Antique Anatomical Anomalies

I'm a huge fan of antique anatomical illustrations - check these out -via boingboing-

The new asylums -Watch-

Fewer than 55,000 Americans currently receive treatment in psychiatric hospitals. Meanwhile, almost 10 times that number -- nearly 500,000 -- mentally ill men and women are serving time in U.S. jails and prisons. As sheriffs and prison wardens become the unexpected and often ill-equipped caretakers of this burgeoning population, they raise a troubling new concern: Have America's jails and prisons become its new asylums?

Memory Test

Explore your memory
Stretch your memory with fun challenges designed by experts. Your answers will help University of Edinburgh experimental psychologists with their research. Most people will not be able to get everything right. People with normal memories can have low scores.

Pissed? Angry? Depressed? Just wait a bit...

And then you'll remember the event as one of the happiest of your life... ok maybe not quite but:

When recalling memories of negative or positive events that helped to shape our identity, such as a break-up or marriage, we tend to downplay the fear, anger or other negative emotions experienced at the time and remember more of the positive emotions, new study findings indicate.

"These findings suggest that healthy individuals work to build a positive narrative identity that will yield an overall optimistic tone to the most important recalled events from their lives," write study authors Drs. Michael Conway and Wendy-Jo Wood, both of Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec.

Pot for your kids

Ok..its really just a book about pot for your kids. Here's an interesting interview with the author. And here's a snippit-->

So let's get right into it. Tell us what your book is all about. What's the storyline, who are the characters, and perhaps most importantly, what is the message behind it all?

Kids can open a bedroom door at the most inopportune moment. "It's Just a Plant" is about a child who discovers that her parents smoke marijuana. They decide to really explain to their child what the plant is, without resorting to the propaganda that passes as "education" these days. Millions of responsible adults, including over six million parents of young children, smoke marijuana in a way that is healthy and beneficial to their lifestyle. I thought it was high time that a type of education reflected this reality. Please understand, this book does NOT endorse children using marijuana.. Grass is like sex: it can be safe and fun if practiced by educated adults, but it's not for children. You ain't ready!

Get the book here

Mona Lisa -Watch-

Neato movie of the mona lisa turning. Step through it for the best results.

Picking stocks

Some mutual fund managers should probably take this for advice:

For those of you struggling to pick a winner in the complex world of stocks and shares, help is at hand. A psychology study has found that, at least in the short-term, stocks with names that are easier to pronounce consistently outperform those with more confusing monikers.

A seeing machine for the blind(ish)

Pretty cool stuff:

About 10 years ago, when she was nearly blind in both eyes, her doctor recommended a test to find out whether she had any healthy retina left at all. The test involved a large $100,000 machine called a scanning laser ophthalmoscope, which would let the doctor examine her retinas and project images directly onto them. If there were any live spots, the device might let her see.

It worked. She saw a stick-figure turtle. Ms. Goldring, a poet who has had three books published, asked to see a word. She was able to read "sun." It was the first word she had seen in many months.

...

She and a team of M.I.T. students collaborated with the machine's inventor, Robert W. Webb, a researcher at Harvard and the Massachusetts General Hospital. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration paid for part of the project.

The result is what Ms. Goldring calls a seeing machine, a smaller, simpler desktop device that cost less than $4,000 to build. It consists of a projector, computer, monitor, eyepiece and a joystick for zooming in and out. It uses light-emitting diodes instead of a laser.

Generalization of Moore's Law

from Ray Kurzweil:
"What if the exponential growth shown in Moore's Law applies not just to etching transistors in silicon chips, but to all of human progress and innovation? "

Exploding head syndrome

So I really have no idea what to think of this article. This is just the first couple paragraphs, It gets stranger from there.

I see Bobby Fisher, the boorish genius who held the world chess title, has become even more of a recluse. A reader, Jane, a lecturer in human biology, wonders if Fisher isn't a candidate for hyper-cerebral electrosis (HCE).

She referred to a Russian news agency report saying that a Russian chess genius' brain had exploded during an intense game, splattering his opponent with brain matter.

The report (it was in 1995) claimed Nikolai Titov's head had exploded and that four other people during the course of the 20th century were known to have suffered the exploding head syndrome.

More testosterone...more sex...less life

Ok.. so while I'm on birds, here you go:

Dating and mating are unique for many species, but for dark-eyed junco songbirds, researchers led by North Dakota State University assistant biology professor Wendy Reed, Ph.D., found something new.

Published in the May issue of The American Naturalist, the team’s study found that male birds with extra testosterone were more attractive to females and produced more—but smaller—offspring. Smaller offspring had lower survival rates than larger offspring. The extra testosterone also made the male birds sing more sweetly and fly farther. The testosterone-laden birds proved irresistible to older, more experienced female juncos, but that attractiveness carried some risks. Elevated testosterone levels increased activity—possibly attracting more predators—made the male, dark-eyed juncos more susceptible to disease and shortened their lifespan. “They had lower immune function and paid a cost with lower survival rates,� said Reed.

'Ringxiety'

Well thanks to David Laramie, of California's School of Professional Psychology, we have a term for all of those times you think you hear your cell phone ringing but its not - even when you don't have it with you.
I put bird calls on my girlfriends phone for her ring..haha.. soo mean. So now whenever she hears birds calling she thinks her phone is ringing.

Genes of the day

The first gene - sex.

In this latest study, the Israeli investigators examined the DNA of 148 healthy male and female Israeli university students and compared the results with questionnaires asking for the students’ self-descriptions of their sexual desire, arousal and sexual function. The results showed a correlation between variants in the D4 receptor gene -- which is responsible for producing the dopamine receptor protein (DRD4) -- and the students’ self-reports on sexuality. Interestingly, some forms of variants in this gene were shown to have a depressing effect on sexual desire, arousal and function, while other common variant had the opposite effect – an increase in the sexual desire score. The latter is believed to be a relatively new mutation, and it is estimated that it appears in Homo sapiens “only� 50,000 years ago at the time of humankind's great exodus from Africa. Approximately 30% of many populations carry the heightened arousal mutations, while around 60% carry the depressant mutation.

The second...religion
(this is a really old one though...)

An American molecular geneticist has concluded after comparing more than 2,000 DNA samples that a person's capacity to believe in God is linked to brain chemicals.
...
Studies on twins showed that those with this gene, a vesicular monoamine transporter that regulates the flow of mood-altering chemicals in the brain, were more likely to develop a spiritual belief.

p.s. The title link doesn't really go anywhere... just to The Onion.

An HIV virus addicted to the drug trying to stop it.

You get all the details from the picture yet?
Ok cool...

So I just thought this was pretty ironic that:

We describe an evolutionary pathway taken by HIV-1 to escape from the selective pressure of T20 in a treated patient. Besides the appearance of T20-resistant variants, we report for the first time the emergence of drug-dependent viruses with mutations in both the HR1 and HR2 domains of the envelope glycoprotein 41. We propose a mechanistic model for the dependence of HIV-1 entry on the T20 peptide. The T20-dependent mutant is more prone to undergo the conformational switch that results in formation of the fusogenic six-helix bundle structure in gp41. A premature switch will generate non-functional envelope glycoproteins ("dead spikes") on the surface of the virion, and T20 prevents this abortive event by acting as a "safety pin" that preserves an earlier pre-fusion conformation.

Or in other words the AIDS virus mutates in an attempt to bypass a drugs effects, and then becomes dependent on the drug trying to stop its advance. Ohh.. also, I could be reading this completely wrong since I know absolutely nothing about virology or whatever.

Ruediger Gamm beim Kopfrechnen. Ausschnitte aus "Expedition in Gehirn"

Pot for your pup.

Here's one for my ever lengthening list of blog entries about the wacked out stuff people do for their pets health:

Pet owners across Canada have a new a new way to treat the ailments of their beloved four-legged friend -- through cannabis treatment.

While most Canadians are aware that medicinal marijuana is legal in Canada, many may not know that there is a product available that also offers cannabis health benefits for your pets.

The implications of living forever.

Or perhaps just doubling it. Interesting article.

If scientists could create a pill that let you live twice as long while remaining free of infirmities, would you take it?

If one considers only the personal benefits that longer life would bring, the answer might seem like a no-brainer: People could spend more quality time with loved ones; watch future generations grow up; learn new languages; master new musical instruments; try different careers or travel the world.

But what about society as a whole? Would it be better off if life spans were doubled? The question is one of growing relevance, and serious debate about it goes back at least a few years to the Kronos Conference on Longevity Health Sciences in Arizona.

Gregory Stock, director of the Program on Medicine, Technology, and Society at UCLA’s School of Public Health, answered the question with an emphatic "Yes."

A doubled lifespan, Stock said, would "give us a chance to recover from our mistakes, lead us towards longer-term thinking and reduce healthcare costs by delaying the onset of expensive diseases of aging. It would also raise productivity by adding to our prime years."

Bioethicist Daniel Callahan, a cofounder of the Hastings Center in New York, didn't share Stock’s enthusiasm. Callahan’s objections were practical ones. For one thing, he said, doubling life spans won’t solve any of our current social problems.

"We have war, poverty, all sorts of issues around, and I don't think any of them would be at all helped by having people live longer," Callahan said in a recent telephone interview. "The question is, 'What will we get as a society?' I suspect it won't be a better society."

Ohh by the way... if you haven't read the hedonistic imperative I would highly recommend it. It's pretty compelling in a crazed kinda way.

The invention quiz

I suck...

You answered 7 questions correctly out of 15. If you got 13-15 correct, consider yourself the Thomas Edison of invention trivia. If you got 10-12 right, take the darn quiz again and shoot for 15. If you scored fewer than 10, you better invent a good excuse.

cell phones...again

This time the phone signals are being called TMS. Is that an accurate representation of the effect of the signal?

The researchers found that in the sham sessions and just before the phones were turned on, both hemispheres of the brain showed no excitability changes, but during phone emissions, they found "an excitability increase in the exposed left hemisphere" as compared to the non-exposed side of the head and the sham exposure.
...
"Exposure to GSM-type electromagnetic fields may theoretically provide a new, non-invasive method to treat subjects suffering from neurological diseases with reduced cortical excitability, such as strokes and Alzheimer's disease," he added.

I really like the idea of using a cellphone to "do" TMS. Maybe one day parents will able to send a command to their childrens cell phones to control their minds. Hey some parents are already using GSM to monitor their kids activities - why not take it a step further and control them! haha...

stuff..links...etc

Some links outta laziness:

1.)
It was the egg that came first, not the chicken, according to a study of the poultry pecking order.

2.)
Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments - Banned in 1960

3.)
Better Sex: What’s Weight Got to Do with It?
Being overweight does affect your libido. But small changes can jump-start your sex drive.

4.)
A British study suggests the Roman Catholic Church-approved "rhythm method" may kill more embryos than other methods of contraception.

5.)
French scientists say they've found mice with a mutant gene can defy the laws of genetic inheritance -- passing on traits even if the gene is absent.

6.)
Interview with Alexander Shulgin, author of Phenethylamines I Have Known And Loved (as well as TIHKAL). I loved reading these books in highschool. If you're at all interested in hallucinogens I highly recommend them.

Miracle drug!!!!!

What the hell does this mean?

Dr Ralf Clauss, now in the nuclear medicine department at the Royal Surrey Hospital was one of the researchers who carried out the study. He told the BBC: "For every damaged area of the brain, there is a dormant area, which seems to be a sort of protective mechanism. "The damaged tissue is dead, there's nothing you can do. "But it's the dormant areas which 'wake up'."

Ohh yeah, the article is about some drug which allows some people (well 3) in a persistent vegetative state to regain the ability to be "normal" again (for a little while).

Solar flares cause strokes? uhh yeah...

Ohh and don't forget about the correlation between pirates and global warming.

Here's the whole article since its short:

Slovak doctor says solar flares could raise strokes

Mon 22 May 2006 9:40 AM ET

By Matt Reynolds

BRATISLAVA, May 22 (Reuters) - Human beings may be at higher risk of strokes in years when the explosions on the sun peak, according to a neurologist who studied the records of 6,100 patients in Slovakia.

Dr. Michal Kovac said he found a spike in strokes and brain haemorrhages in the town of Nove Zamky in southern Slovakia in years when solar flares -- bursts of energy stronger than a million nuclear bombs combined -- are most abundant.

Kovac says his work, recently published in the Bratislava Medical Journal, builds on studies that show parts of the human body respond to fluctuations in the earth's geomagnetic field caused by sun storms.

He also found patients suffered fewer strokes when the moon was farthest from earth.

"We see a correlation between the human body and lunar and solar phenomena, even if we don't know exactly what explains the connection," he told Reuters.

Coronal mass ejections, which peak roughly every 11 years, send hot gas toward earth that cause radio blackouts and satellite malfunctions, illuminate skies around the north and southpoles and are believed to impair the navigational ability of pigeons.

Despite scepticism from astronomers, Kovac and colleagues in the U.S. and Japan think fluctuations in the earth's magnetic field caused by the ejections may disturb the electro-chemical reactions that make human bodies work.

He began his research in the 1980s after observing unexplained increases in stroke patients on certain days, weeks, months and years.

"I'd be getting a lot of patients, and I'd talk to heart doctors and they'd say the same thing," he said.

Solar flares and coronal ejections last peaked in 2000 and 2001, Kovac said.

"That means we have four more years in the cycle," he said with a sigh. "Then we'll be busy again."

Maybe being white sheltered and middle class ain't so bad?

-Via Science Daily-
Ok maybe not this sheltered-->
Although they all did turn out nice in the end.

A six-month study in the University's School of Psychology found that rather than 'toughening up' individuals, adverse experiences in childhood and adolescence meant that these people were vulnerable to being mislead. The research analysing results from 60 participants suggest that such people could, for example, be more open to suggestion in police interrogations or to be influenced by the media or advertising campaigns. The study found that while some people may indeed become more 'hard-nosed' through adversity, the majority become less trusting of their own judgement.

Old heads

Wow! being healthy fit and active is good for you! holy @#%& !!!!!! Hah.. it is good that people are doing the research though. Another interesting thing in this study is that they use PET scanning, I haven't seen PET for a while.

Participants on the healthy longevity plan incorporated the following into their daily routine:

• To stimulate the brain, memory exercises such as crossword puzzles and brainteasers were conducted throughout the day.
• To improve physical fitness, participants took daily walks, which have been found to increase life expectancy and lower the risk of Alzheimer disease.
• To improve their diet, study participants on the plan ate five small meals a day, which prevents drops in blood glucose levels since glucose is the main energy source for the brain. In addition, they ate a balanced diet full of omega-3 fats, antioxidants and low glycemic carbohydrates like whole grains.
• To manage stress, participants performed daily relaxation exercises. Small notes that stress causes the body to release cortisol, a hormone that can impair memory and damage brain memory cells.

When pigs fly.

I have no idea what's really going on here. Any ideas?
Click on the picture for a larger version.

"Directionally Challenged"

Ahhhh...

Kevin Lenz sees it all the time.

As the founder and chief instructor of Driving In a New America Inc., Mr. Lenz often finds himself sitting next to a teenage driver when the following scenario unfolds:

"I'll tell them, 'We're turning right here,' and they'll put on their left turn signal, and I'll say, 'No, turn right,' and they'll say 'Right' and leave their left turn signal on.

"I had one student last week where I said, 'OK, we're going to make the second right up here,' and she turned left into a parking lot."

The teens may struggle with left and right because of the stress of learning how to drive, but they aren't alone.

Millions of adults around the world will remain "directionally challenged" for their entire lives. For them, a skill that most people master by the age of 12 will always be a craps shoot.

Studies show that, in general, women have a more difficult time with this task than men do. Other studies show that left-handers have more trouble discriminating left from right. Still others say just the opposite.

As to what's going on inside the brains of people who are directionally dumbfounded, there are plenty of interesting theories, but no definitive answers.

One of the few people who has studied this issue recently is Sonja Ofte, of the University of Bergen in Norway.

She asked college students four years ago to look at stick figures facing forward or backward and to identify right or left hands when the figures' arms were in different positions.

On that test, men did significantly better than women, and left-handed men did better than right-handers.

When she did the same test with children, though, she found no gender differences.

Ugh... Dream analysis.

Who comes up with this crap? Do they just make it up or what? Is this just a Freud derivation?

Top 5 Common Dream Themes And Their
Interpretations
Author: Erika Sondali

The interpretation of dreams by dream experts may be almost as
old as dreaming itself. We know that all humans, and many
animals, dream every night, and humans have always been
fascinated to learn what causes dreams and what they mean. We
will examine some of the top five themes that researchers have
found occur in our dreams: being naked, being chased, losing
teeth, flying, and falling.

Being Naked
Dreams of being naked are possibly amongst the most common
dreams people have. In dreams, clothes can represent
concealment and hiding, so being stripped of clothes can mean
being left defenseless and exposed. Often the dreamer has fears
that he or she worries may be uncovered. Dreams in which no one
but the dreamer notices the nakedness are often indications
that the fears bothering the dreamer are unfounded, and that no
one else is concerned about them. Being naked in a dream can
also indicate fear of being caught off guard. For instance,
many people dream that they are suddenly naked at work or at
school. Being naked in front of a crowd can symbolize a fear of
being exposed, a fear of being unprepared, or a fear that those
around you know things about you they are not telling you
about. ...

And there's 4 more at the source.

Ehh...critical period, who needs it.

I'm not sure if this story will be available to people without a subscription to nature, but here's a part of the story. It's pretty interesting. Ohh and I've always loved Joe Paterno's glasses.

Doctors gave SK his first pair of glasses in July 2004. He had been too poor to afford a pair before — but then he was a 29-year-old blind man, what use were glasses to him? Had he been given glasses as a child they might have helped him overcome his congenital aphakia — an extremely rare condition in which the eyeball develops without a lens. Yet his chances of being diagnosed, let alone treated, in the poor Indian village in which he was born were slim. As a result, SK was living in a 'hostel for the blind' with no running water when the doctors arrived from New Delhi. SK's doctors weren't sure how much sight he would gain, or if he would comprehend what he saw. For the first year, he had only the most basic visual skills. He could recognize simple two-dimensional objects but anything three-dimensional, even an everyday object such as a ball, was beyond him. All this was consistent with the idea of a 'critical period' in vision: that if you haven't learned to see by a certain age, you never will. But 18 months after getting his glasses, SK surprised everyone. He had begun to make sense of his world, building his visual vocabulary through experience and recognizing more complex objects with varying colours and brightness. In doing so, he turned one of the most fundamental concepts in neuroscience on its head.

Goal!!!!!

I'm gonna help everyone be lazy here and post the entire article. It looks like this guy has a lot more of a problem than figuring out the trajectory of a ball.

Professional goalkeepers fail to stop free kicks because of shortcomings in their visual system, according to new research by Cathy Craig and colleagues, from Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland. The projected trajectory of a ball following a curved flight path is more difficult to judge because our visual system is not sensitive enough to gauge a change of direction at speed, mid-flight. The research is published in Springer-Verlag's journal Naturwissenschaften.

Free kicks are now important goal-scoring opportunities, with specialist free kick takers often choosing to make the ball spin in order to curve the ball into the goal. Because of the size of the goalmouth, goal keepers need to anticipate the direction of the ball before they take action. Cathy Craig and team looked at whether the lateral deflection of a ball's trajectory, caused by sidespin2, affects professional footballers' perception of where the ball is heading.

Eleven professional footballers (attackers, mid-fielders and defenders) and nine goalkeepers from AC Milan, Olympique de Marseille, Bayer Leverkusen and Schalke 04 were asked to judge whether a range of simulated free kicks would end up in the goal or not, using a virtual reality system. The viewpoint was fixed in the centre of the goal. When there was no spin, balls arriving directly opposite the goal were consistently judged to be entering the goal. When the ball was spinning clockwise, the resulting trajectories – from the point of view of the goalkeeper – unfolded on the right-hand side of the no-spin trajectory, resulting in a goal only if the striker shot from left of the central position in front of the goal. For conditions where the ball was spinning counter-clockwise, the balls landed in the goal only when they – from the view of the striker – were kicked from the right-hand side of the no-spin trajectory. There was no difference between the judgements of the field players and goalkeepers.

Players appear to be using current ball heading direction to make their judgements about whether the free kick will end up in the goal or not, rather than accurately predicting the effects of lateral acceleration on the ball's trajectory. Craig and colleagues conclude that these "perceptual effects find their origin in inherent limitations of the human visual system in anticipating the arrival point of an object subjected to an additional accelerative influence….The depth of experience of our participants does not seem to be able to compensate for these shortcomings in visual perception."

###

1. Craig CM et al (2006). Judging where a ball will go: the case of curved free kicks in football. Naturwissenschaften; 93:97-101.

2. The Magnus force, created by a ball spinning around an axis, gives rise to an acceleration that is perpendicular to the direction of the ball. This causes a lateral deviation in the ball's trajectory.

Animations of drugs in the brain

This is a pretty cool set of animations demonstrating the neural effects of a bunch of drugs. It's totally meant for people who know absolutely nothing about the brain and way over simplifies things... but still cool. Ohh.. and it's in a whole bunch of different languages.

Heavy metal roadie or psych professor? You decide.

When I first saw the article I thought perhaps he really was a roadie... he only looks like one, how disappointing ;) It's a shame I can't find his picture.

You can't judge a book by its cover. The saying is especially true for Dr. Michael Root, an Ohio University psychology professor whose hardcore appearance seems to match his hardcore love for teaching.
...
Root has been teaching as an associate professor of psychology at OU for six years. On the first day of class, however, the majority of students are surprised to see his unconventional, un-professor-like appearance. In a way, Root said, his style piques students interest and makes him relatable. However, he noted, this is only temporary.

"After a week, the novelty wears off and they realize I'm just a normal professor," he said.

After going over the syllabus on the first day of class, Root always invites students to ask him any questions they want, as a way to clear up the mystery behind his facial hair and long locks, which haven't been cut since his freshman year of college in 1988.

According to Root, the most-asked question on that day is, "do you ride a Harley?"

"Honestly," he said, "on a professor's salary you can't afford a Harley, so the answer is no."

Monkey news.

Yesterday seemed to have been dog day. Today seems to be monkey day.
Story 1: Monkey Sentences.

Putty-nosed monkeys put two different alarm calls together to create urgent warnings, according to observations recently made of the West African primates.

These monkey "sentences" appear to be evidence of what is widely considered to be a uniquely human ability: stringing words together to convey a message, or syntax.

"These monkeys combine different calls into more complex call sequences with novel meanings," said Klaus Zuberbuhler, a psychology researcher at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Zuberbuhler co-wrote a study about the monkey calls appearing in tomorrow's issue of the journal Nature.

Story 2: Monkey's and humans interbred(eww).

NEW YORK (AP) -- Humans and chimps diverged from a single ancestral population through a complex process that took 4 million years, according to a new study comparing DNA from the two species.By analyzing about 800 times more DNA than previous studies of the human-chimp split, researchers from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard were able to learn not just when, but a little bit about how the sister species arose."For the first time we're able to see the details written out in the DNA," said Eric Lander, founding director of the Broad Institute. "What they tell us at the least is that the human-chimp speciation was very unusual."The researchers hypothesize that an ancestral ape species split into two isolated populations about 10 million years ago, then got back together after a few thousand millennia. At that time the two groups, though somewhat genetically different, would have mated to form a third, hybrid population. That population could have interbred with one or both of its parent populations. Then, at some point after 6.3 million years ago, two distinct lines arose.

Psychic dogs

Well...here it is: Dogs are not psychic. Ohh well I kinda thought they had a chance. Here's the originial report (scanned pdf) from the Army, it's pretty interesting actually. And here's a summary from the webpage:

In the early 1950s, Dr. Joseph Banks Rhine, based at Duke University, was the foremost researcher in the field of parapsychology, or, using the term he coined: "extrasensory perception." The Army hired Rhine and his Parapsychology Laboratory to research the possibility of using dogs and other animals to detect buried landmines.

The final report for one such contract with Duke University, dated 10 July 1953, remained classified as Confidential for more than 50 years, until it was recently declassified after a long, laborious process. It took ten separate offices five years to clear this short report for release.

The narrative report describes a series of experiments involving German shepherds trying to locate buried landmines. The results appeared promising but also suggested that at least some of the positive results were attributable to the dogs' remarkable sense of smell. The report also examines the possibility of ESP in cats and pigeons.

Rhine was the first to attempt a scientific investigation of paranormal phenomena of this type, and many of his experimental results have been attacked as being the result of a general lack of stringent experimental controls and the possible falsification of records by his laboratory assistants.

There are a number of other sites on psychic dogs around, a bbc report, some stuff about Jim the psychic dog, etc etc

Vegan cupcakes

Regrowing the optic nerve

Neato..The picture is a little gross though.

The optic nerve connects the eye to the brain. Injuries or diseases such as glaucoma can damage it, and once severed, nerve fibers projecting from the retina via the optic nerve don't regrow. In the past, scientists have achieved modest sprouting of these neurons in rats by inducing an inflammatory reaction in the eye. But here's the rub: The macrophages that spark the sprouting also spew toxic chemicals, which can kill nerve cells.

So neurobiologists led by Larry Benowitz at Harvard Medical School sought to separate the helpful component of macrophages. By looking at various substances secreted by macrophages in culture, the team isolated a protein called oncomodulin that seemed to promote regrowth and elongation of optic axons--fine, spidery extensions of the nerve cells--without the toxic side effects seen with the entire cells. When added to nerve fibers grown in dishes, the protein
caused the axons to grow by nearly 45%--a 50% improvement over other growth stimulants.

The effect in live animals was also dramatic. When the team injected oncomodulin into the fluid between the lens and the retina of rats whose optic nerve had been crushed, most of the animals experienced 7-fold greater regeneration of their optic nerve neurons than untreated rats. No other growth stimulants have been able to induce this much regeneration in rats, the researchers reported online yesterday in Nature Neuroscience.

Did you have an imaginary friend?

I don't have too much to say about this, but it's kinda neat. If you don't recognize the picture you have to see the movie Harvey, it's great.

Children with imaginary friends have more vivid daydreams than other children, a new study shows for the first time.

Australian researcher Dr Paula Bouldin of Deakin University shows that children with imaginary friends also tend to have more "mythical content" in their dreams.

They spend more time daydreaming and have an ability to "almost ... see and hear the contents of their daydream in front of them".

It may appear obvious that children with imaginary friends have a richer fantasy life than those without, but to date there has been little specific research into the area.

Bouldin says her work, reported in the Journal of Genetic Psychology, finally provides evidence of this.

She questioned 74 children aged between three and eight, half with a current or past imaginary friend.

The group with imaginary friends reported more mythical content in their dreams, had more frequent and more vivid daydreams and were more likely to play games with a mythical content.

Animated gif of the "insert amount of time here"

More old news: Ph.D. in Parapsychology. The new hotness: Ph.D. in creationism

-Via fark.com-

Ok, so maybe its just a masters degree:

The Institute for Creation Research Graduate School is looking for serious students who are committed to excellence in science, education, and research and who are in full agreement with the ICR Tenets. In addition, the ideal student is committed to personal spiritual maturity and desires to communicate truths about the origin and operation of the creation to the Christian community and the general public.

ICR Graduate School offers Master of Science degrees in Astro/Geophysics, Biology, and Geology in the face-to-face program on the Santee campus. The Master of Science degree in Science Education is offered through Online Distance Education.

The immediate goal of the ICR Graduate School is to foster research and provide graduate-level training in those fields of natural science that are particularly relevant to the study of origins. The long-range goal is to prepare talented graduates in science and education for future Christian leadership.

And it doesn't cost too much money! The "Estimated total cost of 33 semester credit program $8500.00" I wonder if they have any graduate assistant positions?

It's a good thing, "The Institute for Creation Research Graduate School admits students of any race, color, gender, national or ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, national or ethnic origin in the administration of any of its policies or programs." Hah..a little hypocritical don't you think? Considering they do discriminate against non Christians.

Happy mothers day.

Here's a link to a photoshop contest over at fark.com celebrating mothers day. There may be some not so safe for work things there ;)

Old news: Colors and confessing criminals. New news: Changing someones dreams by turning on the lights

I posted something before about getting criminals to confess by changing room color and even that seemed to have better sources than this article.

Studies show that you can bring about a dream in another person. One way is by holding an open bottle of perfume under the sleeper's nose. Another is by whistling. A third way is by blowing air across the sleeper's face with a fan. Someone else can also affect the content of a sleeper’s dream. For example, turning on a light produces happier dreams. And darkening an already bright room can induce nightmares.

We're missing some sources here aren't we? The author has them later in the article for things like anxiety's effects on dreaming and remembering dreams... just seems to be missing some here. hmmm... I wonder.

Juxtaposition

Via Mind Hacks: Katrina Firlik is a neurosurgeon who's just published a book called Another Day in the Frontal Lobe.

Her web site features a small online gallery displaying her line drawings.

"I have paired each neurosurgery-inspired item with something from the natural world, either for good reason, or simply for fun," she says.

These include The venous sinuses (and squid), The Circle of Willis (and insect), and The homunculus (and "Hello Kitty" look alike). Squee! Edutaining.

Visit her gallery, and check out an NPR interview.

[Image featured above: The brainstem (and orchid).]