Research Gold
In her latest post Paige Brown has been examining the unusual work of The Xia lab group from Washington University. She reveals that they are modern day alchemists turning silver into hollow, porous boxes of gold called nanocages. She reveals in her post, Modern Day Alchemy, that these scientists are using these gold nanocages as ‘magic bullets’ in the war against cancer:
Xia’s gold nanocages have been investigated in previously published studies for their usefulness as imaging contrast agents, cancer diagnosis tools, transducers of photothermal therapy (killing tumor cells with the effects of light and heat), and targeted drug delivery vehicles, as which they can shuttle drugs trapped inside their hollow interiors to specific regions of disease in the human body, preventing harm to normal tissues.
Another popular research subject attracting the interest of scientists from all over the world is the hormone oxytocin. Often referred to as the “love drug,” or “love hormone,” blogger David Johnson in his latest post, Oxytocin and Borderline Personality Disorder, has been revealing how new evidence suggests that oxytocin plays a role in increased emotional reactivity to both positive and negative social cues:
Recent research in humans has shown that oxytocin increases trust behavior in economic exchanges and increases perception of trustworthiness in human faces, as well as promoting emotion recognition and altruism. This evidence inspired hopes among some, particularly in the mainstream media, that science might have found a possible pharmacological target for humans who show deficits in prosocial behavior.
But recent evidence has complicated the narrative a bit.
Risky Business
David Ropeik, an international consultant in risk perception is this week’s guest blogger. He is the author of several books including, How Risky Is It, Really? Why Our Fears Don’t Always Match the Facts. In his post he delves into the neurology of risk perception, revealing that ultimately our perceptions of risk are an inextricable blend of fact and feeling, reason and gut reaction, cognition and intuition. In his post he summarises some of the best literature on risk perception and attempts to look at a suite of psychological characteristics that make certain risks feel “more” frightening:
These ‘risk perception factors’ include:
Congratulations
This week we announced the details of our new recognition system for Nature Network bloggers. As of May 2011 we’ll be providing free online subscriptions to Nature for regular bloggers. Congratulations to this month’s bloggers who have qualified for a free 3 month subscription:
For those bloggers who haven’t qualified this month, don’t be disheartened as there’s always next month. Keep up the great blogging!
Science Down Under
Continuing the congratulations, Australian blooger Muka in his latest post, Funding win! has revealed the triumphant success of the rally for research campaign that set out to protest against the expected cuts to the NHMRC – Australia’s primary funding source for medical research. Despite having been concerned that the protest may have been loosing momentum, MuKa reveals:
Campaign success!! The NHMRC budget has survived unscathed in the 2011-12 Australian budget! The federal government will maintain funding at $812 million. Congratulations to all of our supporters who took action to protect research! We wouldn’t be here without you!!
Following on from this post Sciatble’s blogger Khalil A. Cassimally has also been discussing the success of the rally in his update, Medical Research In Australia Is Safe. However, despite the success of the campaign he still has some reservations:
While celebrations are in order-and rightly so-the Australian government should be reminded that Australia’s spending on research is still only at 1.6% of GDP, way short of the 3% mark of Scandinavian countries and the US. In fact, Australia’s research spending is only average compared to other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. And as a wealthy country, this is a frankly disconcerting fact for Australia.
Meanwhile, NPGs The Spoonful of Medicine Blog has been discussing the need for Australia to remain as a preferred destination for the conduct of clinical trials. As recently as 2005, the Economist Intelligence Unit conducted a benchmarking study that ranked Australia as the number one location for conducting clinical trials:
Australia was placed ahead of countries such as the US, Japan and India on the basis of its high number of trial sites per capita, high percentage of on-time trial completions and low average trial costs.
You can find our more in Nature Chemistry or in their blog post.
Careers
Science business adviser Christof Hettich, partner at law firm Ritterhaus and managing director of a science investment fund called dievini, gave a talk at the Naturejobs Career Expo in Germany this week. Rachel Bowden, our Nature jobs blogger has summarised in her latest post the advice that Hettich gave for those wanting to start a business in science:
As the backbone of your potential business, your intellectual property (IP) is a precious commodity. “You have to pay unbelievable attention to creating and protecting your IP,” says Hettich. That doesn’t mean you should just create patent after patent — Hettich advises you develop a proper strategy — but you do have to be very careful about what you publish about your research before you have a patent in place.
Elsewhere London blogger, Joanna Scott is encouraging those interested in the London start up scene to attend the Silicon Milkroundabout careers fair. The fair is so called for the Old Street area of London which has become the focus of start-up activity in the city, and, thanks to the enormous roundabout at the centre of it, nicknamed Silicon Roundabout. This Sunday, May 15th, start-ups from Old Street and further afield will gather at Bar Music Hall, Shoreditch from 2-6pm to meet experienced developers and new graduates interested in technical roles in start-ups. The event is free, but registration is required. You can find out more in Joanna’s post, as well as a couple of the scientific/communication highlights.
Question of the week
The question of the week goes to blogger Eva Amsen, who has been asking which medium you prefer for explaining science: A poster or talk? An interesting debate has been sparked in her comment thread revealing the positives and negatives for both. Eva expresses her choice, what will yours be?
I much prefer giving talks, and would tick the “I would like to give a talk!” box every year. Giving a talk was considered one of the awards at poster day, and I only got it once, but it was so much better than doing the posters. Let me tell you why…
If you wish to make a vote, you can find the poll in her post and the results will be revealed in her next instalment on the 17th of May.
Events around the globe
San Francisco blogger, Shannon Weiman has been reminding those in the area to check out the updated Calendar of Events for May. She explains that as the end of the academic year approaches, some great seminars are coming up in the next few weeks. Highlights include a Barnes and Noble sponsored appearance by NPR’s Joe Palca and a discussion on Marie Curie at the California Academy of Sciences Museum book club. Please do feel free to make any additional suggestions for the calendar in the comments section.
At the other side of the Atlantic newly instated London blogger Joanna Scott is encouraging those to visit Project Ocean, a joint venture between The Zoological Society of London and Selfridges. The aim of the project is to draw attention to the plight of the world’s oceans with a range of accordingly themed displays and activities held in the London Selfridges store.
Balloon artist Jason Hackenwerth has created a series of giant balloon sculptures of sea creatures which are suspended from the ceiling and for the launch there were actors dressed in giant balloon sealife costumes.
The centre of Project Ocean is the Ultralounge, where talks and events will be held all month. To find out more information about the project, as well as to buy tickets, go to the Selfridge’s Project Ocean website.
A Song of praise for Social Media
The use of social networking sites in science is often questioned; however blogger Julia Zichello has no reservations that Twitter has a positive impact. She expresses her opinion with a beautiful poem. You can find the full prose here, but to whet your appetite you can read an excerpt below:
I have come to sing the praises
of twitter for scientific purposes
if you follow interesting folk
they will provide
links, ideas and information
in little staccato bursts
of 140 characters
Following on from this, one of the topics discussed by Lou Woodley at the Next Generation of Science Media conference was the use of social media in science. The one day event that took place this week in Cambridge, provided science journalists an opportunity to discuss the future of their profession with like minded people. In order to summarise the talks given at the conference we have compiled a Storify, gathering all of the tweets taken at the event. You can find our two part Storify here, or search #nextgen11 on Twitter to find out more.
Yawn
Barbara Ferreira, in her latest update has been examining the bizarre phenomenon of contagious yawning. She explains that yawning can resemble an infectious disease, spreading from person to person. However, why contagious yawning occurs still remains a mystery and in order to learn more scientists have been studying the red-footed tortoises. These animals are ideal candidates for this type of study as there is no evidence that they mimic each other. You can find out more about these experiments, as well as the results in her blog post:
Experimental set-up. Source_: "_No evidence of contagious yawning in the red-footed tortoiseGeochelone carbonaria", Current Zoology.
I can’t Bee-live it
NPG’s News blog has revealed that several thousand lab honeybees were stolen from a facility outside a Scottish hospital on Sunday. With a net value of approximately £3,000, these British black bees belonged to neuroscientist Chris Connolly from the University of Dundee. Chris’s team was using the bees for a £2 million project investigating the potential effects of miticides and pesticides on the insects’ nervous system:
“Two middle-aged men in a white van were seen pulling up beside the hives at this time and clearly whoever did this knows what they were doing and how to handle bees,” Connolly told BBC. One of the suspects also sported a bonnet. No word on whether the police plan to organise a sting.
Funny end to the week
Here is Viktor Poor’s latest cartoon instalment. In an amusing end to the week, he expresses his frustration when advertisements display on their packaging, It’s Tested, without any reference to the method, sample size, etc…
