Post List

  • May 18, 2013
  • 02:10 PM
  • 14 views

‘Is ‘cloning’ mad, bad and dangerous?’ – an argument revisited

by Lee Turnpenny in The Mawk Moth Profligacies

Is 'cloning' appropriate terminology for somatic cell nuclear transfer derivation of human embryonic stem cells?... Read more »

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

  • May 18, 2013
  • 11:40 AM
  • 16 views

Why Psychology 101 Should Be Evolutionary Psychology

by Jesse Marczyk in Pop Psychology

In two recent posts, I have referenced a relatively-average psychologist (again, this psychologist need not bear any resemblance to any particular person, living or dead). I found this relatively-average psychologist to be severely handicapped in their ability to think about … Continue reading →... Read more »

Smallegange, R., van Gemert, G., van de Vegte-Bolmer, M., Gezan, S., Takken, W., Sauerwein, R., & Logan, J. (2013) Malaria Infected Mosquitoes Express Enhanced Attraction to Human Odor. PLoS ONE, 8(5). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0063602  

  • May 18, 2013
  • 09:21 AM
  • 15 views

Homeostatic platsicity in a thorny situation

by TheCellularScale in The Cellular Scale

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 ........ Read more »

  • May 18, 2013
  • 07:08 AM
  • 101 views

Ocean heat puts pressure on poorest fisheries

by Andy Extance in Simple Climate

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.... Read more »

  • May 18, 2013
  • 07:06 AM
  • 17 views

Ground-breaking science and spectacular cosmic images from the PAPER instrument in the Karoo

by Perikis Livas in Tracing Knowledge

-Scientific studies done with the “PAPER” array, one of the world-class scientific instruments in South Africa’s Karoo Radio Astronomy Reserve, is producing ground-breaking science and spectacular cosmic images, resulting in several important articles in top astronomy journals.

-The first scientific paper based on observations performed with South Africa’s new KAT-7 radio telescope, has been accepted for publication by the prestigious journal Monthly Notices of the Roy........ Read more »

SKA SA Project Office. (2013) Ground-breaking science and spectacular cosmic images from the PAPER instrument in the Karoo. SKA Africa . info:/

  • May 18, 2013
  • 05:33 AM
  • 15 views

Darth DSM-5 and autism

by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers

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 Ameri........ Read more »

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

  • May 18, 2013
  • 02:00 AM
  • 21 views

Ethnocentrism, religion, and austerity: a science poster for the humanities

by Thomas Shultz in Evolutionary Games Group

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 […]... Read more »

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. info:/

  • May 17, 2013
  • 09:48 PM
  • 12 views

In large earthquakes, the Earth moves for almost everyone

by Chris Rowan in Highly Allochthonous

The Global Positioning System has completely revolutionised how geologists study the deformation of the Earth. If you leave a GPS receiver in a fixed location for days, months and years, it is precise enough to measure motions on the millimetre … Continue reading →... Read more »

Corne ́ Kreemer, Geoffrey Blewitt, William C. Hammond, & Hans-Peter Plag. (2006) Global deformation from the great 2004 Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake observed by GPS: Implications for rupture process and global reference fram. Earth, Planets, Space, 58(2), 141-148. info:other/

Tregoning, P., Burgette, R., McClusky, S., Lejeune, S., Watson, C., & McQueen, H. (2013) A decade of horizontal deformation from great earthquakes. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. DOI: 10.1002/jgrb.50154  

  • May 17, 2013
  • 06:17 PM
  • 18 views

poly(A) messages: lost in traslation

by Andrew Shaw in Virus Musings

How do viruses translate their mRNA in the presence of cellular mRNA? Rotavirus finds a way.... Read more »

  • May 17, 2013
  • 05:00 PM
  • 13 views

Preferred Foot Strike Pattern and Soft Tissue Vibration

by Craig Payne in Running Research Junkie

Preferred Foot Strike Pattern and Soft Tissue Vibration... Read more »

  • May 17, 2013
  • 04:55 PM
  • 19 views

Strategies for Breaking Even on Home Energy Consumption Suggested

by dailyfusion in The Daily Fusion

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 »

  • May 17, 2013
  • 02:47 PM
  • 9 views

Eye of the Tiger

by Denise O'Meara in A dribble of knowledge

A new genetic study by Mondol et al. 2013 examines the contemporary and historical genetic diversity of Indian tigers. They have found that the large reduction in the population has also wiped out many of the mitochondrial DNA haplotypes that were historically present, and the remaining populations are becoming more isolated and at greater risk for future extinctions. Mondol et al. 2013 is currently freely available!... Read more »

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  

  • May 17, 2013
  • 02:10 PM
  • 19 views

Scientists Trying to Photograph Photosynthesis

by dailyfusion in The Daily Fusion

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.... (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  

  • May 17, 2013
  • 02:09 PM
  • 18 views

Land-Fast Ice Cover off North Greenland: Will NASA bite?

by Andreas Muenchow in Icy Seas

When a large outlet glacier of North Greenland (Petermann Gletscher) discharged an ice island four times the size of Manhattan in August of 2010, the United States’ Congress held formal inquiries on its cause within days of the event. Congressmen, … Continue reading →... Read more »

Johnson, H., Münchow, A., Falkner, K., & Melling, H. (2011) Ocean circulation and properties in Petermann Fjord, Greenland. Journal of Geophysical Research, 116(C1). DOI: 10.1029/2010JC006519  

Reeh, N., H. H. Thomsen, A. K. Higgins, and A. Weidick. (2001) Sea ice and the stability of north and northeast Greenland floating glaciers. Annals of Glaciology, 474-480. info:/

  • May 17, 2013
  • 12:13 PM
  • 18 views

Transitioning from Adolescent to Adult Eating Disorder Treatment Programs: What Are The Challenges?

by Andrea in Science of Eating Disorders


Navigating health service systems can seem daunting, to say the least. Making phone calls, getting doctor appointments and referrals, attending intake appointments, and preparing oneself for treatment can be both mentally and physically draining. When children and adolescents develop eating disorders, their parents become the main navigators in this scenario, making decisions and arrangements for their under-18-year-olds. But what happens when these adolescents reach the age of 18, and sti........ Read more »

  • May 17, 2013
  • 09:35 AM
  • 34 views

I Am Not This Body

by Perikis Livas in Tracing Knowledge

Every time I look at my face in a magnified mirror in a hotel bathroom, I jump back in surprise. Seen closely, my skin looks like the surface of a strange planet. Ridges and canyons pock my chin and lips. Forests of tiny hairs grow from my ear lobes. Unnoticed pimples rise from my nose like volcanoes. A sheen of oil coats the landscape. I half expect to see alien creatures living in minute settlements in my dimples or roving the great plains of my cheeks — and could I look at higher magnif........ Read more »

BRIAN JAY STANLEY. (2013) I Am Not This Body. The New York Times. info:/

  • May 17, 2013
  • 08:35 AM
  • 86 views

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

by David Steen in Living Alongside Wildlife

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.

... Read more »

Wenger SJ, Isaak DJ, Luce CH, Neville HM, Fausch KD, Dunham JB, Dauwalter DC, Young MK, Elsner MM, Rieman BE.... (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  

  • May 17, 2013
  • 08:00 AM
  • 11 views

Colour costs crickets

by Zen Faulkes in NeuroDojo

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 are........ Read more »

  • May 17, 2013
  • 07:02 AM
  • 23 views

Is there a relationship between age and ethnic prejudice?

by Doug Keene in The Jury Room

As you have probably noticed, we read a lot of research here at The Jury Room. We are looking for nuggets of knowledge or pearls of wisdom we can apply to our day-to-day practice of litigation advocacy. If you’ve read our work on generations you likely already know there is a relationship between age and [...]

Related posts:
Pretrial publicity & bias: Take a look at the age of your jurors!
Politics and prejudice? Nope. It’s about ideology!
Polls and Prejudice


... Read more »

  • May 17, 2013
  • 06:48 AM
  • 30 views

CMS harbors new physics beyond the Standard Model

by Marco Frasca in The Gauge Connection

In these days is ongoing LHCP 2013 (First Large Hadron Collider Physics Conference) and CMS data seem to point significantly toward new physics. Their measurements on the production modes for WW and ZZ are agreeing with my recent computations (see here) and overall are deviating slightly from Standard Model expectations giving Note that Standard Model is alive and […]... Read more »

Marco Frasca. (2013) Revisiting the Higgs sector of the Standard Model. arXiv. arXiv: 1303.3158v1

Marco Frasca. (2010) Mass generation and supersymmetry. arXiv. arXiv: 1007.5275v2

T. G. Steele, & Zhi-Wei Wang. (2013) Is Radiative Electroweak Symmetry Breaking Consistent with a 125 GeV Higgs Mass?. Physical Review Letters, 151601. arXiv: 1209.5416v3

Krzysztof A. Meissner, & Hermann Nicolai. (2006) Conformal Symmetry and the Standard Model. Phys.Lett.B648:312-317,2007. arXiv: hep-th/0612165v4

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