misc.ience

More fraud behind paper retractions than you might have thought

Aimee Whitcroft • Oct 02, 2012

• Carl Zimmer,
• fraud,
• Medically-related,
• misconduct,
• PubMed,
• retraction,
• science publishing

A subject that’s come up in discussion with my friend a couple of times recently has been the increase in retractions of scientific papers from journals. I’ve always staunchly defended allegations this might be due to naughty scientists. I am … Read more › … Read More

New books in Science, Technology and Society

Aimee Whitcroft • Oct 01, 2012

• apps,
• authors,
• books,
• culture,
• Download the Universe,
• eBooks,
• General,
• Literature,
• NBN,
• NBSTS,
• New Books in Science,
• New Books Network,
• Technology and Society,
• writing

As we all know, there’s something of a profusion out there of books about science, technology and society in its myriad forms. Sorting through this heap can be something of a difficult task, and so it’s with some delight that I’ve just heard about the New Books in Science, Technology and Society initiative. It ‘aims [...] … Read More

Cute animal pictures are good for your work!

Aimee Whitcroft • Sep 28, 2012

• behaviour,
• cute,
• focus,
• Hiroshima University,
• kawaii,
• work

Workers! Throw off your shackles!  Be not afraid to be seen by your boss cooing over Cute Overload! Hiroshi Nittono and colleagues, of Hiroshima University in Japan, have shown something most intriguing: that looking at ‘kawaii’ or cute images of baby animals improves focus and careful behaviour. It is, perhaps, not surprising that the research [...] … Read More

UnderSkin, the Tube and schematic mapping

Aimee Whitcroft • Sep 26, 2012

• design,
• London Underground,
• map,
• Medically-related,
• Sam Loman,
• schematics,
• Tube,
• underskin

A beautiful piece of medical art has cropped up and being doing the rounds again the last few days. Titled ‘UnderSkin’, and made in 2010 by illustrator/designer Sam Loman, UnderSkin shows the human anatomy in the style of the very famous London Underground map.     I must say, it’s a beautiful piece of work, [...] … Read More

Wash ALL the things!

Aimee Whitcroft • Sep 24, 2012

• design,
• IF concept design awards,
• Washit,
• water efficiency

We all know that fresh water is going to become more and more of an issue over the coming decades.  Climate change and an ever-growing population will be placing ever more stress upon this most essential of resources, and so anything that helps to save water is, at least in my books, a Bloody Good [...] … Read More

The IgNobel Prize winners 2012: speech jamming, dead salmon brain activity, green hair and more

Aimee Whitcroft • Sep 21, 2012

• ignobel,
• Medically-related

And, ladies and gentlemen, it’s official!  The winner’s of this year’s IgNobel prizes have been announced and the webcast of the ceremony showed it to be as good-natured and cheerful an event as ever.     Physics: Keller, Goldstein, Warren and Ball for research into the forces that control the shape and movement of a [...] … Read More

The IgNobels 2012 live! Now!

Aimee Whitcroft • Sep 21, 2012

• ignobel

A very brief post, just to alert y’all that the IgNobels are starting in less than 45 minutes.  And you can watch them live in the video below! Also, Scientific  American blogger Scicurious will be live tweeting from the awards.  Look for the hashtag #ignobel :) For those who’re not sure why I’m so excited, [...] … Read More

Crows join humans in the ability to infer hidden causal agents

Aimee Whitcroft • Sep 20, 2012

• Alex Taylor,
• causal agent,
• causal mechanism,
• cognition,
• crow,
• inference,
• New Caledonian crow,
• University of Auckland

New Caledonian crows – smarter every time we look at them. A fascinating new piece of research was published a couple of days ago in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (or PNAS for short). It shows that New Caledonian crows are capable of a cognitive feat previously only thought to be [...] … Read More

Why DID the chicken cross the road?!

Aimee Whitcroft • Sep 18, 2012

• anti-joke,
• BIll Nye,
• culture,
• General,
• humour,
• joke,
• Michael Stevens,
• VSauce

W hy did the chicken cross the road? No, despite what some think, it’s neither the oldest* nor the worst joke of all time. Hell, it’s not even a joke – it’s an anti-joke.   In this awesome video, YouTube Channel VSauce’s** Michael Stevens looks at the world’s most famous anti-joke, explaining WHY it’s so [...] … Read More

This is your brain on implants (spoiler: it’s better)

Aimee Whitcroft • Sep 14, 2012

• implant,
• Medically-related,
• Neuroscience,
• PFC,
• prefrontal cortex,
• prosthetic

Today, the Journal of Neural Engineering published rather an interesting paper. In it, they showed that they had been able to restore (and in some cases, improve) decision-making ability in primates through the use of an implanted prosthetic. Sounds like something out of science fiction, doesn’t it?     The region of the brain responsible [...] … Read More