Clik here to view.
A Gateway Activity? From Slot Machines to Speed
A visit to any casino will quickly demonstrate how vices clump together. At any hour of the day or night, many of the customers sitting intently in front of a slot machine will also be smoking...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Brain Evolution & New Genes on the Block
What made the human brain? According to Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, it was a giant obsidian monolith inspiring primates to use tools and weapons. Scientists have taken a more nuanced...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fighting Two Addictions with One Pill?
By Rob Mitchum Since its approval by the FDA in 2006, varenicline has become a valuable aide for people trying to get over the hump of quitting smoking. Marketed as Chantix, the drug has joined...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hacking the Brain’s Security System
by Rob Mitchum The brain is a privileged organ, afforded protections denied to all the other organs of the body. Though the circulatory system functions much the same way above and below the neck,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A New Model for Anxiety…and More
by Rob Mitchum An advantage and disadvantage of hypothesis-free studies looking for genes associated with various traits or diseases is that they often point to genetic candidates that don’t make...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A New Dial on the Neuronal Mixing Board
On the cartoon version of a neuron, the dendrites are the bad hair day, the tentacles that sprout in every direction from the cell body or soma. Surrounding neurons make their connections onto these...
View ArticleClik here to view.
LabBook October 5, 2012
Photo courtesy Rafael Viñoly Architects, copyright Thomas Rossiter Welcome to LabBook, our weekly roundup of University of Chicago Medicine & Biological Sciences research news from around campus...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How Our Sense of Touch is a Lot Like the Way We Hear
When you walk into a darkened room, your first instinct is to feel around for a light switch. You slide your hand along the wall, feeling the transition from the doorframe to the painted drywall, and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sequencing the Genome of the Ocean’s Weirdest Creatures
Octopus bimaculoides, one of the species being studied by the CephSeq Consortium Cephalopods—ocean-dwelling mollusks such as the octopus, squid, cuttlefish, and Nautilus—are ancient and complex...
View ArticleClik here to view.
LabBook January 25, 2013
White Sox catcher Tyler Flowers, conditioning coach Allen Thomas and Southpaw visited Woodlawn Community School this week as part of our new partnership with the White Sox to fight childhood obesity...
View ArticleClik here to view.
LabBook April 12, 2013
Yes, that is an impressionist cow. It’s one of the beautiful bovines from Chicago’s 1999 Cows on Parade exhibit that placed artistic ruminants all over town. This one, named “Moosaic,” is located in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Building the Sense of Touch Into Prosthetic Arms
Without the sense of touch, using a robotic prosthetic arm is like using a skill crane in the arcade. Scientists have made tremendous advances toward building lifelike prosthetic limbs that move and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
LabBook May 10, 2013
Welcome to LabBook, our weekly roundup of University of Chicago Medicine & Biological Sciences research news from around campus and the internet. Each Friday, LabBook will recap the week on the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Vibrations With Meaning
A spectrogram of the responses to a sinusoidal sweep delivered to the skin, showing that the brain can track the continuously varying frequency of the vibration. When you have your cell phone set to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fighting Two Addictions with One Pill?
By Rob Mitchum Since its approval by the FDA in 2006, varenicline has become a valuable aide for people trying to get over the hump of quitting smoking. Marketed as Chantix, the drug has joined...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hacking the Brain’s Security System
by Rob Mitchum The brain is a privileged organ, afforded protections denied to all the other organs of the body. Though the circulatory system functions much the same way above and below the neck,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Squeaking Terms Only
Rats will help a stranger in distress only if they have had prior social experience with the type of the unfamiliar individual. Empathy-driven behavior has been observed in rats who will free trapped...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Shot of Caffeine Can Speed Recovery Times From General Anesthesia
We don’t usually think of caffeine as a drug, but it’s one of the most widely used drugs in the world. Its ability to make people feel more awake and alert are undisputed, and now researchers from the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How the brain finds what it’s looking for
An NFL quarterback must quickly process motion and color in order to find the right receiver Despite the barrage of visual information the brain receives, it retains a remarkable ability to focus on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
UChicago researcher awarded BRAIN Initiative funding
NIH Director Francis Collins and President Barack Obama announced the BRAIN Initiative in 2013 NIH announces BRAIN Initiative funding for projects that lay the groundwork for visualizing the brain in...
View Article
