Editors' Picks

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Mimicking Nature’s Nanotechnology: From a butterfly wing to anti-counterfeit technologies
Have you ever wondered where the inspiration behind new technologies comes from? We don’t have to go too far to find out; it is enough to just look out the window! Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. -Albert Einstein Yes, nature is out there, standing as a giant laboratory of […]
Sustainable Nano
Chemistry | Biology
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Your Smartphone Can Do Physics
That smartphone you carry around in your pocket all day is a pretty versatile lab assistant. It is packed with internal sensors that measure everything from acceleration to sound volume to magnetic field strength. But I'll wager most people don't realize what their phones can actually do.Screenshot from AndroSensor.Apps like SensorLog (iOS) or AndroSensor (Android) display and record raw data from the phone's movement, any background noises, and even the number of satellites in the […]
Physics Buzz
Physics
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What’s in a Particle?
What’s in a Particle? If you’ve read or heard anything about quantum mechanics, you’ve heard the phrase “particle-wave duality.” The common wisdom is that this means that particles sometimes behave like waves and sometimes behave like particles. And although this is right, it’s a bit … Continue reading → The post What’s in a Particle? appeared first on The Physics Mill.
The Physics Mill
Physics | Mathematics
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Editor's Pick
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Gut Check
I always cringe when I see an acupuncture headline with ‘needle’ or ‘point’ in the title. Can’t the writer avoid the clichéd pun? I had an editor who commented that the titles of my essays are often obtuse. Probably true. In going back over my essays on SBM I often can’t tell from the title […]
Science-Based Medicine
Health | Medicine
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Editor's Pick
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When our beliefs are threatened by facts, we turn to unfalsifiable justifications
On being told physics could underminereligious claims, believers said faithwas more about living a moral lifeIt's great to have facts on your side. The fundamentalist is delighted by the archaeological find that tallies with scripture, just as the atheist seizes on the evidence that contradicts it. But when the evidence goes against us, we're less likely to change a belief than to criticise the validity or provenance of the evidence. Now, research suggests that the mere prospect of a […]
BPS Research Digest
Neuroscience | Psychology
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Citations

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Your brain is hardening your arteries, but not on purpose!
Your brain might just be killing you slowly. Atherosclerosis — or hardening and narrowing of the arteries — can be caused by fat buildup that causes plaque deposits, and is one of the main causes of cardiovascular disease. What does that have to do with the brain? Well new research has shown a link between how […]

Yue JT, Abraham MA, LaPierre MP, Mighiu PI, Light PE, Filippi BM & Lam TK (2015). A fatty acid-dependent hypothalamic-DVC neurocircuitry that regulates hepatic secretion of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins., Nature communications, 6 PMID: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25580573

Ginsberg, H. (2002). New Perspectives on Atherogenesis: Role of Abnormal Triglyceride-Rich Lipoprotein Metabolism, Circulation, 106 (16) 2137-2142. DOI: 10.1161/01.CIR.0000035280.64322.31

Duez, H., Lamarche, B., Valero, R., Pavlic, M., Proctor, S., Xiao, C., Szeto, L., Patterson, B. & Lewis, G. (2008). Both Intestinal and Hepatic Lipoprotein Production Are Stimulated by an Acute Elevation of Plasma Free Fatty Acids in Humans, Circulation, 117 (18) 2369-2376. DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.107.739888

Lunatic Laboratories
General Science | Neuroscience
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Siblings, genetics and the autisms (plural)
The paper by Ryan Yuen and colleagues [1] suggesting that most siblings with autism do not share the same genetic variations thought to contribute to the condition has garnered quite a few media headlines of late (see here and see here).Applying the concept of whole-genome sequencing whereby the complete genetic blueprint of a person is mapped to provide "the most comprehensive collection of an individual's genetic variation" [2], 340 genomes from 85 families with two children with a […]

Yuen, R., Thiruvahindrapuram, B., Merico, D., Walker, S., Tammimies, K., Hoang, N., Chrysler, C., Nalpathamkalam, T., Pellecchia, G., Liu, Y. & Gazzellone, M. (2015). Whole-genome sequencing of quartet families with autism spectrum disorder, Nature Medicine, DOI: 10.1038/nm.3792

Questioning Answers
Psychiatry | Psychology
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High-Dose Statin May Protect Heart Surgery Patients’ Kidney Health
Acute kidney injury often arises after major surgery because the kidneys can be deprived of normal blood flow during the procedure. The use of contrast media, or dyes, can contribute to this problem. In patients undergoing coronary angiography or percutaneous coronary intervention, which are heart procedures that use dyes to help surgeons visualize the arteries, […] The post High-Dose Statin May Protect Heart Surgery Patients’ Kidney Health appeared first on Wiley Asia Blog.

Wu, H., Li, D., Fang, M., Han, H. & Wang, H. (2015). Meta-analysis of short-term high versus low doses of atorvastatin preventing contrast-induced acute kidney injury in patients undergoing coronary angiography/percutaneous coronary intervention, The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 55 (2) 123-131. DOI: 10.1002/jcph.411

The Wiley Asia Blog
Clinical Research | General Science
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High-Dose Statin May Protect Heart Surgery Patients’ Kidney Health
Acute kidney injury often arises after major surgery because the kidneys can be deprived of normal blood flow during the procedure. The use of contrast media, or dyes, can contribute to this problem. In patients undergoing coronary angiography or percutaneous coronary intervention, which are heart procedures that use dyes to help surgeons visualize the arteries, […] The post High-Dose Statin May Protect Heart Surgery Patients’ Kidney Health appeared first on Wiley Asia Blog.

Wu, H., Li, D., Fang, M., Han, H. & Wang, H. (2015). Meta-analysis of short-term high versus low doses of atorvastatin preventing contrast-induced acute kidney injury in patients undergoing coronary angiography/percutaneous coronary intervention, The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 55 (2) 123-131. DOI: 10.1002/jcph.411

Wiley Asia Blog - Health Sciences
Health | Medicine
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You can’t unboil an egg? Well… now you can.
There is a saying, “you can’t unboil an egg.” Usually this is just illustrating cause and effect; you can’t turn back time, or what’s done is done. Well now scientists have successfully unboiled an egg, so suck it thermodynamics. An international team of chemists have accomplished this feat – an innovation that could dramatically reduce costs for cancer treatments, […]

Yuan, T., Ormonde, C., Kudlacek, S., Kunche, S., Smith, J., Brown, W., Pugliese, K., Olsen, T., Iftikhar, M., Raston, C. & Weiss, G. (2015). Shear-Stress-Mediated Refolding of Proteins from Aggregates and Inclusion Bodies, ChemBioChem, DOI: 10.1002/cbic.201402427

Lunatic Laboratories
General Science | Neuroscience
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The secret for a longer life? Kill your unfit cells
If you had the choice, would you like to live until you’re 130 years old? New research in fruit flies shows that manipulating a single gene can extend their lifespan up to 60%, suggesting that living well into your hundreds might become a reality in the foreseeable future.Dying of old age is a strange thing. Why does our health decline just because we’re old? Although the answer might at first seem obvious or simple, it really isn’t. There are countless theories of ageing, a […]

Merino M., Jesus M. Lopez-Gay, David Buechel, Barbara Hauert & Eduardo Moreno (2015). Elimination of Unfit Cells Maintains Tissue Health and Prolongs Lifespan, Cell, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2014.12.017

Science in the clouds
General Science | Biology
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The Bed Bug’s Piercing Penis (A Guest Post)
By Rachael Pahl Sex is a dangerous, but necessary, part of life. Across the animal kingdom, there are a multitude of things that can go wrong. You could be injured in a fight by someone who wants to steal your mate, or maybe your partner eats you because you’re taking too long. Either way, nature must have a pretty good reason for the traumatizing effects of sex. A male bed bug traumatically inseminates a female. Image by Rickard Ignell at the Swedish University of Agricultural […]

Morrow, E. & Arnqvist, G. (2003). Costly traumatic insemination and a female counter-adaptation in bed bugs, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 270 (1531) 2377-2381. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2003.2514

The Scorpion and the Frog
Behavioral Biology | Neuroscience
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Is it necessary to use brain imaging to understand teen girls' sexual decision making?
“It is feasible to recruit and retain a cohort of female participants to perform a functional magnetic resonance imaging [fMRI] task focused on making decisions about sex, on the basis of varying levels of hypothetical sexual risk, and to complete longitudinal prospective diaries following this task. Preliminary evidence suggests that risk level differentially impacts brain activity related to sexual decision making in these women [i.e., girls aged 14-15 yrs], which may be related […]

Hensel, D., Hummer, T., Acrurio, L., James, T. & Fortenberry, J. (2015). Feasibility of Functional Neuroimaging to Understand Adolescent Women's Sexual Decision Making, Journal of Adolescent Health, DOI: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2014.11.004

Rupp, H., James, T., Ketterson, E., Sengelaub, D., Janssen, E. & Heiman, J. (2009). The role of the anterior cingulate cortex in women's sexual decision making, Neuroscience Letters, 449 (1) 42-47. DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2008.10.083

The Neurocritic
Psychology | Neuroscience
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We're more likely to cheat when we're anxious
When we’re stressed out and feeling threatened, our priority becomes self-preservation. According to new research, this defensive mode even affects our morality, making us more likely to cheat and excuse our own unethical behaviour.Maryam Kouchaki and Sreedhari Desai demonstrated this through six experiments. In the clearest example, 63 student participants spent three minutes listening to either calm music, or in the anxiety condition, to Bernard Herrmann's Psycho score. Those freaked […]

Kouchaki, M. & Desai, S. (2014). Anxious, Threatened, and Also Unethical: How Anxiety Makes Individuals Feel Threatened and Commit Unethical Acts., Journal of Applied Psychology, DOI: 10.1037/a0037796

BPS Research Digest
Neuroscience | Psychology
Citation
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What factors are linked to behavioural crises in autism?
The question posed in the title of this post was asked and [partly] answered by the paper by Vincent Guinchat and colleagues [1] based on the analysis of 58 adolescents diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and "hospitalized for severe challenging behaviors." Challenging behaviours, by the way, refers to a whole spectrum of presentations which doesn't just include aggressive or violent behaviours (see here). Indeed, I recently talked about irritability and autism (see here), […]

Guinchat V, Cravero C, Diaz L, Périsse D, Xavier J, Amiet C, Gourfinkel-An I, Bodeau N, Wachtel L, Cohen D & Consoli A (2015). Acute behavioral crises in psychiatric inpatients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD): Recognition of concomitant medical or non-ASD psychiatric conditions predicts enhanced improvement., Research in developmental disabilities, 38C 242-255. PMID: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25575287

Questioning Answers
Psychiatry | Psychology
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