We humans really like to think we are rational planners. In some examples, we are. Carefully designed modern suburban communities, with walking distances to stores and parks, etc. Require some careful planning. So do the stamped grids of many modern cities. But what about the routes between? You could always just take a straight line […]
For the past…oh my, for the past FIVE YEARS, I’ve been recording, every year, the books I manage to read. Five (gulp) years ago, this was because I was trying the then popular idea to read 100 books in a year. Then I started a blog. 100 books did not happen (though I did get […]
BEHOLD, THE SCI-TREE. We…don’t actually celebrate Christmas, but I know there will be no readers today. But for those of you who ARE around, let me take this opportunity to say thanks. Thanks so much for reading, for picking on my typos, for giving me feedback, and for keeping me writing! Have a happy […]
The handsome stranger clutched her shoulders, supporting her as she swooned. The suddenness and violence of the robbery and her rescue disoriented Beverlee, and for a few moments she did not know where she was. But as she began to be conscious of her surroundings, she was increasingly aware of the tall, firm man she […]
The Scicurious Guest Writer series is BACK! And for our second guest writer, I am pleased to present Satchal Erramilli, with a piece looking back at the last 100 years of X ray crystallography! Head over and Check it out!
Yesterday, I talked about the first of the two Nature papers that have come out looking at the role of dopamine firing in depressive-like behaviors and stress. Today, I talk about the other. Similar stimulus…opposite effects. Why? Well it turns out that not all stress is created equal, and the dopamine neurons can tell the […]
Nature recently published two papers on dopamine and depression in the same issue, both of them using optogenetics to look at the role of the dopamine system in depression, and both of them found…very different things. I like them both (and Ed covered them both really well), and I’ll be covering them both over the […]
Have you ever wondered how the ideal bottle of liquid would glug when you tried to pour it out? How the sound of a potato chip’s crunch changes how crispy you think it is? How stuffing your bra could influence your hitchhiking skills? What, you never have? Well, fear not! Because no matter what weird […]
Over at the Molecular Ecologist, there’s a great carnival up of posts on “knowing what I know now”. What advice did you wish you had given your past self? I and many others have a TON, and we hope it will benefit you! So head over and check it out!
Sci is at SciAm Blogs today, talking about a study which looks at the contagiousness of itch. When you see someone scratch, do you get itchy? And what’s happening? And can you make it through the ENTIRE post…without getting itchy? Head over and check it out!