A science blog, sans blague
James R. Flynn's observation that IQ scores experienced dramatic gains from generation to generation throughout the 20th century has been cited so often, even in popular media, that it is becoming a cocktail party talking point...
Ever since his death in 1955, scientists have asked what features of Einstein's brain contributed to his extraordinary insights into physical laws. Research on the anatomy of Einsteins' genius was stymied because many of the post-mortem images and slides of tissue from the subsequently dissected organ were unavailable to researchers...
I saw an article in Time magazine a few weeks ago about a low-cost 3D printer. The machine receives instructions from a digital computer file that instructs it to build things by depositing and fusing layers of a heated plastic.In 1983, I remember a Time magazine "Machine of the Year" cover that proclaimed: "The Computer Moves In"...to your home.The editors back then chose that cover story well...
Nicotine enhances the ability to focus and remember. The alkaloid acts in a similar manner to the brain's own signaling molecule, acetylcholine. It interacts with eponymous receptors on the surface of nerve cells to regulate signaling in the brain.The role of the nicotinic-acetylcholine receptors throughout the central nervous system is so wide-ranging that new discoveries about the molecule continue apace...
The nation’s oldest public hospital—and the premier emergency institution in New York City—is the go-to place in the aftermath of a plane or train wreck, an all-out gunfight or a commercial airliner slicing through a skyscraper...
Throughout Sandy, I was cooped up in my apartment in northern Manhattan with my son Benjamin, who was studying for a medical school exam on the cranial nerves.
A few random personal picks from the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting in New Orleans, which ended Oct. 17:Inside Temple Grandin's HeadOliver Sacks, HBO and others have chronicled the life of autistic savant Temple Grandin...
First off, this study on a molecule tied to social interaction was conducted in animals. So I’m supposed to turn on the siren and the flashing red light here to let you know that the headline you just read might not apply in humans...
Most articles in the journal Nature Biotechnology have titles like "Selective Enrichment of Newly Synthesized Proteins for Quantitative Secretome Analysis." They don't usually contain sentences like this:"The special-purpose vehicle's capital structure, priority of payments and various coverage tests and credit enhancements are collectively known as the 'cash flow waterfall'—a reference to the manner in which cash flow from the special purpose vehicle's assets spills over from senior to junior tranches..."Nothing to be found in that sentence or the rest of the article about the minutiae of monoclonal antibodies, RNA interference or the Nobel-winning biology of induced pluripotent stem cells.The article in the October issue of Nature Biotech arrives replete with esoterica about cash flow waterfalls and junior tranches, and includes that sentence penned by Andrew Lo, a prominent MIT professor of finance, and colleagues, Jose-Maria Fernandez and Roger M...
Huntington's disease, which killed folk singer Woody Guthrie, seems to put into overdrive the main chemical that turns on brain cells, ultimately leading to their death.The normal function of the neurotransmitter glutamate, the chemical overproduced in Huntington's, is also intimately involved with learning.Researchers from Ruhr University and the University of Dortmund in Germany have been intrigued by the question of whether the neurodegeneration initiated by glutamate in this genetic disorder is all bad...
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