Jason Goldman
jgoldman
Posts by this author
December 31, 2010
Even though I'm on a mini-blogcation (owing to my temporary residence in the Cave of Open Lab), I'd like to take a moment to wish all of my readers and friends across the blogosphere, a very Happy New Year.
I plan on being back to a somewhat normal blogging schedule in about a week (something like…
December 21, 2010
Here are my Psychology/Neuroscience Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week:
If you've just run 29 laps would you endure the pain and run a round 30 laps? If you've run 31 laps, would you attempt to eek out one extra lap to make 32? Most people would rather run 30 laps than 29, but…
December 16, 2010
I'm still here, I swear. Most of the time I'd normally devote to writing blog posts has been spent in the Cave of Open Lab™, the last couple weeks. But it will be worth it, I promise.
Brief update, by the numbers:
900 posts (first reviews back on 266 of them; waiting on the remaining 634)
41…
December 14, 2010
Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week:
Bill Yates asks, Do Personalities Converge After Marriage? Or do similar people simply wind up marrying each other in the first place?
"'Rectal stimulation', you say. Sounds all fun and games, but actually this study is an important…
December 13, 2010
Sometimes, when trolling through your institution's journal subscriptions online, you wander into a treasure trove. I happened upon such a treasure trove recently: the Journal of Animal Behavior, which was published for just six years, between 1911 and 1916.
The studies described in this journal…
December 7, 2010
Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week:
DJ Busby of the Astronasty blog writes, "2 to 3 billion people, about half the world's population, have a brain parasite called Toxoplasma gondii, which causes a disease called toxoplasmosis...The parasite's main host are cats, but…
December 7, 2010
King of all blogmemery Drugmonkey has started another one this week.
The rules for this blog meme are quite simple. Post the link and first sentence from the first blog entry for each month of the past year.
Seems easy enough. Instead of just choosing the first blog entry this month, however, I'm…
December 5, 2010
I've got an article that appeared in this week's Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles about recent research from Hadassah University on the neurobiology of bilingual (English-Hebrew) reading.
Is the English-reading brain somehow different from the Hebrew-reading brain? You might not expect any…
December 4, 2010
Eric M. Johnson and I spent about 45 minutes discussing "evolutionary psychology beyond sex" last night, which you can see today on Bloggingheads "Science Saturday."
Or just watch it here:
December 2, 2010
On Wednesday I posted the full list of the almost 900 posts submitted to Open Lab. As part of the process that I'm using to distribute the posts to my awesome reviewers, I've assigned each post a primary category. (Clearly, many of the posts can easily fit into more than one category, but based on…
December 1, 2010
"Two chimps had been shut out of their shelter by mistake during a cold rain storm. They were standing dejeted, water streaming down their shivering bodies, when Professor Köhler chanced to pass." Upon opening the door for the two chimps, Dr. James Leuba recounts, "instead of scampering in…
December 1, 2010
And it is over! The submission deadline has just passed. No more submissions will be accepted for the 2010 edition of the Open Laboratory.
I have lined up an impressive list of reviewers who will immediately start receiving their first judging lists and the complex process of winnowing down almost…
November 30, 2010
An awesome video from our friends over at BBC Earth Life Is:
We caught up with Richard Sorger, a hot British fashion designer who draws inspiration directly from animals and nature. As well as designing for big name celebrities his work he has also designed for Swarovski and the Victoria &…
November 30, 2010
Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week:
Ready for some more Thanksgiving science? Brad Walters of Cortical Hemming and Hawing asks what football can tell us about decision-making: Why you should always go for it on 4th and short.
The Neurocritic reports a fascinating study…
November 29, 2010
A fun talk about sex, death and evolution at LA's Natural History Museum. It's free and ticketless -- so please bring friends and colleagues!
WHEN: Thursday, December 2, 6-7:30pm.
WHERE: LA Natural History Museum in the Times Mirror Room.
WHAT: Australian paleontologist John A. Long is the…
November 26, 2010
There are only FIVE DAYS left for submissions! Dig through your archives, through other people's archives and submit!
Note: if you have recently moved your blog, please e-mail Bora the corrected URLs for your entries
The list is growing fast - check the submissions to date and get inspired to…
November 25, 2010
Ah, Thanksgiving. A day full of turkey, cranberries, pie, and, of course, SCIENCE! After you fill your stomach with gravy and stuffing, stuff your mind with all this great Thanksgiving science.
What's any good Thanksgiving feast without some turkey? Emily Anthes of Wonderland starts the meal off…
November 24, 2010
Even still, we tend to think of the turkey as a fairly unintelligent bird, skilled at little more than waddling around, emitting the occasional "gobble," and frying up golden-brown-and-delicious. But...what if I told you that the domestic turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) could actually be quite clever…
November 23, 2010
Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week:
Sleep is really important for health and cognition among other things. But what about for memory? An interesting discussion at Psychothalamus about the relationship between sleep and remembering to remember.
A fascinating post at…
November 23, 2010
In one of a series of stories on animal intelligence, Anderson Cooper went to see Kanzi, probably the most famous bonobo in the world, and primatologist Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, who has worked with Kanzi almost his entire life. Using his board of symbolic "lexigrams," Kanzi apparently indicated that…
November 19, 2010
Nearly one-third of the world's amphibian species are at risk of extinction. The rescue project aims to save more than 20 species of frogs in Panama, one of the world's last strongholds for amphibian biodiversity. While the global amphibian crisis is the result of habitat loss, climate change and…
November 18, 2010
Scientists thought they had a pretty good handle on the social interactions of bottlenose dophins (Tursiops). They've used the term fission-fusion dynamics to describe dolphin (and non-human primate) society and so far it has served researchers well. Fission-fusion societies among dolphins are…
November 17, 2010
You may have noticed that I've stopped doing linkfests. I decided that the time put in to their curation (i.e. the 'cost') outweighs the value of doing so (i.e. the 'benefit'). It also occurred to me that most of the things I would curate in my weekly linkfests were the same items I tweeted…
November 16, 2010
This amazingly clear 3D ultrasound image of an elephant fetus was taken just three months into its 22-month-long gestation period. The little guy, now named George, was born nineteen months later at ZSL's Whipsnade Zoo.
You can even see his little trunk and everything!
(h/t Metro UK)
November 16, 2010
Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week:
According to the Neurocritic, "Most everything you've read about the Doctors Prescribing 'Tetris Therapy' study is wrong." Find out why.
What happens when a fish sees its own reflection? If you're like most people, you'd say that he…
November 16, 2010
Thanks to everyone who participated in this year's Donors Choose Science Bloggers for Students campaign. Twenty-two readers from this humble blog donated a total of $524, affecting a total of 904 students! And that's not all, because HP is matching every dollar donated, so your $524 is actually…
November 15, 2010
Have you ever been at a party with lots of people chatting away, when for some unexplainable reason you felt compelled to turn and look at the front door of your friend's house...and just as you were looking, someone was just coming in from outside and closing the door? You couldn't have heard the…
November 11, 2010
Only twenty days left for submissions! Dig through your archives, through other people's archives and submit! I've already started to contact potential judges for this year's anthology. We're ready to roll!
Note: if you have recently moved your blog, please e-mail Bora the corrected URLs for your…
November 9, 2010
This week marked the release of Brian Switek's (blog, twitter) first book, Written in Stone. I got my hands on a review copy a few weeks ago, and I have nothing but good things to say about it. (Disclaimer: I was provided with a free review copy of the book, without any expectation that I'd review…