This is a very cool publicity campaign, using — dare I say it — scientific literacy in an effort to raise awareness about some rare genetic disorders (full disclosure-time: my own family has one of them). Basically, next Friday’s date — 15/11/13 — neatly matches the chromosomal region (15q11-q13) affected by three overlapping disorders: […]
Welcome. Mwa-hah-hah-hah-hah-ha! Yes, it’s Halloween, a sort of Beta Christmas. And as is typical, local streets and shops are festooned with images of witches, pumpkins, ghosts, and — of course — skeletons. Because skeletons are scary, you see. In an age of austerity, it is good to consider ways of […]
Time to reprint those fan t-shirts, folks, as a new date has been added to my world tour. Next Tuesday evening I’m giving the keynote lecture at Psych Fest 2013, the, er, psychology festival at Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick. Drum roll for the abstract…
Just a quick post today. This one’s especially for the arachnophobes. You know who you are. A popular scientific explanation for arachnophobia has been that it reflects an evolutionarily endowed avoidance of creatures found to be dangerous in our environment of evolutionary adaptedness (aka EEA). You probably know the drill. Gullible […]
You’ll have to forgive my recent lack of Tweets. I’m in China and Tweeting doesn’t work here. According to the log-in page of my hotel wifi, some websites are inaccessible due to legal restrictions. They mention YouTube in particular (probably accounting for the shortage of Beijing-based Harlem Shake vids) as […]
It’s all bad news this week, I’m afraid. Literally. Not only does it look bad and sound bad, but it also has bad effects on you. It’s all-round baaaaaaaaad. First of all — and you’re not going to be hugely surprised by this — the Daily Mail thinks that a leisure […]
