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The Forgetting Pill Erases Painful Memories

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 23:12:58 -0500

The Forgetting Pill Erases Painful Memories:

A possible drug treatment for PTSD:

For example, in a recent experiment, Sacktor and scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science trained rats to associate the taste of saccharin with nausea (thanks to an injection of lithium). After just a few trials, the rats began studiously avoiding the artificial sweetener. All it took was a single injection of a PKMzeta inhibitor called zeta-interacting protein, or ZIP, before the rats forgot all about their aversion. The rats went back to guzzling down the stuff.

How long is the longest-running lab experiment?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:28:27 -0500

How long is the longest-running lab experiment?:

You can actually watch the longest-running lab experiment in history live on a webcam. Note: it is not as exciting as you might think.

The experiment has been in progress for 85 years:

The pitch-drop experiment—really more of a demonstration—began in 1927 when Thomas Parnell, a physics professor at the University of Queensland in Australia, set out to show his students that tar pitch, a derivative of coal so brittle that it can be smashed to pieces with a hammer, is in fact a highly viscous fluid. It flows at room temperature, albeit extremely slowly. Parnell melted the pitch, poured it into a glass funnel, let it cool (for three years), hung the funnel over a beaker, and waited.

Eight years later, a dollop of the pitch fell from the funnel’s stem. Nine years after that, another long black glob broke into the beaker. Parnell recorded the second drop but did not live to see the third, in 1954. By then, his experiment had been squirreled away in a dusty corner of the physics department.

The Man Who Studies The Fungus Among Us

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:01:41 -0500

The Man Who Studies The Fungus Among Us:

A discussion with fungal researcher Nicholas Money about his new book Mushroom.

“As a biologist, there’s so much to revel in, when we really study the fungi,” he tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. “This is a fantastic kingdom of microorganisms, and far more interesting than the animals and the plants.”

Science Can Neither Explain Nor Deny the Awesomeness of This Sledding Crow

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:01:00 -0500

Science Can Neither Explain Nor Deny the Awesomeness of This Sledding Crow