I’m sure you’ve been wondering where I’ve been. (At least I’d like to think I’ve been missed!) Well, for the last two months I’ve been in stuck the hellhole that is known as applying for the NIH K99/R00 grant. Now that my grant was just submitted and I can forget all about it, clearly the first thing I decided to do was to spend a … Continue reading
Remember when I told you how brains are freaking amazing? They tell us everything we know about the world, they contain all our thoughts and feelings, they build and repair themselves all on their own. Yeah, they’re basically just all-around awesome. But most people don’t usually get to appreciate their awesomeness up close. Even neuroscientists like me. As you guys probably know by now, I … Continue reading
When I tell people that I’m a neuroscientist, one of the most common questions they ask me is: “Can the brain make new cells?” This is a pretty reasonable question, especially since many of us have heard that we lose thousands of brain cells per day. That’s mostly a myth, by the way. Neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s do kill brain cells, called neurons, but normal … Continue reading
As a kid, I thought biology was stupid. Biology seemed to be taught mainly in the form of lists and diagrams. Here’s a list of the differences between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. There’s a diagram of the circulatory system. Here’s a list of traits specific to mammals. Then there’d be a page on the test where you’d have to label the organelles of a cell … Continue reading
This past week was the big conference in the field of neuroscience, creatively named “Neuroscience” but referred to as “SFN” by the rest of us because it’s organized the by Society for Neuroscience. Over 30,000 neuroscientists attended this year’s event in Washington D.C. I bet the rest of you didn’t think there were even that many of us in the whole world! (At least that’s … Continue reading