Sci is at SciAm blogs today talking about...well...who am I? I think it's time you all found out. Head over and check it out!
Archive for the 'Synaptic Misfires' category
Happy New Year! What are your resolutions?
Happy New Year's Eve to everyone!!! Well, Happy New Year's Eve from the lab. Because there's where Sci is. Rodents don't really care if it's a holiday.
Does anyone have any New Year's Resolutions? Sci's always involve publication numbers...but I'd like to hear yours. What have you got?
2012 book list
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 past 60!). Since then, I've set more modest goals, trying for 30 books each year. This year I BARELY made it. Usually they are somewhat punishing and self-improving, but I have some fun ones in there too. And then every year I post them, and ask for you, my friends and readers (some of whom may well not be my friends and I just don't know it) to give me book recommendations.
And this year I ask again! Are there any books you particularly recommend? Great works? Fantasy? I do like fantasy. Science? As you know I LOVE me some science! Leave them in the comments, and if I haven't read them, I'd be glad to give them a try!
2008 List
2009 List
2010 List
2011 List
And now, This year's book list!!! *fanfare*
Merry Christmas!
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 day wherever you are!
-Sci
Does Neuroscience need a Newton?
Sci is at SciAm Blogs today, talking about the recent backlash against neuro-hype (which I am ALL in support of, obviously), highlighting the excellent work of Neuroskeptic and The Neurocritic, and asking...does neuroscience need a Newton? I personally think the question, especially now, is pointless. Newtons aren't the way science works anymore, and with the millions of possibilities in neuroscience...we need millions of neuroscientists. Head over and check it out.
Are you interested in being a Scicurious Guest Writer?
From SciAm Blogs:
I would like to announce the beginning of my own Scicurious Guest Writing series! If you are a young (or old!) scientist, interested in trying science writing, and wanting to find out how to begin, this is for you! I would like to lend some of my “expertise” (well, at least I’ve been doing it a while) to helping other scientists work on communicating science via social media. Each month, I will feature a guest writer for one piece on the blog, here at The Scicurious Brain. That writer will work with me prior to the posting of the piece, going through several drafts and producing what may be their first piece of science writing.
If this is something you're interested in, please head over and get more information! I'd love to help a few brand new writers get started.
Sunday Funny: Walnuts are shaped like BRAINS because...GOD.
Remember that whole "avocados and eggplants go straight to the womb because they shaped like wombs"? It turns out that's a THING. Like, a thing that people actually believe.
Via Josh Rosenau, and presented with eyerolling.
Food Patterns of our Body Proof for Intelligent Design from blowthetrumpet on GodTube.
Yes. Josh found the video via a Christian forum...that was mocking it ruthlessly. Good people.
Sunday Funny: Howlin' at the moon
Humans don't do it, but we surely BELIEVE that we do.
Today's Sunday Funny comes to you courtesy of Keith Laws and a tweet I saw. Presented with eyerolling and the muttered comment "people are stupid".
Psychol Rep. 1995 Feb;76(1):32-4.
Belief in lunar effects on human behavior.
Vance DE.
SourceUniversity of New Orleans.
AbstractQuestionnaires sent to 325 people indicated that 140 people (43%) held the personal belief that lunar phenomena alter individual behavior. Specifically, mental health professionals (social workers, master's clinical psychologists, nurses' aides, LPNs) held this belief more strongly than other occupational groups.
(Source)
Sunday Funny: that avocado is going RIGHT to your cervix
Presented with eyerolling, from my Facebook feed:
I don't know about you, but every time I eat an eggplant, all I can think is "man, this is just going STRAIGHT to my cervix".
Undergrad Herding
There's a great post up at ProfSnarky's, giving advice to undergrads who have just gotten a job with a prof. It's full of some really good advice, and if you're an undergrad who wants to do research, I definitely suggest you check it out!
But I also thought I would add some of my own thoughts here. Because if you work for someone in biomed at a big uni, the odds are, you're not working for that big Prof. Nope, you work for that big Prof in name only and see them once or twice a semester. In reality? You work for the postdocs and grad students in the lab. In the day to day, the undergrads in my lab work for me.
(Don't worry, I don't bite. I do, however have a large cat and a desire for world domination.)
