Science Blogs
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This page shows you the most recent publications within this specialty of the MedWorm directory. This is page number 7.
The Harsh Reality End of the Autism Spectrum
If you believe IACC Neurodiversity advocates present and past, Ari Ne'eman and Matthew Carey, autism is not something that should be cured. You won't see much about the harsher aspects of life with autism disorders if you read their writings. In their view autism is nothing more than a different way of thinking, not a ... disorder ... or group of challenging symptoms for which cures are needed.
No, the enlightened Neurodiversity thinkers who are selected to represent the mythical "autism community" at the IACC see autism in the image of the members of the ASAN Board of Directors, rese...
Source: Facing Autism in New Brunswick - January 25, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: Autism Reality NB Source Type: blogs
"Fingers like goddamn wizards..."
: parislemon: Warren Ellis: In the last ten years, we've discovered two previously unknown species of human. We can film eruptions on the surface of the sun, landings on Mars and even landings on Titan. Is all of this very boring to you? Because all this is happening right now, in this moment. Check the time on your phone, because this is the present time and these things are happening. The most basic mobile phone is in fact a communications devices that shames all of science fiction, all the wrist radios and handheld communicators. Captain Kirk had to tune his f.ing communicator and it couldn't text or take a photo t...
Source: Kidney Notes - January 25, 2013 Category: Urologists and Nephrologists Authors: Joshua Schwimmer Source Type: blogs
Considering Cybernetic Immortality
If the 2045 initiative continues onwards as the founder intends, we're all going to be hearing more about what here is called "cybernetic immortality" - copying the data of the mind to run in machinery that is much more robust and longer-lasting than its biological equivalent. I consider the popularity of this goal (as put forward by Ray Kurzweil, for example) something of an existential threat, insofar as it may drain enthusiasm and allies from work on rejuvenation biotechnology now, and in future decades it may become cheaper to build mind-copies than to finalize the means to reverse and prevent aging in our biological b...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 25, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
But What About Pushkin?
From the Russian end of the longevity advocacy community:
A man strives for justice, but the most unjust thing in life is the inevitability of death. Here's a small child, then an adult, he learns, grows up, falls in love, gets married - divorce, have children, he is happy and suffering, dreaming and disappointed, laughing and crying, running, resting, but for all that the fate is death, imminent death due to aging. Monstrous injustice! A man with his life does not deserve death. People put up with this situation, they talk about natural dying, saying that a person must make room. These excuses have the sound of death due...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 25, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
On Strengthening the Longevity Research Community
Building scientific communities with strong ties to the broader public runs in just the same way as building any community in this day and age - which means very differently to the way things used to be. The internet, open data, and cheap global communication allow a whole new layer of activism and effort by small groups of researchers to stand beside the traditional conferences, funding sources, and institutional relationships. The successful research community of today will be a lot more in touch with the public who stand to benefit from its work, and with the advocates and activists who support progress in the field. Yo...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 25, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Activism, Advocacy and Education Source Type: blogs
5 Obvious Goal Setting Mistakes You Must Avoid
Goal setting can get overwhelming.To get the maximum results and to actually achieve your goals, you have to know what you're doing.If you miss something important, or make an obvious mistake, it could mean significantly delaying your progress.That's why I've written this article, where you'll discover 5 obvious goal setting mistakes you must avoid.That is, if you want to achieve your goals.This isn't rocket science. It isn't hard. It comes down to making progress.Let's dive into the mistakes.1. Not determining persuasive reasons for setting and reaching goals. “Why am I doing this?”You need to define a clear and ...
Source: Dumb Little Man - Tips for Life - January 25, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: DLM Writers Source Type: blogs
The Ethics of Public Diagnosis Using an Unvalidated Method
The last post covered a new study claiming to identify markers of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in living patients using a method called FDDNP PET (Small et al., 2013). Previously, the disease could only be diagnosed at autopsy due to the requirement to process post mortem tissue for the presence of tau protein. The paper made a big splash in the media because the patients in the study were five former NFL football players.Combining the journal article with two different news reports, I was able to identify the following information about the players and their brains (which are shown in the figure above):NFL1: Fre...
Source: The Neurocritic - January 24, 2013 Category: Neurologists Source Type: blogs
Why, to improve memory, we need to think of the brain as a system
(Editor’s Note: every month we host an online Q&A with participants in the e-course How To Be Your Own Brain Fitness Coach. This is the lightly edited and anonymized transcript from the January Q&A session; the February Q&A will take place on Tuesday, February 12th)
2:02
OK, ready to go! Happy 2013 again. You can start writing your questions and comments in the box at the bottom, and hit Send.
2:04
Question
Which activities or games or websites do you recommend to improve memory?
2:05
Faculty Answer
Well, that is an impossible question to answer properly without talking specifics…have you watched the reco...
Source: SharpBrains - January 24, 2013 Category: Neurologists Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Cognitive Neuroscience Course: Brain Fitness Coach Education & Lifelong Learning Alzheimers-disease attention bilingual education biofeedback brain-fitness-class cognitive-abilities cognitive-reserve Cognitive-Training Executive-Func Source Type: blogs
Crowdfunding Science
Paul C. "Chip" Knappenberger and Patrick J. Michaels
File this under “where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
While it seems hard to believe (as attested to by the growing budget for National Science Foundation) federal and state budget decisions are apparently putting the squeeze on some forms of government-funded science, and so some scientists are seeking alternative ways of raising funds for their projects of interest. One such “novel” method is a direct appeal to the masses for support.
Witness this announcement from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS):
Crowdfunding Scie...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - January 24, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Paul C. "Chip" Knappenberger, Patrick J. Michaels Source Type: blogs
The Singularity Film: Will we survive our technology?
This is exciting. A documentary film by Doug Wolens about transhumanism and the singularity with some serious players like Ray Kurzweil, Aubrey De Grey and Bill McKibben. It is called "The Singularity" and it asks right under the title "Will we survive our technology?" I am interested in finding out what the film maker suggests is the answer. Regardless, I applaud Doug Wolens for taking a serious look at what is no longer science fiction and is quickly becoming reality. Wolen writes:Singularity advocates argue that consciousness is just another problem to solve or that it will just happen when a system ...
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - January 24, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Transhumanism Source Type: blogs
Too Many Scientists: A "Pyramid Scheme"
Chemistry World has really touched a lot of nerves with this editorial by economics professor Paula Stephan. It starts off with a look back to the beginnings of the NIH and NSF, Vannevar Bush's "Endless Frontier":
. . .a goal of government and, indirectly, universities and medical schools, was to build research capacity by training new researchers. It was also to conduct research. However, it was never Bush’s vision that training be married to research. . .
. . .It did not take long, however, for this to change. Faculty quickly learned to include graduate students and postdocs on grant proposals, and by the late 1960s ...
Source: In the Pipeline - January 24, 2013 Category: Chemists Tags: Academia (vs. Industry) Source Type: blogs
Journal Alert - PSYCHOLOGIA
We present an experimental study on the influence of colour and spatial
> position in the assessment of boundaries in occluded surfaces. Subjects
> were asked to mark the place that they judged to be the location of a
> boundary between two differently coloured parts of a vertical rectangle
> partially occluded by a horizontal rectangle. Besides the use of eight
> pairs of colours, the position of the occluder was randomly changed
> resulting in 13 possible sizes of the coloured parts. The same colours
> were set for half of the time on the lower part of the vertical
> rectangle, and for half on the...
Source: Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner) - January 24, 2013 Category: Neurologists Source Type: blogs
New Study Purports to Show that Graphic Cigarette Warning Labels Cause Smokers to Quit
"Graphic Warnings on Cigarette Packets Proven to Drive Smoker Quit Rate"Thus reads the headline of a news article about a recent study on graphic warning labels published in PLOS ONE. The conclusion of the study itself reads: "Policies that establish strong pictorial warning labels on tobacco packaging may be instrumental in reducing the toll of the tobacco epidemic, particularly within vulnerable communities."The news article quotes one of the study authors as emphasizing that: "mandating strong pictorial warnings is an effective and efficient way to communicate the risk of tobacco use." The Rest of the StoryWhat i...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - January 24, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Source Type: blogs
Experiences with teaching Public Health Science Communication
On my list of things to do writing a blog post about my experiences with teaching Public Health Science Communication to graduate students at the University of Copenhagen has been high-up for a while. However, moving to Bonn, Germany and other minor things have somehow managed to overrule the writing of this post. But its time – also to avoid the experiences being stored too far back in my mind to be brought forward.
So how did it go? Did the students find it useful? What went well? Would I repeat a course like this again? And if so, what would I do differently? There are lots of questions to answer, so I thought I...
Source: Biomedicine on Display - January 24, 2013 Category: Medical Scientists Authors: Nina Bjerglund Andersen Tags: public health science communication graduate course master of public health sciences public health education public health students research research communication science communication @en syllabus teaching University of Copenhagen Source Type: blogs
IACC Neurodiversity Member Matt Carey Single-Handedly Reduces Intellectually Disabled To A "Small Segment of the Autistic Population"
The Interagency Autism Co-ordinating Committee (IACC) plays an important role in autism research and understanding. It is unfortunate that sitting as a public member of the IACC is lbrb blogger Matthew J. Carey, a member of the Neurodiversity movement which, at its core (1) portrays autism as a different way of thinking not a disorder or disability and (2) belittles efforts to seek cures for autism. His official bio posted on the IACC web site emphasizes his considerable background as an industrial researcher and his deep commitment to "communicating the importance of getting the science right for autism"...
Source: Facing Autism in New Brunswick - January 24, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: Autism Reality NB Source Type: blogs
IQs Corner Recent Corner of Interest: 1-23-13
Conclusions: Risk for WLD is significantly increased among children with S/LI compared with children without S/LI based on this population-based cohort. Early identification and intervention for children at risk for WLD could potentially influence academic outcomes. (J Dev Behav Pediatr 34:38-44, 2013)PD JANPY 2013VL 34IS 1BP 38EP 44ERPT JAU Guthrie, JT Klauda, SL Ho, ANAF Guthrie, John T. Klauda, Susan Lutz Ho, Amy N.TI Modeling the Relationships Among Reading Instruction, Motivation, Engagement, and Achievement for AdolescentsSO READING RESEARCH QUARTERLYAB This study modeled the interrelationships of reading instruction...
Source: Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner) - January 23, 2013 Category: Neurologists Tags: rec recent lit Source Type: blogs
Rising Star Interviews – Aaron Kay
This article was directly inspired by my earliest research in graduate school and now motivates much of my current research. As such, it connects, via one common mechanism, issues I used to work on to issues I am now interested in. So it feels something like a unifying paper to my young career, both temporally and thematically.
Related Situationist posts:
Aaron Kay, “The Psychological Power of the Status Quo”
Another Review of “Ideology, Psychology, and Law”
The Imagined Ideological Divide
The Situation of Ideology – Part I
Ideology is Back
Ideology Shaping Situation of Vice Versa
The Great Attributional Div...
Source: The Situationist - January 23, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: The Situationist Staff Tags: Awards Distribution Ideology Situationist Contributors Social Psychology Source Type: blogs
Nature: 24 January 2013
This week, the genetics of dog domestication, how understanding rituals could help solve global problems, why the outer layers of the sun are so hot and what happened to ice levels during the Earth's last warm period.
Source: Nature Podcast - January 23, 2013 Category: Science Authors: Nature Publishing Group Source Type: blogs
End of moratorium on influenza H5N1 research
In early 2012 influenza virus researchers around the world decided to stop working on highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus. This decision came after work from the Fouchier and Kawaoka laboratories revealed the isolation of influenza H5N1 strains that can be passed among ferrets by aerosol. The moratorium on influenza H5N1 virus research has now been lifted, as described in a letter from influenza virologists to Science and Nature.
Lifting the embargo on H5N1 research is an important step forward for understanding what regulates influenza transmission. In my view it was an ill-conceived move, done to quell the growi...
Source: virology blog - January 23, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Commentary Information aerosol avian influenza bioterrorism ferret fouchier H5N1 kawaoka moratorium pandemic transmission viral virus Source Type: blogs
Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right
Paul C. "Chip" Knappenberger and Patrick J. Michaels
Global Science Report is a weekly feature from the Center for the Study of Science, where we highlight one or two important new items in the scientific literature or the popular media. For broader and more technical perspectives, consult our monthly “Current Wisdom.”
As economic heavyweights assembled for their annual summit held by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, they were greeted by a call for $700 billion/yr of increased spending out to the year 2030 to “to close the green investment gap worldwide, leading to sustainable economic...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - January 23, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Paul C. "Chip" Knappenberger, Patrick J. Michaels Source Type: blogs
optimysticals: archiemcphee: Psychiatrist Dr Karen Norberg, of...
optimysticals: archiemcphee: Psychiatrist Dr Karen Norberg, of the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts knitted this awesome, anatomically correct replica of the human brain. Using different colour to represent different parts of the brain, it took Dr. Norberg one year to complete her project. She used yarn because she thought “the wool lent itself to creating the right “rippling” effect for parts of the brain and was easier to manipulate than other materials.” The frontal cortex is cream and pale green, the visual cortex a mix of blue, purple and turquoise whil...
Source: Kidney Notes - January 23, 2013 Category: Urologists and Nephrologists Authors: Joshua Schwimmer Source Type: blogs
Science music video of the week: Some budding yeast I used to grow
Hat tip to Gian Baucom and Susan Perkins
--------
This is from the "Tree of Life Blog"
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.
--------
Source: The Tree of Life - January 23, 2013 Category: Medical Scientists Authors: Jonathan Eisen Source Type: blogs
Greg Bear Thinks We Are Too Complacent On Asteroids
Science fiction writer Greg Bear thinks we should take more seriously the threat posed by large asteroids like Apophis that are periodically flying by the Earth. Yet there's always a possibility we don't have these measurements exactly right. Something could happen at any point in Apophis' orbit to modify its course, just a smidgen. A tiny collision with another object, way out beyond Mars? What could change between now and 2029, or during any orbit thereafter? Apophis masses at more than 20 million tons. If it hit Earth, the impact would unleash a blast the equivalent of over a billion tons of TNT. That's not an extinctio...
Source: FuturePundit - January 23, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Randall Parker Source Type: blogs
Speed Bumps
CONCLUSIONS:
Presence of pain while travelling over speed bumps was associated with an increased likelihood of acute appendicitis. As a diagnostic variable, it compared favourably with other features commonly used in clinical assessment. Asking about speed bumps may contribute to clinical assessment and could be useful in telephone assessment of patients.
This is earth shattering research. Nobel 2013 is not out of the realm of possibility. If Ashdown, D'Souza et al are smart, they are, as we speak, putting together a randomized controlled trial comparing the positive predictive value of speed ...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - January 23, 2013 Category: Surgeons Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD Source Type: blogs
"The Sexed Brain: Between Science and Ideology"
The Sexed Brain: Between Science and Ideology by Catherine Vidal has been published in the most recent issue of Neuroethics: Abstract Despite tremendous advances in neuroscience, the topic “brain, sex and gender” remains a matter of misleading interpretations, that go...
Source: Neuroethics and Law Blog - January 22, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: NELB Staff Source Type: blogs
Journal alert: Current Directions in Psychological Science Table of Contents for 1 February 2013; Vol. 22, No. 1
Current Directions in Psychological Science Online Table of Contents Alert //--> HOME | ONLINEFIRST | ALL ISSUES | SUBSCRIBE | RSS | EMAIL ALERTS | FEEDBACK Current Directions in Psychological Science Online Table of Contents Alert A new issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science is available online: February 2013; Vol. 22, No. 1 The below Table of Contents is available online at: http://cdp.sagepub.com/content/vol22/issue1/?etoc Articles ...
Source: Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner) - January 22, 2013 Category: Neurologists Source Type: blogs
On carriages and cars - or: why is it so hard to think novel thoughts?
As a kid in school, I once saw a diagram of the succession of horse-drawn carriages, early car-carriages and then cars. I wasn't able to find a good illustration, so I picked some examples I found and made my own sequence:As a kid, with 20/20 hindsight, I wondered: what was so difficult in making a car look like a car and not like a horse carriage where the horse was missing? While looking for the diagram today, I even found a steam traction engine from the same year Benz built his first car, 1886, which looked much more like a car (with, e.g., steering wheel and all) than any of the actual 'cars' until Ford's Model T only...
Source: bjoern.brembs.net - a neuroscientist's blog : RSS feed of bjoern.brembs.net - January 22, 2013 Category: Neurologists Authors: bjoern Tags: science politics Source Type: blogs
The Science of Optimism: a Conversation on ‘The Optimism Bias’ with neuroscientist Tali Sharot
In conclusion
There is growing evidence that optimism may be hard-wired into our minds, and impacts all of our behaviours. Our brains aren’t just shaped by past events; they are driven by our hopes for the future. Further understanding of the impact and processes of the Optimism Bias could be harnessed in many fields including healthcare, psychology, behaviour change and marketing strategy, and that leaves me feeling rather optimistic.
David Coleiro is a founding partner at www.strategicnorth.com, and this interview is an extract from the book Strategic Tales by Strategic North. To request your free copy please email th...
Source: SharpBrains - January 22, 2013 Category: Neurologists Authors: David Coleiro Tags: Cognitive Neuroscience Health & Wellness behaviours Decision-making emotion memory neuroscientist optimism optimism bias Strategic North strategic tales Tali Sharot Source Type: blogs
Academia's Role in Drug Discovery
There's a new Viewpoint piece out in ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters on academia and drug discovery. Donna Huryn of Pittsburgh is wondering about the wisdom of trying to reproduce a drug-company environment inside a university:
However, rather than asking how a university can mimic a drug discovery company, perhaps a better question is what unique features inherent in an academic setting can be taken advantage of, embellished, and fostered to promote drug discovery and encourage success? Rather than duplicating efforts already ongoing in commercial organizations, a university has an opportunity to offer unique, yet comple...
Source: In the Pipeline - January 22, 2013 Category: Chemists Tags: Academia (vs. Industry) Source Type: blogs
Something to Like in President Obama's Second Inaugural Address
Michael F. Cannon
Most of President Obama’s second inaugural address was painful. For libertarians. For those who understand the difference between science and opinion. For those who have tracked his administration’s relationship with openness and the rule of law. All of which cringe-inducing elements undermined the splendor of this gem:
We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths – that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - January 22, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Michael F. Cannon Source Type: blogs
Your genes at work
We all have lots of genes and DNA and RNA and all those little bitty muons and amino acids and proteins and lots of other little bitty things that make us up. We have never learned a lot about many of them but are beginning to find out more and more.Do you remember when they said they could sequence the human genome and they said it would lead to medical breakthroughs? I think it finally is - at least to my non-medical brain. Anyway, two new advances have popped into my little realm recently.1. Fibromyalgia has been very hard to diagnose. There is no test. There is no real way to say yes or no you have it. Basically if you...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - January 22, 2013 Category: Cancer Tags: fibromyalgia medical research rheumatoid arthritis Source Type: blogs
One Degree of Separation
I have long believed that there is one degree of separation in the world of healthcare IT. Everyone knows everyone and we're all connected in often amazing ways. Here's one such story.When I was in college, I looked at the daunting cost of Stanford tuition, room, board, and living expenses (almost $15,000 per year!) and thought that I should leverage the impending microcomputer revolution by writing tax computation software for early CP/M-based machines. I did that from my dorm room (Kathy, my wife to be, wrote the manual). As our "company" grew, I knew that I wanted to expand to other platforms,...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - January 22, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Source Type: blogs
catchmefallinginlove: #Dissected a #Kidney #Today #science...
catchmefallinginlove: #Dissected a #Kidney #Today #science #biology Posted on infosnack.
Source: Kidney Notes - January 22, 2013 Category: Urologists and Nephrologists Authors: Joshua Schwimmer Source Type: blogs
‘Dolly the Sheep’ Business Mastermind Joins Digital Pathology Company
PathXL welcomes one of UK’s leading medtech minds onto their Board One of the leading names in the UK’s healthcare technology sector, Professor Simon Best, has joined the Board of PathXL. The Northern Ireland Science-Park based company, a Queen’s University...
Source: Digital Pathology Blog - January 22, 2013 Category: Pathologists Authors: Kaps Source Type: blogs
Evidence grows for narcolepsy link to GSK swine flu shot
By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent
STOCKHOLM | Tue Jan 22, 2013 1:55am EST
Jan 22 (Reuters) - Emelie is plagued by hallucinations and nightmares. When she wakes up, she's often paralysed, unable to breathe properly or call for help. During the day she can barely stay awake, and often misses school or having fun with friends. She is only 14, but at times she has wondered if her life is worth living.
Emelie is one of around 800 children in Sweden and elsewhere in Europe who developed narcolepsy, an incurable sleep disorder, after being immunised with the Pandemrix H1N1 swine flu vaccine made by British drug...
Source: PharmaGossip - January 22, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
Viruses on Time
Poliovirus recently made the cover of Time magazine. Prompted by a reader question, I searched the Time archive to find out if there have been other virology-themed covers. I found fifteen in all, depicting poliovirus (3), herpesvirus (1), HIV/AIDS (4), influenza (5), and SARS coronavirus (2) (I did not distinguish between US and international editions).
The earliest virus-themed cover that I found has Jonas Salk on the cover of the 29 March 1954 issue. Behind Salk is an image of poliovirus particles, probably drawn from an electron micrograph. Salk’s field trial of inactivated poliovirus vaccine had begun in 1954, a...
Source: virology blog - January 21, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Information AIDS H5N1 herpesvirus HIV influenza poliovirus SARS coronavirus Time magazine cover viral virology Source Type: blogs
Childhood Abuse, Stress, Depression and Anxiety
Many disregulated eaters recognize
that they’re set off by stress and distress more than other people seem to be. A
major reason for hyper-sensitivity is disregulation of brain chemistry due to
childhood abuse or neglect. For those of you who’ve suffered this way, understanding
the cause of your hyper-sensitivity will help you be more compassionate toward
yourself for not always managing your food urges as well as you'd like to.
“Suicidal threads” by Laura Sanders (Science News 11/3/12) explains how childhood
abuse—emotional/physical/sexual—affects the developing brain and is a risk
factor for suici...
Source: Normal Eating - January 21, 2013 Category: Eating Disorders Authors: eatnormalnow Source Type: blogs
TWiV 216: Processing VIRALGUUAACACCAGRNA
On episode #216 of the science show This Week in Virology, Vincent, Alan, Rich, and Kathy resume the virology 101 series with a discussion of RNA capping, splicing, and export.
You can find TWiV #216 at www.twiv.tv.
Source: virology blog - January 20, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: This Week in Virology GpppG hnRNA lariat methylation mRNA cap nuclear export polyA rna splicing transesterification undecanucleotide viral virus Source Type: blogs
Sick & Tired? Take this Sleep Quiz
Sleep research has been around for more than 90 years. In the last 15 years, though, researchers have been focusing on partial, or short, sleep rather than total sleep deprivation.
Such research looks at the way sleep affects cardiometobolic disease, the name given to disruption of a variety of physical and cognitive functions. These disruptions can affect basic skills such as appetite regulation and mood. Sleep researchers apparently are issuing the rest of us a wake-up call.
Each of us has an internal clock, a circadian rhythm that regulates our sleep needs. This is synchronized by the amount of sunlight we are exposed t...
Source: World of Psychology - January 20, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Daniel Tomasulo, Ph.D. Tags: General Happiness Health-related Mental Health and Wellness Proof Positive Psychology Sleep Circadian Disruption Circadian Rhythm Cognitive Functions Disruptions Internal Clock Last Decade Late Night Tv Long Trip National Aca Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, January 21st 2013
Discussion
- Latest Headlines from Fight Aging!
- Sarcopenia Correlates With Increased Mortality
- Luminescent Marking of Cellular Senescence
- Plastination Will Have Its Challenges, Just Like Cryonics
- More on Sestrins and Longevity
- Reducing Amyloid Beta Levels in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer's
- Solvents Increase Life in Nematode Worms
- Adenine in the Diet Blocks Calorie Restriction Benefits in Flies
- β-blockers Modestly Extend ...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 20, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Dr Jaya Bajaj reviews our book Decoding Medical Gobbledygook
Dr Jaya Bajaj reviewed our book, on her website, www.healthradii.com
Here's her review
Medical care has become complex in last few decades and there is
growing mistrust in healthcare. The “Care” seems to be disappearing from
health care and not just patients but also health care professionals
feel lost in the plethora of information. Most Medical Schools focus on
teaching the “science” of medicine and as a result there are very few
health care providers who can practice the “Art” of Medicine along with
science.
In “Decoding Medical Gobbledygook” authors layout a matrix of Health
Literacy covering ba...
Source: The Patient's Doctor - January 19, 2013 Category: Obstetricians and Gynecologists Tags: Medicine Health Health care India Literacy Health literacy Medical school Health care provider Source Type: blogs
Overselling the microbiome: University Bern press release uses slight of hand to make mouse study seem to be about people
Interesting new paper came out recently on "Sex Differences in the Gut Microbiome Drive Hormone-Dependent Regulation of Autoimmunity." It is alas in Science so it is not available openly.
Anyway there are some news stories about the article where you can get the gist of it. Best one is probably the blog post by Christine Gorman: Transplanted Bacteria Turn Up Testosterone to Protect Mice against Diabetes. The story is pretty interesting.
For those who do not know I have been a bit obsessed about the connection between diabetes and the microbiome for a while. See my Ted talk for example where ...
Source: The Tree of Life - January 19, 2013 Category: Medical Scientists Authors: Jonathan Eisen Source Type: blogs
What You Need to Know for Health Policy in 2013
This post was authored by Jim Fasules, MD, FACC, senior vice president of Advocacy for the ACC.
Despite a rather recalcitrant Congress, last year saw very significant changes for health care and cardiology. After the swirling uncertainty surrounding the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the ACA, including its individual mandate, was constitutional. With the federal debate laid to rest, the action shifts to the states where for political and policy reasons a patchwork quilt of variability still leaves physicians, hospitals and patients perplexed on how to adapt to Medicaid expansion, the Exchanges an...
Source: ACC in Touch Blog - January 18, 2013 Category: Cardiology Authors: Administrator Tags: Costs/Value Source Type: blogs
Olefin Cyclopropanation via Carbene Transfer
Science
Olefin Cyclopropanation via Carbene Transfer Catalyzed by Engineered Cytochrome P450 Enzymes Pedro S. Coelho, Eric M. Brustad, Arvind Kannan, and Frances H. Arnold
Source: Organometallic Current - January 18, 2013 Category: Chemists Tags: Enzyme catalyzed Cyclopropanation Source Type: blogs
Objects that were demonstrated, touched, fingered, fondled, caressed and stroken at the tactile aesthetics seminar yesterday
Here are some of the objects that were demonstrated (touched, fingered, fondled, caressed, stroken etc.) during the touching seminar yesterday.
Here are bundles of hair from an often-caressed cat:
And here is a toy:
At least two participants brought coffee/tea mugs, and two of us chose to bring small objects that they like to play with to distract their thoughts, a chestnut and some paper clips:
A cool computer mouse, of course:
And so on and so forth:
And I, finally, brought my office chessboard, to illustrate the question whether chess is a purely cognitive...
Source: Biomedicine on Display - January 18, 2013 Category: Medical Scientists Authors: Thomas Söderqvist Tags: aesthetics haptics Source Type: blogs
Developing World Special Offer
A few contacts from the developing world have asked about pricing of my book as they’d like to get a copy but the standard price is, they hint, a little high for their budgets. So here’s the deal. If you live in a blue zone on the map below – China, South America, Asia, Russia or any country on the map coloured a shade of blue, then you can order the DRM-free PDF of my book Deceived Wisdom for the price of just GBP2.00 (which is about $3). The lack of DRM on the ebook means you can transfer it between devices and so read it on whatever reader/computer you have access to that handles PDF files.
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Source: Sciencebase Science Blog - January 18, 2013 Category: Medical Scientists Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science developing offer special world Source Type: blogs
Physicians and Performance Improvement CME
A recent article from amednews.com noted that as “physicians face increasing pressure to demonstrate performance improvement,” more are “utilizing a model of continuing medical education (CME) that gives them tools to assess the care they provide patients, and make measurable enhancements.
The concept of Performance Improvement Continuing Medical Education was “introduced in the early 2000s, and the model has expanded significantly since then.” In 2011, 44,275 physicians and 7,492 non-physician health professionals participated in 502 PI CME activities offered in the U.S., according to the Accrediting Counci...
Source: Policy and Medicine - January 18, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
People Are Not Good at Being Rational, and That Costs a Great Many Lives
This is an old story for regular readers, but I'll restate it anyway: people are dying of aging at a rate of something more than a hundred thousand lives a day. It is a mark of our inventive ongoing engagement with ways and means of death that despite this vast toll, aging still only manages to kill two thirds of us - and that in this era of comparatively advanced medicine, comparative peace, and comparative risk aversion.
Biotechnology is today's revolutionary industry in the making. Costs are falling, capabilities increasing just as dramatically as happened for computers two decades ago. We could be well on the way to ...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 18, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Reason Tags: Healthy Life Extension Community Source Type: blogs
More from AllTrials http://www.alltrials.net/
'Misled' trial participants rage over lack of transparency
As the debate about publishing raw data from trials continues to heat up, some 53 participants from clinical studies have written to the European Medicines Agency claiming that the lack of regulations requiring full publication is "a betrayal of our trust".
The letter, addressed to EMA executive director Guido Rasi, notes that the participants, some healthy and some with medical conditions. all agreed to take part in studies "in the belief that we were helping to improve knowledge and treatments. We now understand that many participants in trials have been misled...
Source: PharmaGossip - January 18, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs

