Secrets of the Ages: A wide-ranging look at the puzzle of longevity, which varies across species in often confounding ways

FEBRUARY 24, 2014, 4:09 PM  1 Comment

Secrets of the Ages

By ABIGAIL ZUGER, M.D.

The Science of Life Span and Aging. By Jonathan Silvertown. University of ChicagoPress. 208 pages. $25.

Think too much about your life span and you will never get out of bed in the morning. Once you do, though, all the scientific mysteries of the subject may lie panting on the rug at your feet. Why should your good old faithful dog (avid exerciser, nonsmoker, nondrinker) be condemned to age and die after barely a decade, while you remain firmly in your prime — and the neighbor’s African gray parrot lives loudly on and on? Read more of this post

Genetically Modified Babies: Regulators consider radical biological procedures

Genetically Modified Babies

By MARCY DARNOVSKYFEB. 23, 2014

BERKELEY, Calif. — AN advisory committee of theFood and Drug Administration is set to begin two days of meetings tomorrow to consider radical biological procedures that, if successful, would produce genetically modified human beings. This is a dangerous step. These techniques would change every cell in the bodies of children born as a result of their use, and these alterations would be passed down to future generations. Read more of this post

Like Columbus, It Floated Here: The answer of how the useful plants got to the Americas has stumped scientists, until now. Using a relatively new type of genetic analysis, researchers found that bottle gourds floated to the Americas from Africa

Like Columbus, It Floated Here

By RACHEL NUWERFEB. 24, 2014

Using a relatively new type of genetic analysis, researchers found that bottle gourds floated to the Americas from Africa. CreditCaraMaria

By the time Columbus arrived in the New World in 1492, bottle gourds had already conquered much of the globe. After evolving in Africa, one species,Lagenaria siceraria, made a break for East Asia around 11,000 years ago and eventually took up residence in Polynesia, China, Peru and beyond, earning the title of most widely distributed pre-Columbian domesticated plant. Read more of this post

Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science: Could we teach courses to turn scientists into capable communicators? An actor with a love of science seeks to apply techniques of drama to help scientists be better communicators

Alan Alda, Spokesman for Science

FEB. 24, 2014

The actor turned educator talks about how science can be made clearer and more accessible to the public if served with a helping of improvisation.

By CLAUDIA DREIFUS

CHICAGO — The most popular speaker at the recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science was not a scientist but one of science’s most high-profile advocates: the actor and writer Alan Alda. Read more of this post

The Brain’s Inner Language; scientists at Allen Institute for Brain Science are working with mice to decode what a mind’s neurons are saying to each other to produce behavior

The Brain’s Inner Language

By JAMES GORMANFEB. 24, 2014

Continue reading the main storyVideo

Probing the Parliament of Neurons

Clay Reid and colleagues are going deep into the mouse brain to decipher the conversations and decisions of neurons.

SEATTLE — When Clay Reid decided to leave his job as a professor at Harvard Medical School to become a senior investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle in 2012, some of his colleagues congratulated him warmly and understood right away why he was making the move. Read more of this post

Dogs, humans have similar emotional reactions, new study says; Dogs and humans are far similar than originally thought.

Dogs, humans have similar emotional reactions, new study says

Dogs and humans are far similar than originally thought.

Science Recorder | Delila James | Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Dog-owners probably won’t be surprised to learn of a new scientific study showing their pets understand human emotions.

Researchers from Hungary’s ELTE University trained dogs to sit still in an MRI scanner to get images of their brains. They found that canine brains react to voices in the same way a human does, and that emotionally-charged vocal sounds, like laughter or weeping, caused similar responses in dogs and people. Read more of this post

How to manage from ‘the trenches’: Once you get to the top of the corporate ladder, there’s still plenty more to learn from the bottom.

How to manage from ‘the trenches’

February 24, 2014: 11:23 AM ET

Once you get to the top of the corporate ladder, there’s still plenty more to learn from the bottom.

By Kip Knight

FORTUNE – What has defined much of my career is a line from the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird: “You never really know a man until you understand things from his point of view, until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” Read more of this post

Chipotle’s Farmed and Dangerous ads: a lesson in ecosystem marketing; For marketers to capture their stakeholders’ imaginations, they need to think beyond company positioning and find a message that works for their entire business ecosystem

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5_D0rdqeAs

Chipotle’s Farmed and Dangerous ads: a lesson in ecosystem marketing

For marketers to capture their stakeholders’ imaginations, they need to think beyond company positioning and find a message that works for their entire business ecosystem Read more of this post

Understand the Sacrifices Before Launching a Start-Up

Understand the Sacrifices Before Launching a Start-Up

by Frederic Kerrest  |   12:00 PM February 24, 2014

Making the decision to found your own business is a life-altering experience. Of course, it’s what comes after that breakthrough moment – how unique the idea, how quickly you move, how you continue to innovate – that ultimately separates the wheat from the chaff.   Read more of this post