Who says politics and science can't mix?   Well, we say they shouldn't mix but we're rare in science media.  Yet sometimes political events can make for great science studies too.

Case in point, the value neuroscientists at the University of Washington got when former President George W. Bush and Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had shoes thrown at them by a crazy Iraqi 'reporter' during a Baghdad news conference. 

When Bush ducked and Maliki didn't flinch as the first shoe sailed toward them, it was a real-world example supporting the theory that there are two independent pathways in the human visual system. 

Can you tell when your dog has done something wrong by his appearance?   Not really, says Alexandra Horowitz, Assistant Professor from Barnard College in New York, in Behavioural Processes.   It's mostly what you want to see.

Horowitz was able to show that the human tendency to attribute a "guilty look" to a dog was not due to whether the dog was indeed guilty. Instead, people see 'guilt' in a dog's body language when they believe the dog has done something it shouldn't have – even if the dog is in fact completely innocent of any offense.

A study of patients and members of the public has shown that most lack even basic knowledge of human anatomy. The research, featured in the journal BMC Family Practice, found that people were generally incapable of identifying the location of major organs, even if they were currently receiving relevant treatment.

LONDON, June 11 /PRNewswire/ --

- Mild Alzheimer's Patients Continue to be Denied Treatment

Eisai Limited, the licence holder of Aricept(R) (donepezil hydrochloride) and Pfizer Limited, its co-promotion partner, have been notified by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) of their decision to continue to deny vulnerable patients the use of anti-cholinergic medicines in the treatment of mild Alzheimer's disease.

At the recent Appraisal Committee meeting it was recognised that the current model contained four significant errors, and that NICE had failed to undertake appropriate checks of their calculations in three separate areas.

This study on "Gender Differences at Critical Transitions in the Careers of Science" is now old news, but it hasn't answered many of the questions we're interested in about women in academic science careers. Women in 2004 and 2005 at top research universities were as successful as men in obtaining academic jobs and tenure, but the rub is that women are less likely to apply for academic or go up for tenure.

Why? Well, like I said, there are more questions that have to be addressed before we know why, but I'm betting that a big part of the problem is this:

I regularly read the Huffington Post, for the good reason that it often sports intelligent articles written from a progressive standpoint, and because I believe in open access and open contribution to the socio-political discourse (otherwise, I wouldn’t bother writing this blog).

Then again, one of the drawbacks of openness is that you get crap together with the good stuff.

This isn’t altogether bad, since reading crap is a necessary component of developing one’s own sense of critical thinking, sharpening the baloney detector, so to speak. But crap needs to be responded to, especially when it comes from influential sources.

Contrary to many notions about predators, it would seem that there are many whose success is directly linked to their social organization and more specifically to the role of the social leaders that may direct the group.



Predation is, by its nature, an energy intensive, high risk endeavor. Unexpected events may occur resulting in injuries, which may directly affect the ability of the predator to survive.

LONDON, June 10 /PRNewswire/ -- The AV Global Alliance provides video conferencing and audio visual services to multinational companies. Five new companies have joined the Alliance, extending its reach around the globe to 130 cities in 26 countries.

Audio Visual Machines welcomes absolut Technologies (Brazil), ETS YCP (South Korea), Newtech (Argentina), Polymedia (Russia) and Talk Vision (Netherlands and Belgium) to the AV Global Alliance. The Alliance is a partnership of leading audio visual and video conferencing systems integrators from different countries around the world, and provides mutual support for their international clients.

PARIS, June 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Electronics giant implements Campaign Commander(TM) to drive European email marketing

Sony has extended its contract with Emailvision and has announced that it will utilize Emailvision's Campaign Commander (TM) software across its European electronics division, which covers 35 countries and 5 product divisions.

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia, June 10 /PRNewswire/ --

- Handset Manufacturers Will Benefit From Access to Essential Patents at Reasonable Royalty Rates

SISVEL CDMA2000, LLC, today launched a new joint patent licensing program, or patent pool, offering a license to essential CDMA2000 patents to all users on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms. The portfolio of essential CDMA2000 patents included in the program are owned by France Telecom; Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation; NTT DOCOMO, INC.; Royal KPN N.V.; and Siemens AG. SISVEL will act on behalf of the patent owners as licensing administrator for the program.