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Neuroscience
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4–6 minutes·
3 comments on NeuroscienceSo Bhisma has requested a few long posts on the cognitive neuroscience conference I’m currently attending in Oxford (that’s my life – one long, endless round of conferences…). The conference, properly named the Autumn School in Cognitive Neuroscience, began on Monday at the Department of Experimental Psychology. Some thoughts on the sessions: First talk was…
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GM Spin
I posted a comment in this MetaFilter thread about GM crops, on how research in the area is often misrepresented by the anti-GM lobby. Case in point: it was claimed that the Bt toxin pesticide might actually benefit some pests, meaning that transgenic Bt plants could be utterly counterproductive. In reality, the research data has…
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Hit the Big Time
My old Experimental Psychology supervisor at Cambridge, Prof. Simon Baron Cohen, has hit the big time with his new book on autism, and his work is featured on the cover of the current Newsweek in an article called Girls, Boys and Autism. I should probably get around to buying his book some time (The Essential…
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A Love of Memory
Why Kim Stanley Robinson loves the science of memory
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Intelligence enhancing drugs
Creatine ‘boosts brain power’ perhaps by regulating brain energy levels. Since meat is a source of creatine, it’s not known whether meat-eaters could actually gain any intelligence advantage by taking supplementary creatine, but along with modafinil it’s yet another step along the road to the widespread use of intelligence enhancing drugs.
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GM
A comment of mine on MetaFilter expressing my views on genetically modified crops.
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Human Gene Therapy
Gene therapy ‘to be expanded’ – good news from the BBC; the UK government is going to significantly increase funding for gene therapy. If things continue like this, the US may get left behind, along with its irrational fear of many other new biological techniques.
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The TEDMED3 Experience: Day 1
A review and summary of the presentations given on the first day of the TEDMED3 conference in Philadelphia.
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Biononsense
After reading this article about human genetic engineering, I have to comment on something that’s been bugging me for a while now. The article is inoffensive enough, but it uses the term ‘biogenetics’. I’m sorry, but there is no such field as biogenetics; it’s either genetics or nothing, and there’s no use in trying to…
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TEDMED3
Long-time followers of my weblog (all three of you) will remember that back in 2001, I was a speaker at the 11th Technology Entertainment Design conference in Monterey, California. It was an incredible experience and the old line, “Yeah, I had dinner with Matt Groening,” never fails to impress. The idea behind the TED conferences…
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