Author Archives: Ethan McBride

December 12

GOP tax bill would cripple biomedical science and higher education

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Graduate students have it pretty rough. But we knew what we were getting into — being underpaid for several years in the hopes of contributing to an important scientific discovery and eventually getting that PhD. What we didn’t know was that Congress would draft legislation to make our lives even harder. The version of the […]

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June 29

Feelin’ the Beat (Frequency)

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What do you think when you read the word interference? If you’re like most people, you probably think it’s negative. Colloquially, interference tends to be obstructive or destructive, like interference keeping your radio or TV from picking up a station, or pass interference in football. I’m NeuWriting to inform you of a recent study in […]

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March 17

We Are All Actually in the Matrix

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I’m not kidding: you, me, and everyone else are actually in the matrix. But it’s not quite the same matrix as in the movie “The Matrix.” We are (probably) not being grown and harvested by robots who (somewhat inexplicably) have chosen to use us as a power source.

No, I’m talking about your brain. Your brain is your own personal matrix. It enables your consciousness, your sensations, your positive and negative feelings.

It lies to you. All the time.

Let me show you.

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April 09

You Do Have a Sixth Sense – and More!

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Ever wish you had more than just five senses? Sure, it’s cool to see, hear, touch, smell, and taste the world, but wouldn’t it be great to be able to sense other things? Perhaps you would prefer X-ray vision, telepathy, the ability to tell the future, or maybe you want to see dead people (or […]

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July 24

Lucy’s Brain: Use it or lose it

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With the Lucy movie coming out, we’ve been really curious here at NeuWrite about what marvelous new life skills Scarlett Johansson will accrue, now that she can use more than 10% of her brain. As forward-thinking neuroscientists, we’ve been speculating: what would Lucy be able to do with such incredible and unprecedented brain power? The […]

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May 08

Neurons, Footballs, and the Draft! Oh my!

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Tonight, a few hundred football players will be chosen by one of the 32 teams of the National Football League in the hopes of making millions of dollars and establishing their names in the glory of NFL history. Yet only a tiny fraction of college football players, 1.6%, and an even smaller fraction of high school […]

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December 24

Neuro-Gifting

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‘Tis the season…for a lot of things. No matter what holiday you celebrate, December tends to be a month to get together with family, give each other gifts, and if you’re still feeling generous, give money to charity. The end of this month also tends to involve the consumption of a great deal of alcohol…stay […]

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November 05

Get Data

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The Society for Neuroscience meeting is less than a week away! Have you been up all night to get data for your poster? We know the feeling… If you need a break from battling Illustrator, check out this promotional video for the UCSD Neurosciences Graduate Program SfN Social!! Special thanks to @123ComicBro for filming and […]

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October 03

Brains in a Dish

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As a reader of the NeuWrite San Diego blog, you know the brain is exceedingly complex and incredibly interesting. What you may not have thought about is how it gets to be that way. One of the biggest mysteries of the brain is how it forms all the right connections to produce a functioning human […]

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June 02

Of Mice and Microscopes

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The world is a complicated and dangerous place. In order to survive in an ever-changing environment, animals (including us humans) have to be able to appropriately change their behavior to suit their current situation. For example, if a mouse is scurrying around your basement searching for food and suddenly smells a cat, it will probably […]

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