Brief thoughts on vaccination controversies

By this point, this article by Amy Wallace in the most recent issue of Wired magazine has been much-linked, much-read, and discussed to death. On the chance that a few of our readers haven’t seen it, I thought it wise to link to it and share a few thoughts.

Hobbie and Doogie: Brainier Rodents With A Therapeutic Potential

C.S. Lewis’ novel The Magician’s Nephew tells of two children named Polly and Digory living in early 20th century London who set off on an adventure to explore a tunnel that runs through the roof of their row of terraced houses (1).  They eventually end up in a strange world ruled by Aslan—a talking lion whose goodness seems altogether repulsive to the evil forces that abound therein. With scenes of jackdaws and moles later competing to see who can be the first to tell a joke, we see in Lewis an author who knows how to inject humor into an otherwise serious message (1).

While recent collaborative studies by groups in China and the United States have not given us Lewis-style talking animals, they have provided some stunning insights into animal memory and learning behaviors.  Specifically Deheng Wang and colleagues from Shanghai, Yunnam and the Medical College of Georgia (MCG) generated a transgenic rat strain, affectionately known as ‘Hobbie-J’, that over-expressed a subunit of the brain NMDA (N-methyl D-aspartate) glutamate receptor called NR2B (2-3).  Their behavior experiments repeatedly showed Hobbie-J rats outperforming control litter mates in object recognition and spatial memory tests (2).

Students Rejoice! Researchers Explain Cognitive Deficits Caused By Sleep Deprivation

Authors of a recent Nature article about the effects of sleep deprivation (1), wrote “Millions of people regularly obtain insufficient sleep”. I suspect that the majority of these people are either students or new parents. Regardless of whether you fall into these two categories, I think everyone has struggled with the adverse effects of sleep deprivation, such as cognitive impairment and memory problems, at some point. Now, this Nature article provides us with a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms that cause these effects and, perhaps more importantly, hope that these effects can be reversed.

The Fun Theory

Who out there likes to have fun? Probably the majority of us would enthusiastically raise our hands to this question. And the couple of you who didn’t, well, you’re totally not invited to my next party. Fun is one of those no-brainer things. Fun is always welcome. I adore fun and invite it over for coffee cake at every opportunity, but I’d never really thought about fun as a behavior modification tool until I followed the link in a tweet recently posted by a brand new coworker (welcome to Promega, Jason!):

Stairs? Fun? I take the stairs all the time, but wouldn’t characterize them as fun. More like “good for me” or “penance for those chips I ate last night.” But I hit the link and watched the video and was almost pouting by the end because those stairs? Those stairs in the Odenplan subway station in Stockholm? I want to go climb those stairs RIGHT NOW. Hold me back, I may start shopping for a plane ticket.

Pondering the “Gender Gap”

A few weeks ago a coworker and fellow Blogger, Michele, passed an article to me that discussed if differences in gender-science stereotypes could predict gender-based differences in achievement in science and math (1). When I read the title, I have to admit that a part of me cringed. You see, for the longest time I didn’t know there was a gender gap. I didn’t know that as a girl I wasn’t supposed to do well in science or math, and I hate feeling like I have missed something, even a potentially career-altering gender stereotype.