September 7, 2010

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Editor’s Selections: Katrina, Music, Crickets, and Artificial Movement

Here are my Research Blogging Editor’s Selections for this week: “Now, five years later, there’s new evidence of the significant, negative impact of Hurricane Katrina on children’s mental health.” Many Children Still Haven’t Recovered from Katrina.

By Jason G. Goldman

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Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week:

  • "Now, five years later, there's new evidence of the significant, negative impact of Hurricane Katrina on children's mental health." Many Children Still Haven't Recovered from Katrina.

  • "Congenital amusia is one of several different types of music perception impairments. A person with the disorder is born with a variety of symptoms, including an inability to recognize a familiar song without hearing the lyrics, an inability to discern the difference between two melodies, and difficulty perceiving when he or she is singing or hearing music performed out of tune." Sarah Stanley of the Curious! blog writes about congenital amusia.

  • "Working on an animal in a lab is a little like assuming a cow is a perfect sphere." In a post called Neurons in the Wild, Doctor Zen of NeuroDojo writes about field studies of crickets.

  • Over at Greta Munger's "Cognition and the Arts" course blog, check out What makes movement seem artificial?

Jason G. Goldman is a science journalist based in Los Angeles. He has written about animal behavior, wildlife biology, conservation, and ecology for Scientific American, Los Angeles magazine, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the BBC, Conservation magazine, and elsewhere. He contributes to Scientific American's "60-Second Science" podcast, and is co-editor of Science Blogging: The Essential Guide (Yale University Press). He enjoys sharing his wildlife knowledge on television and on the radio, and often speaks to the public about wildlife and science communication.

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