Quantized Flux History

In 1961, William Fairbank and Bascomb Deaver experimentally verified that magnetic flux can be quantized. This week I read an excellent paper on the history of the experiment[1]. For those who aren't close to a library with access to the journal, (and for my own notes), here are a few of the highlights. For more info on the Fairbank/Deaver experiment see[4] .The Other ExperimentThe first interesting thing you should know is that there was a similar experiment […]

Einzel D. (2011). 50 Years of Fluxoid Quantization: 2e or Not 2e, Journal of Low Temperature Physics, 163 (5-6) 215-237. DOI: 10.1007/s10909-011-0349-x

Doll R. & Näbauer M. (1961). Experimental Proof of Magnetic Flux Quantization in a Superconducting Ring, Physical Review Letters, 7 (2) 51-52. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.7.51

Byers N. & Yang C. (1961). Theoretical Considerations Concerning Quantized Magnetic Flux in Superconducting Cylinders, Physical Review Letters, 7 (2) 46-49. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.7.46

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6:06 PM | ‘Is ‘cloning’ mad, bad and dangerous?’ – an argument revisited

Seven years ago, to mark the then tenth anniversary of the announcement of the birth of the folkloric Dolly the sheep, and in the still reverberating wake of the South Korean cloning scandal, I practiced my fledgling/intermittent/debatable/wanton science communication skills with the penning of an article on the issue of ‘cloning.’ It being an anniversary with a ’0′ on the end, combined with topical relevance, suggested I might be lucky enough to get it published. And I was thus very... […]

Tachibana, M., Amato, P., Sparman, M., Gutierrez, N., Tippner-Hedges, R., Ma, H., Kang, E., Fulati, A., Lee, H., Sritanaudomchai, H. & Masterson, K. (2013). Human Embryonic Stem Cells Derived by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer, Cell, DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2013.05.006

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1:23 PM | Homeostatic platsicity in a thorny situation

Synapses, the connections between neurons can strengthen and weaken depending on the specific activity at that synapse. This is called synaptic plasticity, and we've talked about it a lot on this blog (here, here, here and here).the strengthening and weakening of synaptic connections corresponds to the spine growing or shrinking (Matsuzaki 2007)However, there is another kind of plasticity that can occur at synapses. This is called homeostatic plasticity. And instead of the synapse strengthening […]

Lee KJ, Queenan BN, Rozeboom AM, Bellmore R, Lim ST, Vicini S & Pak DT (2013). Mossy fiber-CA3 synapses mediate homeostatic plasticity in mature hippocampal neurons., Neuron, 77 (1) 99-114. PMID: 23312519

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11:08 AM | Ocean heat puts pressure on poorest fisheries

The first evidence that climate change has affected fishing catches, revealed by William Cheung from the University of British Columbia and his team, shows tropical countries are set to be hardest hit.

Cheung, W., Watson, R. & Pauly, D. (2013). Signature of ocean warming in global fisheries catch, Nature, 497 (7449) 365-368. DOI: 10.1038/nature12156

Payne, M. (2013). Fisheries: Climate change at the dinner table, Nature, 497 (7449) 320-321. DOI: 10.1038/497320a

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9:33 AM | Darth DSM-5 and autism

Blue Harvest @ Wikipedia @ Family GuyI need to create a suitable atmosphere for this post, so try this music for size and think Blue Harvest...Right. The wait is over. The discussions / arguments / objections / agreements are all confined to history. Drum roll, spotlight centre-stage... enter DSM-5 and into unknown territory we all go, particularly with autism, sorry.. autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) in mind.As you can see from the link above to the new diagnostic guidelines from the […]

Lai M-C, Lombardo MV, Chakrabarti B & Baron-Cohen S (2013). Subgrouping the Autism “Spectrum": Reflections on DSM-5, PLoS Biology, Other: Link

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6:00 AM | Ethnocentrism, religion, and austerity: a science poster for the humanities

Artem Kaznatcheev and I presented a poster on May 4th at the University of British Columbia to a highly interdisciplinary conference on religion. The conference acronym is CERC, which translates as Cultural Evolution of Religion Research Consortium. Most of the 60-some attendees are religion scholars and social scientists from North American and European universities. Many […]

Kaznatcheev, Artem & Shultz, Thomas R. (2011). Ethnocentrism maintains cooperation, but keeping one’s children close fuels it., Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, 3174-3179. Other: Link

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May 17, 2013

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8:58 PM | poly(A) messages; lost in translation

From a virus' perspective, how do you translate your own messenger RNA (mRNA), whilst not allowing your host cell to continue manufacturing its own proteins, including those that might be detrimental to virus survival? It's a problem viruses have found various ways to overcome, often by manipulating the biology of the mRNAs, which have the following structure: The classical polyadenylated mRNA ready for translation Simply, an eIF4F cap-binding complex binds to the cap and a poly(A) […]

Rubio, R., Mora, S., Romero, P., Arias, C. & Lopez, S. (2013). Rotavirus Prevents the Expression of Host Responses by Blocking the Nucleocytoplasmic Transport of Polyadenylated mRNAs, Journal of Virology, 87 (11) 6336-6345. DOI: 10.1128/JVI.00361-13

Piron, M. (1998). Rotavirus RNA-binding protein NSP3 interacts with eIF4GI and evicts the poly(A) binding protein from eIF4F, The EMBO Journal, 17 (19) 5811-5821. DOI: 10.1093/emboj/17.19.5811

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8:51 PM | Strategies for Breaking Even on Home Energy Consumption Suggested

When you are buying a car you always look at official miles per gallon figures to find out how much fuel it will use. At the same time, most people have only a vague idea about how much energy their houses consume, even though home energy expenditures often account for a larger share of the household budget. Read more »

N.A. McNabb (2013). Strategies to Achieve Net-Zero Energy Homes: A Framework for Future Guidelines Workshop Summary Report., NIST Special Publication, DOI: 10.6028/NIST.SP.1140

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6:09 PM | Scientists Trying to Photograph Photosynthesis

Photosynthetic oxidation of water is one of the central processes of life on Earth, but it is still not completely understood. Now, a German-American team of scientists has set out to observe the intermediate stages of this complex catalytic reaction using ultrashort snap shots taken at light sources including BESSY II in Berlin and the Linac Coherent Light Source at Stanford. Read more »

Kern, J., Alonso-Mori, R., Hellmich, J., Tran, R., Hattne, J., Laksmono, H., Glockner, C., Echols, N., Sierra, R., Sellberg, J. & Lassalle-Kaiser, B. (2012). Room temperature femtosecond X-ray diffraction of photosystem II microcrystals, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109 (25) 9721-9726. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1204598109

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2:47 PM | Eye of the tiger

A new study on the genetic structure of the Indian tiger has found that the current tiger population now only retain a small proportion of the historical mitochondrial DNA haplotypes. The new study has just been published in Proceedings of the Royal … Continue reading →

Mondol S, Bruford MW & Ramakrishnan U (2013). Demographic loss, genetic structure and the conservation implications for Indian tigers., Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society, 280 (1762) 20130496. PMID: 23677341

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1:33 PM | The Buzz About Akkermansia muciniphila: It’s More Than Just Weight Loss

The bacterium Akkermansia muciniphila is creating quite a stir in science news, with people calling it the “weight loss bacterium”. While it’s exciting to think about a bacterium that has the ability to reduce body weight with no change in food intake, there’s another reason to get excited: The potential to treat obesity-related metabolic disorders […]

Everard A., Belzer C., Geurts L., Ouwerkerk J.P., Druart C., Bindels L.B., Guiot Y., Derrien M., Muccioli G.G. & Delzenne N.M. & (2013). Cross-talk between Akkermansia muciniphila and intestinal epithelium controls diet-induced obesity., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, PMID: 23671105

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1:06 PM | The embodied cognition of Tesco's gendered toys

Tesco got in trouble on the internet last week for having toy chemistry sets labelled as being for boys, not girls in their online store. There's a lot of noise about how inappropriate all this gender labelling is (and rightly so - it's everywhere and it's awful). Lots of potential customers are being very annoyed all over Twitter: so why does Tesco do this? Why is this sort of thing so very common? Oddly, I think an embodied task analysis (using our 4 questions which we describe in our […]

Wilson, A. D. & Golonka, S. (2013). Embodied Cognition is Not What you Think it is, Frontiers in Psychology, 4 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00058

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12:35 PM | Friday Roundup: This Week's Wildlife Links (May 17th, 2013)

This article could use a little more reflection about working alongside potentially dangerous animals and a little less sensationalism. But, it's still an incredible story: I was swallowed by a hippo. Who knew? Snakes like hot springs too. The Roundup from a couple weeks ago featured amazing pictures of a pod of Orcas attacking a group of Sperm Whales. This week's unlucky victim is a dolphin.

Wenger SJ, Isaak DJ, Luce CH, Neville HM, Fausch KD, Dunham JB, Dauwalter DC, Young MK, Elsner MM, Rieman BE & Hamlet AF (2011). Flow regime, temperature, and biotic interactions drive differential declines of trout species under climate change., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108 (34) 14175-80. PMID: 21844354

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12:32 PM | Colour costs crickets

You probably don’t feel tired when you get a tan. You probably think your friends feel more or less fatigued depending on whether they are dark skinned or fair skinned (like myself). We know that differences in colour are important lots of other species besides humans. They can play a big part in an animal’s ability to blend into the surrounding environment, for instance. What might be less appreciated is that being a certain colour might take energy. After all, many colours in animals […]

Roff D. & Fairbairn D. (2013). The costs of being dark: the genetic basis of melanism and its association with fitness-related traits in the sand cricket, Journal of Evolutionary Biology, DOI: 10.1111/jeb.12150

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11:32 AM | TMI Friday: Taking it to third base ..literally

The variety of foreign bodies in the rectum tests a surgeon's ingenuity to solve a myriad of geometric puzzles So begins Major PT Mcdonald's 1976 paper, in which he has to deal with a patient with a somewhat unique problem. The patient, a 49 year old baseball fan, who had serious trouble with his bowels ever since the Oakland A's won the world series in 1974. The doctors examined him, and noticed " a firm, fixed, round object barely palpable which was lodged high in the […]

McDonald M.P.T. & Rosenthal C.D. (1977). An unusual foreign body in the rectum—A baseball report of a case, Diseases of the Colon & Rectum, 20 (1) 56-57. DOI: 10.1007/BF02587455

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