April 2012
1 post
6 tags
The "spectrumization" of neurological disorders
Historically and socially, psychiatric diseases have been defined as these yes-or-no disorders of the brain: he has schizophrenia, he doesn’t. He has autism, he doesn’t. For the cases that were not crystal clear, the neurologist just had to take his or her best guess as to whether or not the patient suffered from a disease, or whether the patient was within the boundaries of normal....
March 2012
2 posts
5 tags
Objectivity in Science (and prions)
One of the most difficult things to do as a scientist is to objectively view your own research/data without either underselling it or overselling it. The challenge lies in being keen enough to interpret the “true” meaning of the data you have obtained, without being sidelined by false hypotheses. To become more certain of your own singular hypothesis that could explain everything you...
8 tags
Perception of graduate school and what it means to...
After telling friends and people that I am a third year graduate student, the inevitable question that follows is: “So how many years do you have left until you graduate?” And my response usually goes: “We’ll see. Could be 2, 3, 4, 5…..years.” They usually respond with a “Sounds tough” or “Good luck” or even just a “Damn”, and...
February 2012
2 posts
6 tags
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January 2012
1 post
Anonymous asked: Hi, your images are fantastic, especially your RMS image. We are currently undertaking a project regarding the RMS and OB neurogenesis, and we were just wondering how you managed to stain the entire RMS and OB so beautifully. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks very much, keep up the great work
September 2011
1 post
7 tags
July 2011
3 posts
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Food for thought
“I have often wished that Jefferson had not used that phrase, “the pursuit of happiness”, as the third right—although I understand in the first draft was “life, liberty and the pursuit of property”… Still, I would rather he had written life, liberty and the pursuit of meaningfulness or integrity or truth.
I know that happiness has been the real, if covert, goal of your labors...
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June 2011
9 posts
7 tags
Sleep, and why we need it
One of the most enigmatic behaviors we engage in occurs every night (or, for some of us, every morning or afternoon too). Sleep has long been observed and practiced evolutionarily speaking, but the exact functions of sleep are still unknown to us. Some claim that sleep is not necessary since there are people who do not sleep for decades but are still fine, while others say that sleep is critical...
7 tags
Cryptochrome, the magnetic-field-sensitive...
This is kind of a strange finding, one with interesting possible implications. A recent paper came out in the journal Nature that looks at this gene known as CRY2, which is a gene that encodes a molecule in the class known as cryptochromes. (For those of you who don’t know, Nature is a scientific journal that is one of the very top journals, alongside Cell and Science.)
Birds and turtles...
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Motor memory and me
To add a personal side to my previous post, I’ve recently starting playing piano after a 4-5 year break. I stopped playing once I started undergrad (which I regret in hindsight), but bought a digital piano and have been playing it quite frequently ever since I got it. It has been a great outlet for stress and makes me happy.
There has only been one piece that I’ve ever wanted to play...
3 tags
Different forms of learning and memory
When we think of learning and memory, the first thing that probably comes to mind is the form of memory that we consciously use every day: declarative memory, or episodic memory. As the name suggests, this type of memory is for things that we can describe or explicitly declare. For instance, you would be able to tell your friends and family about your day today, how you perhaps woke up, went to...
2 tags
From science to social media
As I have continued my journey through the dense, tangled thickets known as science, one of the things that has become very apparent to me is that there is a very large disconnect between the public’s perception of a scientific discovery (this study developed a cure for Parkinson’s disease!) and the actual scientific findings (no it didn’t). Why does this happen? And how, as...
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The importance of your nervous system
One of the major reasons why I wanted to start this blog is because I wanted a way to share my love of neuroscience with others. Although biology in general is incredibly fascinating, I am particularly interested in the nervous system and its diverse functions. I guess that’s why I am in a neuroscience graduate program. I really do think that everyone would be interested in the nervous...