SOS: Save our Science - Last minute Christmas

Now that Christmas is drawing to a close our thoughts turn exuberantly towards the January sales. Blowing all of our new gift vouchers and our remaining money on last minute impulse buys. The good news for all of us is that we may be able to blame these rash choices on our genes.

Impulsivity is described as doing something without foresight, and understanding it has major implications for a range of psychiatric disorders as well as explaining what will be going on in the high street over the next few weeks. Impulsive behaviour is very complex and under the control of many genes. It has many aspects, most especially reduced inhibitions, but also including reduced attention span, limited awareness of consequences and inappropriate responses to rewards. Impulsive behaviour is also known to be inherited in some cases. This new study shows that it is possible to identify the genes involved in this behaviour.

This time it's personal - A quick look at life beyond labbing (including pictures of DNA cake)

This has been sat on my computer since Friday and I've been meaning it post it, but got distracted by other things. It seems appropriate to post it now as I had quite a non-worky day, I had loads of end of term things to finish off, and managed to catch up with old friends both at lunch and at dinner.

Also, if anyone hasn't seen it, I wrote a post for the Lab Rat a few days ago. 

Last night was the lab Christmas dinner, so I thought I’d follow it up with a piece on the social side of my life. It is true that biological research can be quite demanding in terms of time. Sometimes you just have to be in the lab late night, early morning or at the weekends, to make sure the animals or cells you are working with stay healthy and to collect data. Thus it is very important to balance this with a healthy social life, something I have not always be great at.