May 28th, 2008 ecoli
A new study, discussed in Scientific American explains some of the positive biochemical and physiological affects of blogging.
Scientists now hope to explore the neurological underpinnings at play, especially considering the explosion of blogs. According to Alice Flaherty, a neuroscientist at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital, the placebo theory of suffering is one window through which to view blogging. As social creatures, humans have a range of pain-related behaviors, such as complaining, which acts as a “placebo for getting satisfied,” Flaherty says. Blogging about stressful experiences might work similarly.
They suggest it may stimulate dopamine release, or involve the limbic system or the front and temporal lobes.
Whatever the underlying causes may be, people coping with cancer diagnoses and other serious conditions are increasingly seeking—and finding—solace in the blogosphere. “Blogging undoubtedly affords similar benefits” to expressive writing, says Morgan, who wants to incorporate writing programs into supportive care for cancer patients.
I wonder if there’s something unique to scientific blogging that attracts a lot of scientists to it. (just look at the activity that scienceblogs.com gets).
At any rate, now that I have the doctor’s permission to continue blogging, there’s just no stopping me.
Posted in link out, neurobiology | No Comments »
May 28th, 2008 ecoli
Orac at respectful insolence writes
If there’s one thing that quacks and cranks share in common, it’s that they do not like scrutiny, particularly by people with some scientific knowledge. Indeed, when confronted with scientists or educated lay people who can challenge their crankery, it’s amazing how they react the same way almost every time; they try to silence or–if you will–expel the person who challenges their world view. That’s because they want to control their message and operate within the confines of their cozy world, where never is heard a discouraging–and especially never critical–word. Most of all, they never, ever want their true agenda to see the light of day.
It’s about the the vaccination-autism people, but applies equally to creationists, 9/11 truthers and holocaust denialists just as readily.
Posted in link out, musings | 1 Comment »
May 26th, 2008 ecoli
Pure Pedantry
Respectful Insolence
I haven’t seen it yet, but these reviews give a pretty good idea about the overall quality of the movie, without giving away anything important. Also, it reinforces the notion that I can rely on science blogs for the vast majority of my news, political or entertainment.
Posted in entertainment, link out, musings | No Comments »
May 26th, 2008 ecoli
Link
Posted in link out | No Comments »
May 25th, 2008 ecoli
Skulls in the Stars challenge is ongoing. Yours truly entered his before the weekend. You can see a list of all the entries so far here.
Some highlights from the competition:
Attention all bloggers. The deadline for submission is May 30th, so there’s still time left to become part of this historic occasion.
Posted in link out, news | No Comments »
May 21st, 2008 ecoli
… of evolutionary biology that’s utterly their own.
Not exactly rocket science
This serves to demonstrate what tricks evolution can pull, when faced with unique conditions and new stresses. It’s interesting the amino acid uniqueness seen in snake proteins not seen in any other animal.
Posted in evolution, link out | No Comments »
April 29th, 2008 ecoli
What’s one of the first thing students learn in high school about nucleic acid molecules? It’s that DNA is double stranded and RNA is single stranded. Not only is this fundamentally incorrect, such type of “linear” thinking is, I would argue, a ‘dangerous’ line of thinking, that may be hard for students to escape from.
Any biochemistry student can tell you that, not only can certain types of RNA form secondary and tertiary structures, but that these structures are critical to understanding the catalytic activity of RNA. This has important revelations for evolution (the RNA-first world hypothesis) and for molecular biology.
Microbiology Bytes ran a segment on The shape of HIV RNA (see image below). The higher order, 3 dimensional structure of HIV RNA could play some important role in viral replication and pathogeneiss
This example serves to illustrate the important point that higher order RNA structure could more important in biology than we could have imagined. Therefore, if we keep giving students the impression that RNA (and other molecules) are linear and static, than they could carry with them a false veiw of biological models.
Coincidently, this also is another reason that computational and mathematical modeling in biology will become all important in the coming years. As it turns out, biochemical structures are just too complex to realistically model without computers (at least not easily).
And, as it turns out, even knowing three dimensional structures may not be enough. Carlos Simmerling from Stony Brook University does computational modeling of biomolecular systems (specifically proteins and nucleic acids) as dynamic entities. In other words, intra-interactions, as predicted by mechanics, cause molecules to “move and shake.” These molecular “vibrations” caused by electrostatic interactions could also greatly potentially affect reactivity of molecules in ways we could have never predicted without computer modeling. Simmerling also develops tools to view these molecules in their energetic states. Here’s a video from Simmerling’s group of the enzyme HIV Protease.
These developments stress the need for new scientists (yes, even biologists) to think mathematically and artistically. We need to be aware of all three dimensions (plus the time dimension) in order to work towards building accurate models of biological and biochemical systems.
Posted in biochemistry, link out, microbiology, musings | 3 Comments »
April 29th, 2008 ecoli
you gotta love this one. (thanks BBC)
Posted in link out, news, politics | No Comments »
April 28th, 2008 ecoli
This is a correlation that I believe is nonetheless relevant. There is a certain link between people who have a fear of others with a different lifestyle, those who’s insecure belief system is threatened by objective research and people who enjoy their own ignorance.
Posted in link out, politics | No Comments »
April 28th, 2008 ecoli
I’m about a month late on this one, but I just stumbled on it. It’s a funny list.
Posted in humor, link out | No Comments »
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