Culture Dish Move Complete - New Feed Now Live
Labels: Housekeeping
Rebecca Skloot's blog on Science, Writing, and Life.
Labels: Housekeeping
Labels: Animals, Housekeeping, My Publication News
Labels: Housekeeping
Labels: HeLa, Henrietta Lacks, Housekeeping, My Book, Personal Updates
Labels: Personal Updates
Labels: Bioethics: Use of Human Tissues, Publication Updates, Research Ethics, Science and Money, Science: General
Labels: Animals, My Publication News, Publication Updates
Labels: Personal Updates
Labels: Animals, My Publication News, Prevention Pet Column, Writing
Labels: Just Plain Silly, Latest Discoveries, Neuro, Weird Science
"The human brain, with its hundred billion neurons and hundreds of trillions of synaptic connections, is a cognitive powerhouse in many ways. “But a core limitation is an inability to concentrate on two things at once,” said René Marois, a neuroscientist and director of the Human Information Processing Laboratory at Vanderbilt University.
"Mr. Marois and three other Vanderbilt researchers reported in an article last December in the journal Neuron that they used magnetic resonance imaging to pinpoint the bottleneck in the brain and to measure how much efficiency is lost when trying to handle two tasks at once. Study participants were given two tasks and were asked to respond to sounds and images. The first was to press the correct key on a computer keyboard after hearing one of eight sounds. The other task was to speak the correct vowel after seeing one of eight images."
"These experts have some basic advice. Check e-mail messages once an hour, at most. Listening to soothing background music while studying may improve concentration. But other distractions — most songs with lyrics, instant messaging, television shows — hamper performance. Driving while talking on a cellphone, even with a hands-free headset, is a bad idea."
Labels: Latest Discoveries, Neuro, Science News, Technonlogy, Writing
Labels: Bioethics: Use of Human Tissues, Genetic Testing, My Book, Research Ethics, Science and Money, Science News
Labels: Bioethics: Use of Human Tissues, My Book, Science and Money, Science and Risk
Labels: Bioethics: Use of Human Tissues, My Book, Publication Updates, Research Ethics, Science and Money, Science News
Labels: Animals, Science News
Labels: Animals, Just Plain Silly, My Publication News, Publication Updates
Labels: My Publication News, Neuro, Publication Updates
Labels: Just Plain Silly, Sex Ed, Weird Science
Labels: Weird Science
Labels: My Publication News
Labels: Books, Science Writing
I just want to know, what took so long?
(AP) "The draft regulation, which has been sent to the State Council for review, would require a new organization under the Ministry of Health to be in charge of registering and allocating all donated organs, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It said the regulations were expected to be passed soon, but gave no specific timetable.
Little information about China's transplant business is publicly available, and critics contend it is profit-driven with little regard for medical ethics. China has long defended the practice as legal ... Xinhua said that China's lack of clear organ transplant laws had led to transplants being carried out by "unqualified doctors with substandard medical equipment" which had caused deaths among patients. It also said there was a popular perception that Chinese hospitals were sacrificing quality care in order to perform many costly transplants." Full story here.
Labels: Bioethics: Use of Human Tissues
Labels: Animals, Botched Science
Labels: Animals
Labels: Animals, Bioethics: Use of Human Tissues, Bioethics: General, Personal Updates, Science and Money
Labels: Science Writing
Labels: Science and Money
Labels: Animals
Donors have their wisdom teeth removed in an hour-long surgery so bone cells can be extracted from their jawbones (!). And people are lining up to do it: The company recently selected four couples out of hundreds of applicants wanting to be part of an upcoming art exhibit, which will display couples' bone rings, their stories and photos.
Labels: Bioethics: Use of Human Tissues, Science and Money, Weird Science
Labels: Books, Science Writing
"Doctors unintentionally produced the delusion while evaluating a 22-year-old epileptic woman for possible surgery. Though the woman had no history of psychological problems, she repeatedly perceived a "shadow person" hovering behind her when doctors electrically stimulated an area of her brain called the left temporoparietal junction. "Our data most importantly show that paranoia might be related to disturbed processing of one's own body, [which] in some instances may become misrecognized as the body of somebody else," said Olaf Blanke, a neuroscientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. The hallucinatory condition was temporary and ended when stimulations were stopped.The photo above is a computerized drawing -- she shadow behind the woman illustrates where she felt this man (and interesting that it was a man, not a woman). What's perhaps most creepy is, the patient -- who had no history of delusions -- thought this was real. She had no idea she was experiencing some kind of hallucination. The researchers think the electronic stimulation temporarily confused her brain's ability to comprehend its own body. Which could make sense, since the part of the brain they zapped is connected to self-perception, distinguishing self from non-self, and understanding where your body is in space.
"During her ordeal, the patient described sensing an unknown person standing just behind her, mimicking her body positions. "He is behind me, almost at my body, but I do not feel it," she told doctors, who report their discovery in this week's issue of the journal Nature. When asked to lean forward and grasp her knees, the patient reported that she felt as if the shadow person were embracing herÂa sensation she described as disturbing. When performing assigned activities, such as a language-testing card game, she said that the shadow tried to interfere. "He wants to take the card," she told doctors. "He doesn't want me to read."
Labels: Neuro, Weird Science
"The researchers warn that egg hurling, sometimes used as a form of protest or prank, is far from harmless. They point out, in the Emergency Medical Journal, that an egg has the same dimensions as a squash ball but carries even more weight when lobbed. Jon Durnian, lead author of the paper from the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, said: "The shape and weight of an egg makes it a perfect instrument to cause quite a lot of damage it it is thrown accurately ... Mr Durnian said the public should be made aware of the damage an egg can cause and that throwing eggs should definitely not be encouraged."Durnian has a special beef with companies who sell eggs specifically designed for lobbing, like "Mischief Eggs," which are apparently sold during Halloween. Who knew?
Labels: Weird Science