retrospectacle
Posts by this author
May 18, 2007
Everyone's baring their souls.....oh i mean mugs, so thought i'd contribute.
This is the mug I was drinking out of at lab. Not really sure where it came from, except that those are suppost to be hair cells on the mug.
Hair cell for comparison:
More below the fold......
Got this one in Tong Li,…
May 17, 2007
Neuroscientists truly are rock stars. And, apparently, some are *literally* rockstars, or at least grasping desperately at it. Meet Joseph LeDoux's band, The Amygdaloids:
Joseph LeDoux, Daniela Schiller, and Nina Galbraith Curely are neuroscientists who study emotion and memory functions of the…
May 16, 2007
Getting stung by insects hurts, and some hurt (a LOT) more than others. Of course, this necessitates a 'sting pain' index by which to compare the aftereffects of meeting the business end of a stinger. Why, just last weekend when i was on an ill-fated canoe trip (I dumped out twice, in freezing…
May 15, 2007
It really was only a matter of time until a longitudinal study on a massive scale, such as this one in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, came out to back up what common sense told us was unhealthy. That being, that artificial, gross manipulations of diet aren't great for you. In fact,…
May 14, 2007
If you are hearing impaired, or if you just like hearing about interesting new sensory gadgets, lend me your ears. Well, actually, lend them to neuroscientists at UNC Chapel Hill who have just opened the first clinical trial to test a new device which combines cochlear implant and hearing aid…
May 14, 2007
There's a nifty little radio show broadcast out of Canada called 'IAmAScientist' which focuses on [wait for it] the lives of scientists. The most recent show, cataloged via podcast courtesy of the friendly yet mysterious host, chats up Retrospectacle's favorite birdly scientist, Dr. Irene…
May 10, 2007
Human papilloma virus (HPV) just became a bit more disconcerting, especially if you happen to be in a particular *cough* industry. A group at Johns Hopkins just reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that risk of a rare throat cancer (oropharyngeal squamous-cell carcinoma)was 9 times…
May 1, 2007
I'm taking a few days off blogging, just to depressurize and take a few steps back. The last week has been pretty crazy and exhausting, so, a bit of time off is just what the doctor ordered.
April 30, 2007
Several people have emailed to let me know that some commenting is going on at the Volokh Conspiracy over what qualifies as "fair use." Its cool that some experts in law might chime in. Check it out.
April 30, 2007
So, as I mentioned before, Dr. Irene Pepperberg is in Ann Arbor to deliver a lecture at the annual Neuroscience Spring Symposia today. Also giving talks is Dr. Steven Finkbeiner from UCSF (on neurodegeneration in Huntington's) and Dr. Clifford Saper from Harvard/Deaconess (on hypothalamic…
April 29, 2007
I just got back from picking up Irene Pepperberg from the Detroit airport and dropping her off at a hotel here in Ann Arbor. A while back I interviewed her for Friday Grey Matters, and afterwards suggested to the UM Neuro peeps on high that she be an invited speaker for the Neuroscience Spring…
April 29, 2007
Got this from UM's publishing license negotiation team. I asked for permission to publish the email, and they said sure. I removed names just in case anybody decided to be over-zealous again. :)
----------------
Hi Shelley,
I'm the Electronic Resources Officer at the University of Michigan
Library…
April 27, 2007
Looks like the big dogs are coming out to play: Science Journal (Almost) Polices the Blogosphere
April 27, 2007
Last week I came across an interesting press release on a strange phenomenon: vocal 'naming' of parrot chicks by their mothers. At the time of that posting I hadn't come across the primary journal article, but a few commenters were kind enough to point me in the direction of this paper by Wanker…
April 27, 2007
I have another post coming out later today for Friday Grey Matters, but I just had to put up a link to this amazing parrot-post at the Lounge of the Lab Lemming. In America, the nuts of the sweet gum tree are prickly, indestructible annoyances:
It was a family joke that they were so indestructible…
April 27, 2007
Picture from Grant Robertson.
In an interesting turn of events, it was announced on Page 3.14 (the editorial blog of ScienceBlogs) that there will be an ongoing, online discussion of fair use issues here.
How do copyright and fair use laws, framed before the internet was a twinkle in the eye,…
April 26, 2007
Earlier today I noticed this blog post on a Nature Blog, (cross posted here) specifically on FnL - Euan Adie's blog, who was overly critical of the science blogosphere's response to the 'Fair Use' kerfuffle (WileyGate?). He opined that it was quite unlikely that there was any big conspiracy going…
April 26, 2007
Thats what some bloggers have suggested.
Well, am I?
Some may call it cowardly, but here was my response:
Sorry, guess I'm not as brave as you.
Perhaps its is all well and good for people to try to take a confrontation stance on these issues however my first line of defense will always be trying…
April 26, 2007
Looks like our efforts paid off. :D
Dear Dr Batts
I'd like to introduce myself as the Director of Publications at the SCI.
There has been a general misunderstanding with this issue. Our official response is below, which we are happy for you to publish:
"We apologise for any misunderstanding. In…
April 26, 2007
.....discussion. I'm not out for blood, and I'm really kinda hoping that I'll get an email in my inbox today that says "Yes, feel free to use and discuss the mentioned graphs." So far I haven't, and I think that's sad. In piling on here, and around the internet, I just want people to think about…
April 25, 2007
Tomorrow the hammer's coming down hard over the 'Fair Use' issue, at ScienceBlogs and hopefully around the blogosphere. Quite a few of my fellow SciBlings have pledged to post about this issue, as it affects us all (not only all of us, but all of you too.)
If you were thinking about writing a post…
April 25, 2007
Mark Chu-Carroll of Good Math, Bad Math has a very supportive article up summarizing my tangle with lawyers yesterday over the 'fair use' of a figure from the fruit antioxidant paper.
In short, I was threatened with legal action if I didn't take it down immediately. I used a panel a figure, and a…
April 24, 2007
Yes, someone tested out the caffeine soap and blogged the results!
Seems like he felt a bit of a buzz, however whether its caffeine or a bit of the placebo effect, well who can say.
I jumped into the shower and lathered up with the Shower Shock. Now, in addition to containing roughly 2400mg of…
April 24, 2007
From the BBC on down, in the past few days the headline "Alchohol Makes Fruit Healthier" has been highlighted in nearly every news venue.
The fruit contains compounds [antioxidants] that can protect against cancer, heart disease and arthritis.
But having them with alcohol, such as in a daiquiri…
April 23, 2007
A few months back I wrote a post on the topic of the psychology video game addiction, and today was contacted by a student who trying to study video game addiction in efforts of finding an effective treatment.
A survey-based study being conducted by a Southern California university is now seeking…
April 23, 2007
In the vein of weird stimulants added to weird products, I have a new one to throw out: caffienated soap! Lots of people don't like coffee (not me, I love love love it), but still want that delectably artificial pick-me-up in the morning. What are they to do??
Caffeine soap to the rescue!
The…
April 20, 2007
According to nutty gun-lover Ted Nugent, school shootings like Virginia Tech could be avoided if we all toted guns, and has the anecdotes to prove it! There are so many gems in this piece. For example:
Already spineless gun control advocates are squawking like chickens with their tiny-brained heads…
April 20, 2007
German researchers at the University of Hamburg claim to have documented that some parrots seem to give their offspring (but not their mates) individual "names," in the form of a distinctive call which is different for each of their chicks.
The studies were inspired by observations in the…
April 20, 2007
One reason that treatments for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are particularly difficult to develop is that HIV is quite good at adapting resistance to drugs. Many of the virus' surface proteins--natural targets for inhibitory drugs--have a high turnover rate and are easily changed. There…
April 19, 2007
Sorry, I accidentally published a post-in-progress which wasn't finished yet (on HIV, for those that were mystified about where the rest of it was). Got a couple confused comments, so sorry bout that.
Oops! You'll just have to wait until tomorrow to see the real thing. :)
But if you really want…