This is about eight million on my list of things to worry about happening. These guys need to start attending conferences on cancer, or global warming, or eight million other things.

I’d still take the deal.

Who knew Phineas Gage was so hot?

Also, great vest.

Another gem from CNN.com

“Grey suggests the use of curves instead of hard edges on counters, furniture, and cabinets to help nurture contentment and well-being.

“The reason has to do with your peripheral vision and is linked to a primitive part of the brain called the amygdala,” he says. “If you were to walk down a dark, narrow tunnel lined with sharp rocks, you wouldn’t be able to think about anything except avoiding getting hurt. But if the same tunnel were lined with linen upholstery, you’d feel safe to daydream.”"

Pretty much.

“Article: Grant System Leads Cancer Researchers to Play It Safe”

“DiI is very rarely effective in mature brains, but it works well for tracing local circuits in human postmortem fixed tissue (personal observations).”

—Vercelli et al., 2000

*Fashionista
*Earmuff
*Flashdance
*Sausagefest
*Frappuccino
*Malbec
*Legwarmer
*Gordita
*Brangelina

“The ping-pong cycle acts independently of Piwi and Armitage but requires the function of Aubergine, the RNA helicases Spindle-E and Vasa, and the Tudor-domain protein Krimper.”

—from Malone et al., Cell, May 2009

I still believe that the most interesting problem in the world is the biological basis of behavior. I had to serve on a jury recently, and the biggest thing I took away from the experience was a new appreciation for the study of behavior. The whole case basically revolved around understanding why different people in different positions act or perceive things the way they do, and using logic to make sense of a large and complicated portrait of social interaction. And I just began to realize that the subject really is endlessly fascinating to me… the things we do, and why we choose to do them. So many fascinating things that are going to require decades to understand nest within the problem of understanding behavior itself: decision-making, emotion, reward, punishment, value, the generation of action, perception, social behavior. There are larger problems out there, I’m sure, but none that intrigue me more on a daily basis.

I have come to the conclusion that I’m not going to post in detail about papers I’m reading for the Lonely Hearts Journal Club, for two main reasons: 1. Because I’m more or less completely unfamiliar with the subject matter and techniques used half the papers I’m going to read, I’m not going to have anything interesting to say from a critical perspective, probably just a lot of commentary about how little I know about everything; 2. I’d rather not anger loads of individuals by critiquing journal club-style the papers I know something about in a global forum (well, at least more global than a bunch of people sitting around a conference room). Reviews are anonymous for a reason. :)

However, do look for ongoing comments about papers or subjects I find particularly well done or interesting. And paper suggestions are always welcome, especially “classic” papers in any field.

So I have reached the point in a PhD student’s life where, though there is still much work to be done in the thesis lab, it is time to start looking forward a little. And while thinking about where to go and what to work on as a postdoc, I realized something: I don’t know very much about science. Forget science— I don’t know very much about biology, even. And since this is likely to be my last summer without the pressures of paper submitting and thesis writing before the end of grad school, I have decided to spend it attempting to expand my biological horizons as much as I possibly can.

And so, I announce the formation of the Lonely Hearts Journal Club, where I will read two papers— one on something within the field of neuroscience, or I’ll feel guilty about abandoning my specialization completely, and one on any other topic in the biological sciences— every two days. I will discuss these papers here, because, as this is the Lonely Hearts Journal Club, I’m the only one reading them. And I will pick a venue outside the couch in my apartment to have my “discussions” in, otherwise I will probably just fold laundry or watch old episodes of MTV’s “Engaged and Underage” instead of getting any work done.

First up:

Mathy et al., Neuron, 2009 (“Encoding of Oscillations by Axonal Bursts in Inferior Olive Neurons”).

Li et al., Cell, 2009 (“Collapse of Germline piRNAs in the Absence of Argonaute3 Reveals Somatic piRNAs in Flies”).