Category Archives: Uncategorized

December 14

Star Wars Science: Sci-Fi Syndrome, Neuroprosthetics, and Luke Skywalker’s Hand

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It’s that time of year, friends. Holiday lights are going up, snow is starting to fall, and a new Star Wars movie is about to come out! We’re all amped up to see the next chapter in Rey’s journey, this time with an experienced mentor by her side. In the new film The Last Jedi, […]

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November 16

Breaking Rad: The story behind “Rad Scientist”

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  A year and change ago, I decided to start making podcasts – those on demand audio files that our parents and grandparents have trouble finding.  I wanted to produce audio stories that capture the amazing science happening in the San Diego area.  And I wanted these stories to focus on the scientists themselves and […]

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November 09

SfN 2017 NeuWriter Picks!

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You’ve probably heard about music festivals like Coachella, ACL and Bonnaroo: these are multi-day extravaganzas where thousands of individuals converge to sample from an elaborate menu of musical acts. As an attendee, you would likely be constantly shuffling back and forth across the festival grounds, trying to see as many of your favorite artists as […]

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September 21

Scratch that itch

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[En español] One of the greatest pleasures in life is to scratch an itch – in both the real and figurative sense. Although scratching an itch provides immediate (albeit temporary) relief, it may actually trigger the mechanism that makes us itch. So the more we scratch, the itchier we get, turning the short-lived pleasure into a […]

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August 31

Psychosurgery: from ice picks to electrodes

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If you were to hazard a guess at the date of the first neurosurgery, what would you say? An image from [1] showing evidence of brain surgery in a Stone Age skull I’m going to bet that “the Stone Age” didn’t occur to you as a legitimate answer, but a skeleton dated to roughly 5000 B.C. […]

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July 06

A nerve-racking issue

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[En español] In 1936, a scientist named Gerhard Schrader was hired by the German government to end a bothersome and destructive beetle pest that was devastating German farms. Mixing different molecules (because that’s what we scientists do) he came across the recipe for the deadly nerve agent tabun. Even though his purpose was to create […]

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June 22

Psychopathy, qu’est-ce que c’est

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Psychopathy, qu’est-ce que c’est A thought experiment Imagine that you are a respected scientist trying to better understand psychopathy.  What might be different in the brain of a psychopath?  As you look through brain scan after brain scan of psychopathic individuals—many of them convicted killers—you see a pattern.  In brain regions important for impulse control, […]

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June 08

Apply now for ComSciCon at UCSD!

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Applications for ComSciCon-SD close in one week (on June 15th)!  Apply today. A scientist and a non-scientist walk into a bar.  As the night proceeds, the non-scientist asks the scientist the oft-dreaded question: “So, what do you do?  What is your research about?”  What likely follows is a confused and confusing garble of jargon and […]

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May 11

Identity Crisis

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Who are you? How do you know? I’ve been thinking a lot about identity this week. It all started when I received a letter from the IRS that began “Dear TAXPAYER” and essentially asked, “Are you who you say you are?” (Yes, it’s me! Please send me my tax refund!) To validate my identity, I […]

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April 13

Read because you can

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I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice. Once upon a time, when I was fairly young, my mom invested her time to teach me to read, so I learned just a bit earlier than my […]

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