Field of Science

Links - April 7, 2011

I'm going to try segregating my links into topics, likely physiology, other biology, other science, and other stuff entirely. If it isn't worth the time, I'll stop doing it.

Physiology

In case you missed me blogging and linking and tweeting about it, I had a post on the Scientific American Guest Blog on Monday: What's the deal with male circumcision and female cervical cancer? Interestingly (to me), a lot of commenters mistake my post for an anti-circumcision manifesto, which it is not. Razib has a post in response to mine, Fair & balanced on circumcision, where he makes a point about numbers being of the essence. Also I get into an argument in the comments with a commenter about liberal anti-Semitism, which goes pretty off-topic.

"This bodes some strange eruption..." PalMD continues the saga of his rash (it is more interesting than you think, trust me) and gives us an introduction to antibody-mediated responses in the immune system.

Forget chocolate on Valentine's Day, try semen, says Surgery News editor. Retraction, resignation follow. Best retraction watch post ever. The editor in question cited a study claiming that women who have unprotected sex are less depressed than women who are abstinent or use condoms, presumably due to the vaginal absorption of "mood enhancers" in semen, like oxytocin and prolactin. He ended the letter with a suggestion that instead of giving your lady friend chocolates for Valentine's Day, you should just put some semen in her. Yeah.

How marijuana affects the way the brain processes emotional information. "[Activating cannabinoid receptors in the amygdala] dramatically increased the activity patterns of neurons in a connected region of the brain called the prefrontal cortex, controlling both how the brain perceived the emotional significance of incoming sensory information, and the strength of memories associated with these emotional experiences."

Other Science

What is radiation anyway? My attempt to demystify nuclear energy. Hannah gives us a primer on intro to radiation.

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