New Year, no resolutions

There’s nothing particularly new about the New Year from a biological perspective. We have mechanisms inside cells that keep time on a day-to-day basis, but certainly nothing to keep track of the rhythm of the year. Our livers may have felt the consequences of celebrating the passage of 2009, but our DNA hardly records the passage of time at all.

Our brains, however, make a big deal about the passage of years. Right around mid-December, we start seeing just about every organization publishing their list of the the top 10 moments in whatever they happen to be interested in – the top 10...

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Posted on 19 Jan 2010
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Tools of the Trade

I like to think of myself as a manly sort of man. Beyond belching and scratching myself in public, this also means that I can put up drywall, fix plumbing and lay tile (for example). To me, using tools and fixing stuff is part of being a man. So is carrying a Leatherman.

The Leatherman is a folding pocket tool with pliers, blades, screwdrivers and pretty much every basic tool you could need in a hurry. It’s like a Swiss Army Knife on steroids. I love that thing, and I carry it everywhere – even when I’m part of the honour party at a wedding. I get excited when I get to use it, just like...

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Posted on 09 Nov 2009
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If rats had thumbs

So I’m sitting here doing maternal observations thinking it’s been a long time since I updated my blog. It’s been a tumultuous couple of months for me between experiments, moving apartments, and numerous other things. However, I should be back in full force for the time being.

Last time I talked about some of the more Frankenstein-ish things that I do in the lab. Maternal observations are not one of those things. Our lab is very concerned with maternal care in general. Some people study the mothers and look at the things in the brain that drive maternal care, whereas others like myself are...

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Posted on 28 Sep 2009
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Genetic Lego

My mother, like I imagine most mothers do, has pictures of me and my brother on her desk at work. When interested parties (inevitably other mothers) ask what we do for our livings, she tells them she has one son that’s a “computer geek,” and another that’s “Dr. Frankenstein.” Clearly I’m the one who has the dubious honour of being referred to as “doctor” by my mother even before I have finished my degree. She’s obviously very proud.

While I don’t cackle madly over experiments performed in thunderstorms on the roof of Lehmann Pavilion – and I sure don’t get an Igor to help me with my lab...

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Posted on 10 Jun 2009
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Two cents of variation…

My favorite t-shirt right now is black and says “98% chimp.” Someone asked me once if I really believed that was true. I said it wasn’t a question of belief, it’s a fact. And it is, if you look at it the right way. If you sequenced my DNA and compared it to a chimp’s, you would find they were about 98% identical. If we then sequenced your DNA, we would find it was about 99.98% identical to mine, although surely your 0.02% puts you further away from a chimp than myself.

Sure, we have blue or brown eyes, black or blond hair, we’re taller or shorter. But looking at it from the point of view...

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Posted on 30 Apr 2009
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Talking to myself over here?

I talk to myself, and not just a little. Drives my girlfriend crazy sometimes, not to mention my co-workers. I also talk to my environment – the television (especially during Habs games), my computer, lab equipment, particularly annoying nails, the refrigerator, whatever. Like I said, I talk to myself a lot. I’m told that I only need to worry when things start talking back.

But they do. Not so much in a disembodied voice kind of way, which would indeed be cause for worry, but our environment is always telling us things. It tells us when it’s cold, when we might be damaged by something,...

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Posted on 12 Mar 2009
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Douglas Zombies Need Brains!

I have a joke with one of the guys I work with about us being zombies being pulled irresistibly to the Douglas each morning, never understanding why. It’s not a good joke, or particularly funny, but we take what we can get and it serves as an excellent lead into what I wanted to write about in my first post. This will be a blog about neurobiology and the molecules in our brains that influence our minds and behaviour, so zombies is a good place to start. Obviously.

Now, if you’ve seen a George Romero movie, you’ll know that zombies are all about brains. In fact, some of us Douglas zombies...

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Posted on 16 Feb 2009
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