Biology posts
- April 21, 2013
- 11:23 AM
- 90 views
Was Steven Pinker right after all? [Part 2]
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
Last week Science published a study (a follow-up of Salimpoor et al., 2011) in which Canadian researchers showed that music can arouse feelings of euphoria and craving, similar to tangible rewards that involve the striatal dopaminergic system. ... Read more »
Salimpoor, V., van den Bosch, I., Kovacevic, N., McIntosh, A., Dagher, A., & Zatorre, R. (2013) Interactions Between the Nucleus Accumbens and Auditory Cortices Predict Music Reward Value. Science, 340(6129), 216-219. DOI: 10.1126/science.1231059
Salimpoor, V., Benovoy, M., Larcher, K., Dagher, A., & Zatorre, R. (2011) Anatomically distinct dopamine release during anticipation and experience of peak emotion to music. Nature Neuroscience. DOI: 10.1038/nn.2726
- April 21, 2013
- 09:00 AM
- 89 views
Science Sunday: The ontogeny of behaviour in the albino rat
by Mitchell Harden in Mitch's Blog
Every Sunday, I'd like to post a review of an interesting peer-reviewed science article. To kick things off I'm picking an old favorite, originally posted in 1964! It is certainly well cited, Google Scholar lists the citation count at 452! Indeed this paper was a "Citation Classic" in Current Contents in 1981. At the time the lead author Robert Bolles, was still living and stated:"I have always believed in the idea that experimenters should look at their animals...the human eyeball is........ Read more »
Bolles, R., & Woods, P. (1964) The ontogeny of behaviour in the albino rat. Animal Behaviour, 12(4), 427-441. DOI: 10.1016/0003-3472(64)90062-4
- April 21, 2013
- 03:43 AM
- 66 views
All eyes on minocycline
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
Minocycline, the tetracycline antibiotic, is probably not something that most people would traditionally link with autism or conditions presenting with autism-like behaviours. Indeed, the suggestion that antibiotics or antimicrobials if you prefer, may be able to modify either the behaviour or linked biochemistry of the autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) or even influence the onset and expression of ASD is quite frankly a little bit unusual.Minocycline (for chemists) @ Wikipedia But unusual ........ Read more »
Leigh, M., Nguyen, D., Mu, Y., Winarni, T., Schneider, A., Chechi, T., Polussa, J., Doucet, P., Tassone, F., Rivera, S.... (2013) A Randomized Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial of Minocycline in Children and Adolescents with Fragile X Syndrome. Journal of Developmental , 34(3), 147-155. DOI: 10.1097/DBP.0b013e318287cd17
- April 19, 2013
- 11:13 PM
- 90 views
Potential benefits of an ET-1 signaling antagonist in multiple sclerosis
by Aurelie in The Immuno Blog
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune-mediated inflammatory disease characterized by demyelination in the central nervous system, which leads to a variety of neurological symptoms. Although there is currently no cure for MS, several drugs are available to try and modify … Continue reading →... Read more »
D'haeseleer M, Beelen R, Fierens Y, Cambron M, Vanbinst AM, Verborgh C, Demey J, & De Keyser J. (2013) Cerebral hypoperfusion in multiple sclerosis is reversible and mediated by endothelin-1. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110(14), 5654-8. PMID: 23509249
- April 19, 2013
- 03:16 PM
- 70 views
The Curious Case of the Earworm (Part 1)
by Melissa Chernick in Science Storiented
I have had “Thrift Shop” stuck in my head for what seems like days.Yes, it is always on the radio, and yes, I usually listen to it when it is playing. Don't judge me. But why (*Stella scream* wwhhhhyyyyy!) has it established a permanent residence in my brain? I’m going to use a few studies to make the case that it isn’t my fault; I’m led around by my biochemistry. Basically, I’m blaming it on my neurons.Hmmm…where to start. Let’s try to figure out why we like a song (or music in ........ Read more »
Salimpoor, V., Benovoy, M., Larcher, K., Dagher, A., & Zatorre, R. (2011) Anatomically distinct dopamine release during anticipation and experience of peak emotion to music. Nature Neuroscience, 14(2), 257-262. DOI: 10.1038/nn.2726
Salimpoor, V., van den Bosch, I., Kovacevic, N., McIntosh, A., Dagher, A., & Zatorre, R. (2013) Interactions Between the Nucleus Accumbens and Auditory Cortices Predict Music Reward Value. Science, 340(6129), 216-219. DOI: 10.1126/science.1231059
- April 19, 2013
- 01:20 PM
- 80 views
Google Promises We'll Feel Better in the Summer
by Elizabeth Preston in Inkfish
Shakespeare wasn't kidding about the "winter of our discontent." In the colder and darker months, people do more internet searches for mental health terms, from anxiety and ADHD all the way to suicide. Search patterns also promise that like a refreshed browser window, better times are due to arrive soon.
John Ayers, of the Center for Behavioral Epidemiology and Community Health in San Diego, and other researchers dove into Google Trends to explore whether certain searches vary by season. "Se........ Read more »
Ayers, J., Althouse, B., Allem, J., Rosenquist, J., & Ford, D. (2013) Seasonality in Seeking Mental Health Information on Google. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 44(5), 520-525. DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2013.01.012
- April 19, 2013
- 06:55 AM
- 17 views
Loss of FLCN increases longevity in C. elegans
by Lizzie Perdeaux in BHD Research Blog
Several signalling pathways – namely the mTOR, HIF and insulin signalling pathways – are known to slow ageing and increase longevity under certain conditions. This is a topic of much research, and was discussed at the recent “Talks about TORCs” … Continue reading →... Read more »
Gharbi H, Fabretti F, Bharill P, Rinschen M, Brinkkötter S, Frommolt P, Burst V, Schermer B, Benzing T, & Müller RU. (2013) Loss of the Birt-Hogg-Dubé gene product Folliculin induces longevity in a hypoxia-inducible factor dependent manner. Aging cell. PMID: 23566034
- April 19, 2013
- 05:18 AM
- 88 views
‘Living fossil’ genome unlocked
by Perikis Livas in Tracing Knowledge
Like lungfish, the other surviving lineage of lobe-finned fishes, coelacanths are actually more closely related to humans and other mammals than to ray-finned fishes such as tuna and trout. Ancient lobe fins were the first vertebrates to brave the land, and the coelacanth genome is expected to reveal much about the origins of tetrapods, the evolutionary line that gave rise to amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, says lead author Chris Amemiya, a biologist at the University of Washington in S........ Read more »
Woolston, C. (2013) ‘Living fossil’ genome unlocked. Nature, 496(7445), 283-283. DOI: 10.1038/496283a
- April 19, 2013
- 05:16 AM
- 92 views
Lazarus sign - A natural yet weird-looking phenomenon
by Usman Paracha in SayPeople
Main point:
Lazarus sign, also known as Lazarus reflex, is a complex form of reflex movement of the arms in brain dead patients.
Study Further:
In this phenomenon, the arms of the brain dead patients or the patients with brainstem failure raises to the chest and often fall crossed on to the body (in a place that you may have seen in some of the Egyptian mummies). “The arms flex quickly to the chest from the patient's side, the shoulders adduct, and in some patients, the hands........ Read more »
Ropper, A. (1984) Unusual spontaneous movements in brain-dead patients. Neurology, 34(8), 1089-1089. DOI: 10.1212/WNL.34.8.1089
- April 18, 2013
- 04:04 PM
- 42 views
fMRI: More Voxels, More Problems?
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic_Discover
A new paper could prompt a rethink of a technique that’s become very hot in neuroscience lately: Confounds in multivariate pattern analysis The authors are Princetonians Michael T. Todd and colleagues, and the method in question is multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA). I’ve written about this before and there’s a blog dedicated to it. MVPA searches [...]... Read more »
Todd, M., Nystrom, L., & Cohen, J. (2013) Confounds in multivariate pattern analysis: Theory and rule representation case study. NeuroImage. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.03.039
- April 18, 2013
- 09:28 AM
- 86 views
Researchers identify compound that could prevent acute myeloid leukemia relapses
by beredim in Stem Cells Freak
In a new study on mice, researchers from the RIKEN Institute, Japan have discovered a compound that could be used to prevent cancer relapse in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) patients, especially the ones carrying the FLT3-ITD mutation.Read More... Read more »
Saito, Y., Yuki, H., Kuratani, M., Hashizume, Y., Takagi, S., Honma, T., Tanaka, A., Shirouzu, M., Mikuni, J., Handa, N.... (2013) A Pyrrolo-Pyrimidine Derivative Targets Human Primary AML Stem Cells in Vivo. Science Translational Medicine, 5(181), 181-181. DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3004387
- April 18, 2013
- 09:06 AM
- 45 views
Tracking exosomes in vivo
by Kasra Hassani in The Parasite Diary
Posted by: Kasra Application of exosomes for therapeutic, especially as drug delivery agents has been always an interest. However, there is limited knowledge on how these vesicles interact with the variety of the cells inside the body and how does the body react to their presence. Takahashi et al. have used exosomes released by a [...]... Read more »
Takahashi Y, Nishikawa M, Shinotsuka H, Matsui Y, Ohara S, Imai T, & Takakura Y. (2013) Visualization and in vivo tracking of the exosomes of murine melanoma B16-BL6 cells in mice after intravenous injection. Journal of biotechnology. PMID: 23562828
- April 18, 2013
- 07:49 AM
- 9 views
Holey Biofilm!
by Moselio Schaechter in Small Things Considered
As a child, I was always fascinated by the holes (or eyes) in Swiss cheese, always inspecting the tunneling system before getting a good bite. Although the holes are the result of microbial activity (the accumulation of CO2 released by fermentative bacteria), I bring up the Swiss cheese analogy for very different reasons. Try to picture a similar landscape of tunnels and holes in a bacterial biofilm. And that’s what today’s story is about … a ‘holey’ biofilm.
In a recent study publish........ Read more »
Houry A, Gohar M, Deschamps J, Tischenko E, Aymerich S, Gruss A, & Briandet R. (2012) Bacterial swimmers that infiltrate and take over the biofilm matrix. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(32), 13088-93. PMID: 22773813
- April 18, 2013
- 07:13 AM
- 72 views
If You Could, Would You Eat Wood?
by Andrew Porterfield in United Academics
It doesn’t sound very appetizing; eating a tree branch or a wooden plank. But an engineering researcher at the Virginia Polytechnical Institute (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg has found a way to convert the cellulose that makes up wood into starch.... Read more »
You C, Chen H, Myung S, Sathitsuksanoh N, Ma H, Zhang XZ, Li J, & Zhang YH. (2013) Enzymatic transformation of nonfood biomass to starch. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. PMID: 23589840
- April 18, 2013
- 04:36 AM
- 76 views
Kidneys grown in the lab work in animals
by Isabel Torres in Science in the clouds
Researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital in the US have grown rat kidneys in the laboratory that produced urine when transplanted into living animals. This is an important step towards the production of customised organs for transplantation into people with kidney failure, which could replace donor organ transplants. Patients with kidney failure can be treated with dialysis, but can only be cured with a kidney transplant. About 15,000 people are waiting for a donor kidney in the Eurot........ Read more »
Song Jeremy J, Guyette Jacques P, Gilpin Sarah E, Gonzalez Gabriel, Vacanti Joseph P, & Ott Harald C. (2013) Regeneration and experimental orthotopic transplantation of a bioengineered kidney. Nature Medicine. DOI: 10.1038/nm.3154
- April 18, 2013
- 02:00 AM
- 14 views
Continuing our exploration of group selection
by Eric Bolo in Evolutionary Games Group
This Tuesday, I gave the second of two presentations for the EGT Reading group, both focused on the theory of group selection. Though I am currently working outside of academia, it has been a pleasure to pursue my interests in ecology, and our group discussions have proven to be both enjoyable and challenging. The first [...]... Read more »
Marshall James A.R. (2011) Group selection and kin selection: formally equivalent approaches. Trends in Ecology , 26(7), 325-332. DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2011.04.008
- April 17, 2013
- 03:18 PM
- 77 views
Put down that water bottle! BPA Exposure Alters Epigenetic Profile in Neurons
by YAP C.C., PH.D in EpiBeat
Bisphenol A (BPA) is an industrial chemical that is present in many consumer products, including plastic bottles and other food and beverage containers. Although BPA has been used routinely since the 1960s, exposure to BPA has recently gained a lot of attention due to its proposed effect on brain development. Previous studies have reported that ...... Read more »
Yeo M, Berglund K, Hanna M, Guo JU, Kittur J, Torres MD, Abramowitz J, Busciglio J, Gao Y, Birnbaumer L.... (2013) Bisphenol A delays the perinatal chloride shift in cortical neurons by epigenetic effects on the Kcc2 promoter. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110(11), 4315-20. PMID: 23440186
- April 17, 2013
- 11:06 AM
- 63 views
Get the Science Right: All Astew About Duck Gonads
by Andrew Porterfield in United Academics
Scientific research on the evolution of genitalia is not news (though each discovery has made for some interesting reading). But recently, Fox News and others took aim at the “discovery” that U.S. government money was spent to fund these experiments! And in the classic form of “why do we support the X I don’t like, so can’t have the Y I do like” argument, researcher Patricia Brennan’s long-term studies on duck genitals came under fire.... Read more »
Brennan, P., Clark, C., & Prum, R. (2009) Explosive eversion and functional morphology of the duck penis supports sexual conflict in waterfowl genitalia. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 277(1686), 1309-1314. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2009.2139
- April 17, 2013
- 09:38 AM
- 106 views
Video Tip of the Week: Sharing #H7N9 data at GISAID.org with EpiFlu™
This week’s video Tip of the Week offers you a quick tour of GISAID’s resources and their EpiFlu™ database. This is the database you might be hearing about in the news—the one to which researchers submit the new H7N9 influenza sequence data that they are collecting. Originally this initiative was seeded as the “Global Initiative [...]... Read more »
Bogner, P., Capua, I., Cox, N., Lipman, D., & others, . (2006) A global initiative on sharing avian flu data. Nature, 442(7106), 981-981. DOI: 10.1038/442981a
Butler, D. (2013) Urgent search for flu source. Nature, 496(7444), 145-146. DOI: 10.1038/496145a
Gao, R., Cao, B., Hu, Y., Feng, Z., Wang, D., Hu, W., Chen, J., Jie, Z., Qiu, H., Xu, K.... (2013) Human Infection with a Novel Avian-Origin Influenza A (H7N9) Virus. New England Journal of Medicine, 2147483647. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1304459
- April 17, 2013
- 08:15 AM
- 77 views
It’s An All Or None Proposition
by Mark Lasbury in As Many Exceptions As Rules
Venom and venom delivery has evolved independently many times. However, it has never arisen in birds. Recent investigations have found some birds that are toxic, but that is due to their diet, although a recent study indicates that a raptorial ancestor from the Jurassic was venomous.
On the other extreme, every member of the phylum Cnidaria is venomous. From jellyfish to corals to hydras, all cnidarians have nematocysts that fire at extreme speeds with high pressure. A recent review has also........ Read more »
Gong, E., Martin, L., Burnham, D., & Falk, A. (2009) From the Cover: The birdlike raptor Sinornithosaurus was venomous. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(2), 766-768. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0912360107
Greenwood, P. (2009) Acquisition and use of nematocysts by cnidarian predators. Toxicon, 54(8), 1065-1070. DOI: 10.1016/j.toxicon.2009.02.029
topics
join us!
Do you write about peer-reviewed research in your blog? Use ResearchBlogging.org to make it easy for your readers — and others from around the world — to find your serious posts about academic research.
If you don't have a blog, you can still use our site to learn about fascinating developments in cutting-edge research from around the world.
