Category Archives: Biology

A Garden of Neurons

Posted on December 27, 2006 by cicada

Purkinje Cells Ludovic Collins, confocal micrograph Wellcome Biomedical Image Awards 2006 After they get over the thrill of cutting it up, my students occasionally complain that brain tissue looks boring (somewhat like pinkish white cheese). Perhaps because the brain is … Continue reading →

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“Huge” Circadian Clock News

Posted on December 26, 2006 by cicada

A Blog Around The Clock : Huge New Circadian Pacemaker Found In The Mammalian Brain I love this stuff. In grad school, I wrote a hugely ambitious outside proposal on circadian photoreception mechanisms in the mammalian retina, prompting one of … Continue reading →

Posted in Biology | 2 Comments

The Economist on free will

Posted on December 22, 2006 by cicada

The Economist: Liberalism and neurology | Free to choose? As if the concept of free will wasn’t fraught long before we had MRI. Update: this post from musings on neurology, etc. offers a reading list of primary literature on neurology … Continue reading →

Posted in Biology, Science in culture & policy | Comments Off

Deyrolle

Posted on December 22, 2006 by cicada

Deyrolle is a French company specializing in biological objets d’art, including taxidermy, insect cases, and vintage posters (above). Unfortunately, it’s in Paris. Fortunately, they have a great virtual tour of their store: Deyrolle (Tour) They also have online shopping, although … Continue reading →

Posted in Biology, Museum Lust | Comments Off

Homo sapiens whedonum?

Posted on December 18, 2006 by cicada

Rifters.com: Yesterday’s Nightmares for a Better Tomorrow “Natural selection would have weeded moral vampires out faster than you can say ‘Stephen Jay Gould’!” How did vampires evolve, anyway? And why do crosses upset them so badly? This parody is quite … Continue reading →

Posted in Biology, Frivolity | Comments Off

Why Women Aren’t Funny

Posted on December 17, 2006 by cicada

Vanity Fair: Christopher Hitchens On Why Women Aren’t Funny This piece is titled “Provocation.” So I’m not really offended. I mean, come on; it’s Christopher Hitchens, what do you expect? Over at Scienceblogs, some bloggers have responded about the science, … Continue reading →

Posted in Biology, Books, Science in culture & policy | Comments Off

Let’s hit the pepper bar

Posted on December 17, 2006 by cicada

The Examining Room of Dr. Charles: A Cure for Diabetes? A very interesting blog entry (on a very interesting blog) about a Cell paper that’s gotten scant media attention. The paper implicates malfunctioning pancreatic neurons in autoimmune (Type I) diabetes. … Continue reading →

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Are those data real?

Posted on December 14, 2006 by cicada

John Wilkins at Evolving Thoughts has advice on how not to get your Cell paper retracted for improperly massaging images. This just happened to a group from Taiwan, and I don’t know the whole story, but Science is supposed to … Continue reading →

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Beat until light, fluffy, and hypoallergenic

Posted on December 11, 2006 by cicada

The words that manufacturers use in product packaging can be a little ambiguous. In an earlier post, I noted that the FDA permits the adjective “light” to be used in reference to the texture or appearance of a food, for … Continue reading →

Posted in Biology, Words | 3 Comments

Does this outfit make Red look fat?

Posted on December 6, 2006 by cicada

Mixing Memory : Does Red Weigh More Than Blue? Here is an outstanding summary of research into the effect of color on the apparent weight of objects. Brighter colors like pink consistently have less visual “heft” than darker ones like … Continue reading →

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