August 24, 2010

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Editor’s Selections: Visual Noise, Aplysia, and Psychopaths

Here are my Research Blogging Editor’s Selections for this week: Livia Blackburne asks what something called “visual noise exclusion” has to do with dyslexia.

By Jason G. Goldman

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

  • Livia Blackburne asks what something called "visual noise exclusion" has to do with dyslexia. She classifies the post as "intermediate-advanced," but it's a good concise explanation of this complicated research finding.

  • People have been studying learning in aplysia, the sea hare, for decades. Bjorn Brembs has studied this critter himself for 10 years, but never saw one in the wild, until a recent trip to San Diego. There may be a reason that aplysia can learn.

  • Christian Jarrett of BPS Research Digest is hunting successful psychopaths. What is a successful psychopath? "...Thanks to their superior self-control and conscientiousness, rather than landing in prison, they end up as company chief executives, university chancellors and Queen's Council barristers. Well, that's the idea anyway."

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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