A couple of interesting correspondences (here and here) just appeared in Nature on the legitimacy of Google Scholar for tracking citations. Interesting because I’ve recently been pondering the same issue but came up with the opposite conclusion, namely that Google Scholar is actually a better tool for tracking citations than…
Do you live on planet earth? Then you probably pay taxes. And if you pay taxes then you’re supporting scientific research. Thanks a lot – that’s really great. Thanks to you scientists can make discoveries that lead to cures for diseases. And we’d really love to share these discoveries with…
One trick on the confocal microscope is to use a larger pinhole so that a greater thickness of the section is captured in the image. Images acquired this way are comparable to a bunch of thin sections that are then merged into a “z-stack” except that some of the tissue…
More specifically, Can you enjoy a good cup of coffee when you have 8 straight hours of experimenting with maximum 10 minute breaks here and there but it takes you 5 minutes just to get to the lab kitchen from the behavior space let alone make a coffee and get back in…
Previously, I wrote about new SFN data on the role for newborn neurons in regulating emotion. The second half of the SFN meeting rounded out the story because the bulk of the functional presentations focussed on the role of new neurons in that other, classic function of the hippocampus: memory.…
How do the physiological properties of new neurons translate to a behavioral role? Are they just like mature neurons or are they unique? One idea that’s been thrown around is that their plastic period, their critical period, might endow them with an enhanced ability to associate information and contribute to…
As I’ve alluded, science, and therefore the SFN meeting where much science is unveiled, is a cycle of confusion and clarification. Currently, confusion may be prevailing in the adult hippocampal neurogenesis field since new neurons have been implicated in everything mammals do – spatial and nonspatial memory, anxiety, depression, addiction,…
It’s hard to explore SFN when you’ve got your own poster to tend to. I thought I could hop around the development section before things got busy but there was no “before things got busy.” The design of the conference also can work against presenters because the presentations you’d like…
Update: The poster is now available at Nature Precedings. Still acquiring histological images for my SfN poster. My recurring problem is that I end up taking pictures of things because they’re pretty and not because they have anything to do with the task at hand. Today’s case in point: Well,…
The annual most insanely huge neuroscience meeting is rapidly approaching and I am pleased to announce that I will be blogging about the meeting again this year, here at Functional Neurogenesis. The meeting will be held at the Washington DC convention center, located in “China” town, which is cool because in…