Can amphetamine and caffeine make you a slacker?

Well, it depends on how hard you worked in the first place. Sci is at SciAm Blogs today talking about a recent study showing how these drugs affect choice decision making in rats. And I wonder if the changes in response to amphetamine and caffeine here are related to other, previous studies in the drug […]

Read more
Friday Weird Science: The Urinal Problem

It is a truth universally acknowledged that people dislike peeing next to each other. Ok, maybe it’s just a Western thing. Or an American thing. Or a thing for people with large senses of personal space. But no matter what, there is a little dance you do when you go into a multi-stall bathroom. You […]

Read more
On Networking: A rant.

It never fails. Every professional development seminar I go to, one of the big bullet points is “NETWORK!”. I see seminars on “Networking: let us maximize your LinkedIn Potential!”. I just read a post on women succeeding in science and one of the bullet points was “network, network, network!”. What. IS. “Network”. From what I […]

Read more
At #sciam Blogs: Running and Thermoregulation

I get cold after I run. Really, REALLY cold. I’m sitting here, preparing to write a blog post on thermoregulation. I finished a good run a while ago. The temperatures outside weren’t too extreme (50ish degrees F, so comfortable for a good run), and I was sweating freely when I finished. About an hour later, […]

Read more
At #sciamblogs today: Chronic stress and phosphorylated tau

Sci is at SciAm blogs today, talking about a brand new study on chronic stress and possible connections with neurobiological symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease. It’s an interesting finding, and an interesting mechanism, but we’ll need a lot more information and experiments to understand it. Head over and check out why.

Read more
Friday Weird Science: The Social Psychology of Flatulence

With many of my Friday Weird Science posts, it starts with a random thought. I like to think that most people have thoughts like this and just don’t tell polite society, thoughts like “Do people all have a favorite bathroom stall at work or is it just me? Did dinosaurs have penises? What did they […]

Read more
Overeating and Obesity: Should we really call it food addiction?

Nature Reviews Neuroscience came out with a perspectives article today on overeating and obesity, and the evidence behind the food addiction model that is gaining popularity. It’s an issue that I myself have given a lot of thought to: is there REALLY such a thing as food addiction that’s just like heroin addiction or cocaine […]

Read more
Friday Weird Science POETRY SLAM!

As Friday was winding down, the awesome Michelle Banks (make sure to check out her brain art! I’ve got one in my office and get loads of compliments!) and I got to tweeting about my recent alligator penis post. And well…an EPIC PENIS POETRY SLAM was had! Michelle was kind enough to Storify the results. […]

Read more