m. c. de marco

Via Futurismic: Jonah Lehrer at seed’s science blogs discusses research into mutant taste-impaired mice who still prefer sugar and other indications of our basic drive for calories.

This is a troubling idea, since it reveals the very deep biological roots underlying the obesity epidemic.

At Technovelgy: the Guardian reports on solving the Hamiltonian path problem with E. coli.

Programming such a computer is no easy task, however. The researchers coded a simplified version of the problem, using just three cities, by modifying the DNA of Escherichia coli bacteria.

Via plime: Scientific American finds true love in the ventral tegmentum.

“It’s always been assumed that passionate love inevitably declines over time,” study co-author Arthur Aron, a social psychologist, told Newsday. “But in survey after survey we always have these people who have been together a long time and say they are intensely in love. It was always chalked up to self-deception or trying to make a good impression.”

In my ongoing zombie research, I came across a three-part YouTube video of Jan Sleutels expounding on Greek Zombies: not your average shambling undead, but Julian Jaynes’ pre-conscious ancient Greeks. If you don’t have time for all three parts, you can get a draft of the paper at his website.

Via plime: Discovery News reports on the successful sequencing of Neanderthal mitochondrial DNA. Neanderthal Park is not far behind:

Geneticist David Reich at the Harvard Medical School also agrees that the newly sequenced genome “is exciting and important.”

Via a mailing list: Demographic Winter, a pretty website about “the decline of the human family.” From their FAQ:

Question: What does the expression “Demographic Winter” mean?

Answer: “Demographic Winter” denotes the worldwide decline in birthrates, also referred to as a “birth-dearth,” and what it portends.

Someone mentioned melancholy on a mailing list, meaning by it nothing distinct from depression, but my ear picked it up and I wondered whether melancholy was still a legitimate affliction. (The answer appears to be no, it’s been replaced by melancholic depression.)