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Autofluorescence: When Tissues Light Up under Your Microscope for No Apparent...
Say what? Autofluorescence? You’re telling me parts of my body just light up on their own, like some green cat that’s been bred in a Japanese lab? Yep, no fooling. Granted, you usually have to be in a...
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How Wasteful Is Modern Science?
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wandered, somewhat aimlessly, on websites like Google Scholar, perpetually overwhelmed by the extraordinary expanse of information that’s available on any topic...
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Are Changes in the Epigenome Actually due to the Dynamic Nature of DNA?
I could be totally wrong on this one, which is cool. Happens often enough. And I won’t profess to be an expert in epigenetics, though I’m not completely ignorant of the field either. But as I was...
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How Might Autism & Diabetes Be Related?
Back in 2012, researchers associated with the M.I.N.D. Institute in California reported a study in which significant links were found between a “Metabolic Syndrome” in mothers and the occurrence of...
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An Update on My Current Work: Bald Mice & Autism Genomics
I gotta be honest: my brain is pretty fried this weekend. After each sentence I type here I find myself staring off into space snatching some microsleep. Ya ever feel like, sometimes, you get spread...
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Riddle: What Do Bald Mice & Autism Have in Common?
Last week I penned a blog about my current research foci. One project involves transgenic (mutant) balding mice, meanwhile the other is all about autism genomics. Even though these were not meant to be...
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The Embryonic Origins of Autism
Before I get to the autism stuff, I’m going to give you some background. In last week’s blog, I tried to explain the links in development between my hairless mice and the autistic brain. Given some of...
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Being a Scientist with Learning Disabilities
It’s ironic to feel capable of such complex endeavors but to simultaneously find some of the simplest things– those things even first graders can do– challenging, if not downright impossible. I can’t...
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Cancer: Fighting Fear with Knowledge
There are few other human diseases so common and yet so enigmatic as cancer. For many years it was the ailment that was whispered about behind closed doors or cupped hands. Even to this day, the...
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The Symbiotic Gene
“I shall argue that a predominant quality to be expected in a successful gene is ruthless selfishness” (Dawkins, 1976). So wrote the evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins, in Chapter One of his...
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SHANK3: Remembering the Synapse in Autism
I have to admit that, like most human beings, I can over-focus at times. On this blog, I’ve gone on and on about the embryonic origins of autism and how abnormal proliferation of the progenitor pool...
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Thoughts on the Recent Parikshak et al. Study, “Integrative Functional...
“Synapse” is a ref-flag word nowadays in many sects of autism research. For Dan Geschwind of UCLA, a highly intelligent and very talented molecular biologist, this is definitely the term that perks up...
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In Answer to David Dobbs’ Recent Question, “Why Bother Rewriting the Genome...
“This raises a question: if merely reading a genome differently can change organisms so wildly, why bother rewriting the genome to evolve? How vital, really, are actual changes in the genetic code? Do...
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A New Study Finds that the Jelly, Not the Sponge, May Lie at the Base of the...
I’m afraid, my dear friends, I will have to bow out of writing an extensive blog for this week. Not only are my knees figuratively giving way under the weight of two busy projects, but I’m in the thick...
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A Call for the Revival of the Art of Science
I’ll be frank: I’m fighting a battle with depression today. Even though I truly love what I do, the business and politics of academic life take their inevitable tolls. Given the humanness of this type...
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Review of the Recent Study, “Increased L1 Retrotransposition in the Neuronal...
Now, for repeat readers, you probably know I have a professional interest in the topic of transposable elements. So it should come as no surprise that a recent article published this month in the...
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The Elephant Shark Finally Has its Genome Sequenced
Scientists this month reported on the whole-genome sequencing of the cartilaginous fish, the elephant shark, the first complete analysis of any of the non-bony fish [1]. These fish are very important...
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The Evolution of Genetic Evolvability
“The hypothesis that evolvability – the capacity to evolve by natural selection – is itself the object of natural selection is highly intriguing but remains controversial due in large part to a paucity...
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Heterotopias in the Brain: When Neurons Get a Little Lost
I’ve talked a little about heterotopias in the past although I haven’t focused on them considerably. But that’s about to change today because they are fascinating occurrences which happen occasionally...
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The Fragile X Spectrum of Conditions
I’ve talked about Fragile X Syndrome before and its relationship to autism, albeit briefly. What I didn’t touch on, however, is that Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) isn’t the only condition associated with...
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