When he’s not studying virus evolution, Tufts Postdoc Ravi Subramanian has another life as a comedy writer. He thinks scientists could learn something from stand-ups about how to engage an audience. A guest post as part of our #reachoutsci series. … Read more
With the foggy Boston skyline as a backdrop, Massachusetts Institute of Technology provost L. Rafael Reif held court with the press on Wednesday morning for the official announcement of his selection as the school’s new president. The Venezuelan native will take over from Susan Hockfield, the school’s first female president and the first biomedical researcher to head the school. An electrical engineer, Reif was appointed to the job of Provost in 2005 by Hockfield and will become president in July. Read more
Lots of recent neuronews out of Boston so we’ve put together a Boston Neuroscience Twitter list. Local players with a few national Tweeps of interest.
MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory is prepares for its upcoming conference on “New Insights on Early Life Stress and Mental Health” and two neuroscience imaging papers of note came out of Boston this week.
One used the much invoked map metaphor to talk about a study out that looked at “relationships of adjacency and crossing between cerebral fiber pathways.” Using a technology developed at Mass General Hospital called diffusion magnetic resonance imaging, the researchers were able to identify a grid-like pattern.
After attending a media training session organized by the MIT student group, Luke E. Stoeckel, PhD, Director of Clinical Neuroscience and Staff Training at MGH-Harvard Center for Addiction Medicine, decided to look at ways to publicize his work. Read more
Ruthann Rudel walks up to the shelf in a Cambridge CVS and picks up an “Arm and Hammer Essential Naturals” deodorant stick . The bright yellow package has jaunty lettering and a green leaf on the label and announces that it offers “Aluminum Free — Paraben Free Natural Protection.” … Read more
Last week, during the school vacation, the gecko exhibit at the Museum of Science Boston was mobbed. Kids nosed up to the terrariums to see the nimble lizards scale the glass. They learned that geckos do not have sticky feet. Instead, tiny toepad hairs allow geckos to climb walls through phenomenon called frictional adhesion. Read more
The NY Times offers a flattering story about Eric Lander in this week’s science section. Read the Globe’s January story on the limits of research at the Broad Institute for a little perspective. Read more