Life at Stanford: A Foreign Perspective

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Life at Stanford: A Foreign Perspective

Roughly half a year ago I started my postdoctoral research position at Stanford. Before I arrived here, I had imagined many things about life at Stanford that appeared very true: a pretty campus, amazing weather, friendly people, and a research environment that is both diligent and laid-back. Now, when starting to ponder the less obvious things I have learned and experienced at Stanford, more and more starts to look different from what I was used to at my university back in the Netherlands. Differences that I believe both sides can use to their advantage.

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"Just do it because you love it": Neurotalk S2E17 Nelson Spruston

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This week on Neurotalk, Nelson Spruston describes some of the first patch clamp recordings ever, shares the most exciting moment of his scientific career, and explains how a student in his lab discovered a new form of neural integration. Dr. Spruston is the Scientific Program Director, and a Laboratory Head at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the Janelia Farm Research Campus.

This week on Neurotalk, Nelson Spruston describes some of the first patch clamp recordings ever, shares the most exciting moment of his scientific career, and explains how a student in his lab discovered a new form of neural integration. 


Dr. Spruston is the Scientific Program Director, and a Laboratory Head at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the Janelia Farm Research Campus. 

Neurotalk S2E16 Chengua Gu

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This week in Neurotalk, we speak with Chengua Gu about the molecules linking axon guidance, cardiovascular development, and synapse formation. Dr. Gu is an associate professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School.

This week in Neurotalk, we speak with Chengua Gu about the molecules linking axon guidance, cardiovascular development, and synapse formation.

Dr. Gu is an associate professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. 

 

Ask a Neuroscientist: What's it like to have Broca's or Wernicke's Aphasia?

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Ask a Neuroscientist: What's it like to have Broca's or Wernicke's Aphasia?

Julia Turan answers a question about the language deficits experienced by patients with Broca's and Wernicke's aphasia. Read on to learn whether Wernicke's aphasiacs have difficulty writing, and to see amazing videos of stroke patients with Broca's and Wernicke's aphasia. 

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A slap to the back of the neck: An antidote for pressure point TKO?

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A slap to the back of the neck: An antidote for pressure point TKO?

The other week, I received a fantastic question from a gentleman named Bill. He wanted to know whether there was any neurological basis in (what is apparently) a common technique for recovering a martial arts practitioner from a knock out induced by a strike to pressure points. 

As I've pretty much forgotten everything I ever knew about spinal nerves, I pulled a "Who Wants to be a Millionaire", and phoned (read: emailed) a friend. Well, three friends. One of whom contacted a neurology resident. 

Our collective conclusion: the recovery technique is probably BS. 

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Are most published research findings false?

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Are most published research findings false?

There has been much wringing of hands of late over findings that many scientific findings are proving impossible to reproduce – meaning, they were probably wrong. Coverage in the news, concern expressed by the President's council of scientific advisors, and a call to action by Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), all suggest that this is a problem that the scientific community needs to understand and address.

In the recent issue of the journal Nature, Francis Collins and Lawrence Tabak (the deputy director of the NIH) outline their plan for improving scientific reproducibility, emphasizing a need for improving experimental design, statistical analysis, and transparency.

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