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Flip Chart Fairy Tales

Dave, Boz and Lee are three relatively well-off brothers. Every year they like to spend a few weeks living it up at the 7-star Resort Europa. They have been going for years and all the staff know them well. They are sometimes a little badly behaved and have, on occasions, been quite rude. However, they are among the resort’s highest spending customers, which tends to mitigate any bad feeling their eccentric antics might cause.

This year, though, things have been worse than usual. Dave has been muttering about what a dump the place is and Lee has been telling everyone he could get a better deal at any one of dozens of other posh resorts. Boz has been especially rude, telling racist jokes and making up offensive ditties about the staff. It all came to a head this morning when the three brothers decided they were leaving. They wrote a…

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Brexit & “They need us more than we need them”

Originally posted on Nog's Musings:
The following is a fact and informed assumption based article.  It is not about patriotism, optimism, talking the country down or any other emotional aspects but simply a reasoned, logic based argument. Andrew Lilico has produced a report on “Seven key British perspectives on the Brexit negotiations“.  (See this…

Latest in Current Biology – Place Cells: Knowing Where You Are Depends on Knowing Where You’re Heading

Place Cells: Knowing Where You Are Depends on Knowing Where You’re Heading Shane M. O’Mara https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.06.081 This piece is on this cracking paper by Harland ea. (abstract at bottom): Lesions of the Head Direction Cell System Increase Hippocampal Place Field Repetition Current Biology, Available online 31 August 2017 Summary Knowing where you are and knowing where… Read More

Our latest paper: Antidepressant-like effects of 3-carboxamido seco-nalmefene (3CS-nalmefene), a novel opioid receptor modulator, in a rat IFN-α-induced depression model

Antidepressant-like effects of 3-carboxamido seco-nalmefene (3CS-nalmefene), a novel opioid receptor modulator, in a rat IFN-α-induced depression model is published in Brain, Behaviour and Immunity Charlotte K. Callaghan, Jennifer Rouine, Reginald L. Dean, Brian I Knapp, Jean M. Bidlack, Daniel R. Deaver & Shane M. O’Mara  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2017.08.016 Highlights IFN-α treatment induced depressive-like and cognitive deficits in the rat. IFN-α increased IL-6, IL-1β… Read More

Our latest: Exercise prevents IFN-α-induced mood and cognitive dysfunction and increases BDNF expression in the rat

Exercise prevents IFN-α-induced mood and cognitive dysfunction and increases BDNF expression in the rat Charlotte K. Callaghan , Jennifer Rouine, Shane M. O’Mara Highlights Treadmill running prevented IFN-α-induced anxiety- and depressive-like behavior in the open field test and forced swim test. Treadmill running prevented IFN-α-induced impairment in spatial memory in the object exploration task compared. Treadmill… Read More

Our latest paper (OA): The claustrum – Considerations regarding its anatomy, functions and a programme for research

The claustrum: Considerations regarding its anatomy, functions and a programme for research [OPEN ACCESS – DOWNLOAD] Christopher M. Dillingham, Maciej M. Jankowski, Ruchi Chandra, Bethany E. Frost and Shane M. O’Mara Abstract The claustrum is a highly conserved but enigmatic structure, with connections to the entire cortical mantle, as well as to an extended and… Read More

Science Gallery Dublin: Before The Story So Far

Originally posted on Ian Brunswick – On Science and Culture:
The Story So Far is the title of Science Gallery Dublin’s continually-evolving video summary of its evolution to date (latest version viewable here). This essay covers the years before it all began, principally 2006 and 2007, and investigates why and how Science Gallery came to…

New thinking required: the end of oil (what of cars, pedestrians and walking)?

Here’s a startling article by Seth Miller, predicting the end of oil for energy use, because of electric car technology. A combination of few moving parts, and extreme battery efficiency, is giving rise to a new generation of cars with expected lives of up to forty or fifty years and capable of running a million miles.… Read More

From Mosaic: How to fall to your death and live to tell the tale

How to fall to your death and live to tell the tale Slipping in the shower, tripping down the stairs, taking a tumble in the supermarket – falls kill over 420,000 people per year and hospitalise millions more. We can’t eliminate all falls, says Neil Steinberg. So we must to learn to fall better. Alcides Moreno… Read More

Building Resilient Organisations, One Brain at a Time (1)

Resilience is defined by the American Psychological Association as “the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or even significant sources of stress.” Both people and organisations can be resilient – and it is through people, and stress-tested processes that organisations can learn to be resilient in the face of adversity.… Read More