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Scientific American

April 26, 2011

Editor’s Selections: Phobias, Dancing, and Retinas in Dishes

Here are my Research Blogging Editor’s Selections for this week. To start with, is there anything that might help with exposure therapy for specific phobias?

By Jason G. Goldman

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

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Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week.

  • To start with, is there anything that might help with exposure therapy for specific phobias? Michelle from C6-H12-O6 describes a paper that suggests that the administration of cortisol might!

  • While many people claim to not be able to dance, if pressed, most could dance to a beat. Nearly all of us can at least identify when others are on or off rhythm. Over at Neuropoly, DJ discusses a newly discovered form of congenital amusia: beat deafness.

  • If there is anything cooler than a retina grown in a dish, I'm not sure what it is. Ambivalent Academic has the details in a killer guest post at Neurotic Physiology.

Jason G. Goldman is a science journalist based in Los Angeles. He has written about animal behavior, wildlife biology, conservation, and ecology for Scientific American, Los Angeles magazine, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the BBC, Conservation magazine, and elsewhere. He contributes to Scientific American's "60-Second Science" podcast, and is co-editor of Science Blogging: The Essential Guide (Yale University Press). He enjoys sharing his wildlife knowledge on television and on the radio, and often speaks to the public about wildlife and science communication.

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