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".

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.)

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Got this one from Biochembelle. While some may say "presented without comment", this I merely present with LOTS of eyerolling.

Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2007 Mar;4(1):35-42. Epub 2006 Jul 26.
Housing in pyramid counteracts neuroendocrine and oxidative stress caused by chronic restraint in rats.
Bhat MS, Rao G, Murthy KD, Bhat PG.
Source

Department of Biochemistry, Department of Physiology, Melaka Manipal Medical College and Department of Biochemistry, Kasturba Medical College Manipal 576104, India.
Abstract

The space within the great pyramid and its smaller replicas is believed to have an antistress effect. Research has shown that the energy field within the pyramid can protect the hippocampal neurons of mice from stress-induced atrophy and also reduce neuroendocrine stress, oxidative stress and increase antioxidant defence in rats. In this study, we have, for the first time, attempted to study the antistress effects of pyramid exposure on the status of cortisol level, oxidative damage and antioxidant status in rats during chronic restraint stress. Adult female Wistar rats were divided into four groups as follows: normal controls (NC) housed in home cage and left in the laboratory; restrained rats (with three subgroups) subject to chronic restraint stress by placing in a wire mesh restrainer for 6 h per day for 14 days, the restrained controls (RC) having their restrainers kept in the laboratory; restrained pyramid rats (RP) being kept in the pyramid; and restrained square box rats (RS) in the square box during the period of restraint stress everyday. Erythrocyte malondialdehyde (MDA) and plasma cortisol levels were significantly increased and erythrocyte-reduced glutathione (GSH) levels, erythrocyte glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities were significantly decreased in RC and RS rats as compared to NC. However, these parameters were maintained to near normal levels in RP rats which showed significantly decreased erythrocyte MDA and plasma cortisol and significantly increased erythrocyte GSH levels, erythrocyte GSH-Px and SOD activities when compared with RS rats. The results showed that housing in pyramid counteracts neuroendocrine and oxidative stress caused by chronic restraint in rats.

Bold is mine. For teh LOLz.

(Source)

Sci used to be a vegetarian. I decided on being a vegetarian the summer after high school, on a trip across the United States, while studying environmental and land use issues. I guess it's not too surprising that some of the things I found led me to give up meat. And give it up I did, for several years. Unfortunately, I was a really bad vegetarian. Not in terms of eating meat, I was very good at not eating meat. What I was BAD at was eating everything else. Without meat my diet basically extended to bread, cheese, and...other ingredients common to cheese pizza and pasta covered in...cheese. When I started to suffer issues associated with malnutrition (especially anemia), my doctor and family demanded a more balanced diet. Now the Sci-house eats poultry roughly twice a week (except Scicat, obligate carnivores gotta eat). But I have also become a MUCH better eater in general. I now eat piles of dark leafy greens, fruit, and vegetables. Whole grains abound.

But I noticed something during my years as a vegetarian. Meat just didn't interest me. Most of the time, it still doesn't. I tend to look for, and cook, vegetarian recipes because they just appeal to me more. But for many moral vegetarians (people who become vegetarians because of moral reasons), it goes beyond indifference to meat, and all the way to disgust. Meat has become something disgusting, something that is the result of processes that they find distasteful and wrong.

And some scientists wondered...is it just meat? Or are people who are vegetarians for moral reasons more likely to feel disgust in general?

(Obligatory photo of our adorable obligate carnivore. Could anyone refuse that face?!)

Fessler et al. "Disgust sensitivity and meat consumption: a test of an emotivist account of moral vegetarianism" Appetite, 2003.

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This is what happens when science bloggers talk to each other too much. I blame Laelaps (it was his idea!).

Are you...grant writing?

Your data...ravishing...

Your paycheck...dwindling...

Your scent...DESPERATION.

(Source)

DESPERATION: the new fragrance for academics everywhere.

Smell hints of fear, lab chemicals, coffee, tears, musty papers, carpel tunel. Light notes of bitterness, regret, and underarm musk.

SEE the dark undereye circles.

HEAR the rustling of drafts, the creaking of lower back pain.

SMELL the scent of the hunted academic.

Spray...DESPERATION.

I even have testimonials!

@scicurious Guaranteed to help you undersell your worth.

— Jessica Wright (@Jessrw_NYC) August 20, 2012

@scicurious I'm pretty sure I already secrete something very similar during grantwriting

— Kate Clancy (@KateClancy) August 20, 2012

.@scicurious DESPERATION... there's something in the air

— Brian Switek (@Laelaps) August 20, 2012

...can you tell I'm grant writing?

Today is Independence Day in the US, and I figure Sci deserves a day of independence herself. So if you need me, Imma be over there doing the traditional 4th of July things. Thanks everyone and we'll see you tomorrow!!

Our next occupant of the Scientopia Guest Blog is Neuropolarbear, of the Giraffes, Elephants, Baboons blog. Head over there, check out his stuff for the next two weeks, and say hello!!

The next two weeks, the Scientopia Guest Blog will be featuring Alma Dzib Goodin, who normally blogs at "talking about neurocognition". Alma has three posts up already, on Brain and Life (a good introduction!), Science and Social Impact, and The brain and its understanding of the world. Head over and check it out!

Or baloney. Horrible even. Sci is at BlogHer today taking my delicate little claws to a "study" done by AshleyMadison on which men are most likely to cheat. Yes, THAT AshleyMadison. 4 ways to tell when a study probably isn't good science.