Category Archives: Uncategorized

December 16

Who wants to be an astronaut?

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Originally posted on NeuWrite San Diego:
Sensory deprivation. Cultural isolation. Physical confinement. Throw in relearning every menial task for microgravity, the lack of privacy and the disturbed sleep-wake cycle, and you can be sure your life will never be the same (1,2). Yeah, the job description for being an astronaut is a little intense. Especially since you also need…

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December 14

Real Jedi Mind Tricks: The Psychology of Mind Control

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[En Español] Welcome, my young padawans, to Star Wars week. Star Wars: The Force Awakens comes out THIS Friday, and the neurds on our team decided that it was a perfect opportunity to do one of our favorite things: connect neuroscience with pop culture! First up: real-world Jedi Mind Tricks. In Star Wars: A New […]

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December 03

Anorexia

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Anorexia nervosa. A disease for the privileged? Shallow white girls trying to look like fashion models? […] The stereotypes attached to anorexia add to the devastating reality of a serious brain disorder

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November 26

PCR (Pilgrims and Cranberry Relish)

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[En Español] A Thanksgiving tale about DNA amplification There are many things for which I am thankful, and I’m sure for many of us these reasons for gratitude are similar—family, friends, good health all come to mind.  But there are so many other things that make our daily lives easier and more manageable. Just to […]

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November 12

I built an interactive, dynamic poster for SfN 2015. Here’s why and how.

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Editor’s note: a fully interactive version of this post is posted at the nipy plog on tumblr. This couldn’t be done here due to WordPress restrictions. There are two parts to science, and both need verification. There are two parts to science. First, science is the process of verifiable data collection. Second, science is the process […]

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I love SfN October 17

Why I love SfN

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Editor’s note: this article first appeared on the PLOS Neuroscience blog. Thanks to Ms. Amazing, it’s now cliche to say, but damn… I effing love SfN. For the uninitiated SfN is a thirty thousand person international conference for neuroscience–a conference so large, only a few cities in the US can handle it. For many, SfN evokes fear and […]

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October 15

SfN 2015: NeuWriters’ Picks!

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This weekend, over 30 thousand scientists from all over the world will gather at the annual Society for Neuroscience (SfN) meeting in Chicago. Going to this conference can be quite overwhelming, so some of our NeuWriters would like to highlight the presentations (including their own) that they look forward to seeing among the sea of […]

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September 24

Altruism: A Story of Amygdalae and Kidneys

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So, how do you begin to study the neural underpinnings of something so difficult to define or identify? And since virtually all of us do kind things on occasion, how would one compare altruists and non-altruists to see whether there are any differences in brain structure or activity?

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August 27

Two brains in one head?: The story of the split-brain phenomenon

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The idea that a person is right-brained or left-brained is a myth […] However, the brain is indeed split into a right and left hemisphere, and the two are connected by a structure called the “corpus callosum”, a bundle of nerves through which information can be shared.

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July 30

To Sleep, Perchance to Swim

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Humans sleep, for hours or minutes, alone or in company, with or without dreams. As universal and important as sleep is for us, not all our animal kin share our daily indulgence in inactivity, despite the likely immunological and cognitive benefits/roles of human sleep (discussed in a previous NeuWriteSD post). Many species do, however, experience […]

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