…much as I’d love to believe it (and I would), I think we need to carefully consider the data. Today I’m at Neurotic Physiology talking about the latest study on coffee and mortality. An epidemiological study is a lot of things, and a lot of good things, but it’s not proof that coffee prolongs life. [...]

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but an apple? Well it may be more than just an apple. Is it normal? Local? Organic? Is that piece of cheese low fat, is the coffee fair trade? Psychologists have known of a “health halo”, centered around foods thought to be “healthy”, whether or not they actually [...]

This Friday, I got a fabulous paper via the Digital Cuttlefish where people analyzed pop songs for the evolutionary psychology hidden (or not so hidden) messages. So did you ever wonder if your favorite song as a mate guarding phrase in it? Wonder no more! Head over there and check it out!

DOES environmental enrichment make your rat sexy? Today, I’m over at Neurotic Physiology examining a paper on whether environmental enrichment drives the lady rats wild, and why that might be the case. I’ve got a few issues with the paper. The data is fine but it’s all in the interpretation. Head over and check it [...]

Sci has a piece up over at the main site on recent advances in behavioral and cognitive therapies for ADHD treatment. I got a note that people would like the reference list (and I’m always a fan of a reference list!), and so once you’ve checked out the article, here are the references: Advokat C, [...]

There’s more to your DNA than your DNA. We are now becoming aware of the epigenome. While DNA controls you, your epigenome may help control your DNA, or rather, it can have an extensive impact on how your DNA is expressed. The epigenome consists of changes in the structure of your DNA, how it is [...]

…any volunteers to walk up to a bear in the woods and see what it does, anyway. Today’s Friday Weird Science is up at Neurotic Physiology, where I’m talking about a recent study in Scandinavia. The authors walked up to some bears. Repeatedly. Without wearing body armor or anything! FOR SCIENCE. That, my friends is [...]

Over at Neurotic Physiology today, I’ve got a post on the science communication panel hosted by ASBMB at Experimental Biology 2012. The panel had a lot of great thoughts on how scientists could interact effectively with the media, but one thing that stuck in the minds of a lot of people was the idea of [...]

Today’s post is a repost from October 2010. I’ve got some major stuff cooking in the lab right now and I need all of my brain power for it. Enjoy the repost and I shall return! Reader David sent me this paper the other day, and asked if I could blog about it. I said [...]

Today at Neurotic Physiology, I’ve got a Friday weird science for you! This paper makes the claim that increased STD spread is responsible for foot fetishes. And truly, until I looked, I never noticed the preponderance of scandalously bare feet in our degenerate modern society. It’s enough to make your monocle pop right out of [...]