Björn Brembs

[*This is a post written jointly by Nelson Lau from Brandeis and me,
Björn Brembs. In contrast to Nelson's [guest
post](https://bjoern.brembs.net/2015/11/guest-post-why-our-open-data-project-worked/),
which focused on the [open
data](https://bjoern.brembs.net/2015/11/dont-be-afraid-of-open-data/)
aspect of our collaboration, this one describes the science behind [our
paper](https://nar.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/11/16/nar.gkv1193.full)
and a [second
one](https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1005652)
by Nelson, which just appeared in [PLoS
Genetics](https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1005652).*]{style="font-size: 10pt;"}

[[![ResearchBlogging.org](https://www.researchblogging.org/public/citation_icons/rb2_mid.png){decoding="async"
style="border: 0;"}](https://www.researchblogging.org)]{style="float: left; padding: 5px;"}Laboratories
around the world are generating a tsunami of deep-sequencing data from
nearly every organism, past and present. These sequencing data range
from entire genomes to segments of chromatin to RNA transcripts. To
explore this ocean of "BIG DATA", one has to navigate through portals of
the National Computational Biotechnology Institute's (NCBI's) two
signature repositories, the [Sequencing Read Archive
(SRA)](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sra) and the [Gene Expression
Omnibus (GEO)](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/). With the right
bioinformatics tools, scientists can explore and discover
freely-available data that can lead to valuable new biological insights.

[Nelson Lau's lab](https://www.bio.brandeis.edu/laulab/) in the
Department of Biology at Brandeis has recently completed two such
successful voyages into the realm of genomics data mining, with studies
published in the Open Access journals of [Nucleic Acids Research
(NAR)](https://nar.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/11/16/nar.gkv1193.full)
and the [Public Library of Science Genetics
(PLoSGen)](https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1005652).  
Publication of both these two studies was supported by the [Brandeis
University LTS Open Access
Fund](https://scholcomm.brandeis.edu/open-access/brandeis-open-access-fund-description/)
for Scholarly Communications.

In this scientific journey, we made use of important collaborations with
labs from across the globe. The [NAR
study](https://nar.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/11/16/nar.gkv1193.full)
used openly shared genomics data from the United Kingdom ([Casey
Bergman's lab](https://bergmanlab.ls.manchester.ac.uk/)) and Germany
([Björn Brembs' lab](https://lab.brembs.net/)). The [PlosGen
study](https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1005652)
relied on contributions from Austria (Daniel Gerlach), Australia
([Benjamin Kile's lab](https://www.wehi.edu.au/people/benjamin-kile)),
Nebraska ([Mayumi Naramura's
lab](https://www.unmc.edu/eppley/about/faculty/naramura.html)), and next
door neighbors ([Bonnie Berger's lab at
MIT](https://people.csail.mit.edu/bab/)).

[In the NAR
study](https://nar.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/11/16/nar.gkv1193.full),
Lau lab postdoctoral fellow Reazur Rahman and the Lau team developed a
program called
[TIDAL](https://www.bio.brandeis.edu/laulab/Tidal_Fly/Tidal_Fly_Home.html)
(Transposon Insertion and Depletion AnaLyzer) that scoured over 360 fly
genome sequences publicly accessible in the SRA portal. We discovered
that transposons, also known as jumping genetic parasites, formed
different genome patterns in every fly strain. There are many thousands
of transposons throughout the fly genome. The vast majority of these
transposons share a virus origin, being retrotransposons. Even though
most of these transposons are located in the intergenic and
heterochromatic regions of the fly genome, with on average more than two
transposons per fly gene, it is a straightforward assumption that some
of them are bound to influence gene expression in one way or another.

We discovered that common fly strains with the same name but living in
different laboratories turn out to have very different patterns of
transposons. This is surprising because many geneticists have assumed
that the so-called Canton-S or Oregon-R strains are all similar and thus
used as a common wild-type reference. In particular, we were able to
differentiate two strains which had only been separated very recently
from each other, indicating rapid evolution of these transposon
landscapes.

Our results lend some mechanistic insight to behavioral data from the
Brembs lab which had
[shown](https://f1000research.com/articles/3-176/v2) that these
sub-strains of the standard Canton-S reference stock can behave very
differently in some experiments. We hypothesize that these differences
in transposon landscapes and the behavioral differences may reflect
unanticipated changes in fly stocks, which are typically assumed to
remain stable under laboratory culture conditions. If even recently
separated fly stocks can be differentiated both on the genetic and on
the behavioral level, perhaps this is an indication that we are
beginning to discover mechanisms rendering animals much more dynamic and
malleable than we usually give them credit for. Such insights should not
only convince geneticists to think twice and be extra careful with their
common reference stocks, it may also provide food for thought for
evolutionary biologists.  In addition, we hope to utilize the [TIDAL
tool](https://www.bio.brandeis.edu/laulab/Tidal_Fly/Tidal_Fly_Home.html)
to study how expanding transposon patterns might alter genomes in aging
fly brains, which may then explain human brain changes during aging.

Screenshot of the TIDAL-Fly website:

[![tidal](https://bjoern.brembs.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/tidal-300x244.png){.aligncenter
.wp-image-1018 .size-medium decoding="async" width="300" height="244"
srcset="https://bjoern.brembs.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/tidal-300x244.png 300w, https://bjoern.brembs.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/tidal-50x41.png 50w, https://bjoern.brembs.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/tidal.png 1002w"
sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px"}](https://www.bio.brandeis.edu/laulab/Tidal_Fly/Tidal_Fly_Home.html)

Given the number of potentially harmful mobile genetic elements in a
genome, it is not surprising that counter-measures have evolved to limit
the detrimental effect of these transposons. So-called [Piwi-interacting
RNAs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piwi-interacting_RNA) (piRNA) are a
class of highly conserved, small, noncoding RNAs associated with
repressing transposon gene expression, in particular in the germline.
[In the PLoSGen
study](https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1005652),
visiting scientist Gung-wei Chirn and the Lau lab developed a program
that discovered expression patterns of piRNA genes in a group of
mammalian datasets extracted from the GEO portal. Coupling these
datasets with other small RNA datasets created in the Lau lab, the team
discovered a remarkable diversity of these RNA loci for each species,
suggesting a high rate of diversification of piRNA expression over time.
The rate of diversification in piRNA expression patterns appeared to be
much faster than in that changes of testis-specific gene expression
patterns amongst different animals.

It has been known for a while that there is an ongoing evolutionary arms
race between transposon intruders and the anti-transposon police, the
piRNAs. In mammals, however, the piRNAs appear to diversify according to
two different strategies. Most of the piRNA genomic loci discovered in
humans were quite distinct from those in other primates like the macaque
monkey or the marmoset and seemed to evolve just as quickly as, e.g.
*Drosophila* piRNA genes. On the other hand, a separate, smaller set of
these genomic loci have conserved their piRNA expression patterns,
extending across humans, through primates, to rodents, and even to dogs,
horses and pigs.

These conserved piRNA expression patterns span nearly 100 million years
of evolution, suggesting an important function either in regulating a
transposon that is common among most if not all eutherian mammals, or in
regulating the expression of another, conserved gene.

To find the answer, the Lau lab studied the target sequences of
different conserved piRNAs. One of them was indeed a conserved gene in
eutherian mammals, albeit not one of a transposon, but of an endogenous
gene. In fact, most of the conserved piRNA genes were depleted of
transposon-related sequences. A second approach to test the function of
conserved piRNAs was to analyze two existing mouse mutations in two
piRNA loci. The results showed that the mutations indeed affected the
generation of the piRNAs, and these mice were less fertile because their
sperm count was reduced. Future work will explore how infertility
diseases may be linked to these specific piRNA loci. It also remains to
be understood how a gene family originally evolved as transposon police
could evolve into a mechanism regulating endogenous genes.

In summary, this work is an example of how open data enables and
facilitates novel insights into fundamental biological processes. In
this case, these insights have taught us that genomes are much more
dynamic and diverse than we have previously thought, with repercussions
not only for the utility any single reference genome can have for
research, but also for the role of sequencing individual genomes in
personalized medicine.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Rahman R, Chirn GW, Kanodia A, Sytnikova YA, Brembs B, Bergman CM, &
Lau NC (2015). Unique transposon landscapes are pervasive across
Drosophila melanogaster genomes. [Nucleic acids
research]{style="font-style: italic;"} PMID:
[26578579](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26578579){rev="review"},
DOI:
[10.1093/nar/gkv1193](https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkv1193){rev="review"}]{.Z3988
title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Nucleic+acids+research&rft_id=info%3Apmid%2F26578579&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=Unique+transposon+landscapes+are+pervasive+across+Drosophila+melanogaster+genomes.&rft.issn=0305-1048&rft.date=2015&rft.volume=&rft.issue=&rft.spage=&rft.epage=&rft.artnum=&rft.au=Rahman+R&rft.au=Chirn+GW&rft.au=Kanodia+A&rft.au=Sytnikova+YA&rft.au=Brembs+B&rft.au=Bergman+CM&rft.au=Lau+NC&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CBehavioral+Biology%2C+Ecology%2C+Genomics%2C+Evolutionary+Biology%2C+Genetics%2C+Zoology"}  
[Chirn, G., Rahman, R., Sytnikova, Y., Matts, J., Zeng, M., Gerlach, D.,
Yu, M., Berger, B., Naramura, M., Kile, B., & Lau, N. (2015). Conserved
piRNA Expression from a Distinct Set of piRNA Cluster Loci in Eutherian
Mammals [PLOS Genetics, 11]{style="font-style: italic;"} (11) DOI:
[10.1371/journal.pgen.1005652](https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1005652){rev="review"}]{.Z3988
title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=PLOS+Genetics&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pgen.1005652&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=Conserved+piRNA+Expression+from+a+Distinct+Set+of+piRNA+Cluster+Loci+in+Eutherian+Mammals&rft.issn=1553-7404&rft.date=2015&rft.volume=11&rft.issue=11&rft.spage=0&rft.epage=&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.plos.org%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pgen.1005652&rft.au=Chirn%2C+G.&rft.au=Rahman%2C+R.&rft.au=Sytnikova%2C+Y.&rft.au=Matts%2C+J.&rft.au=Zeng%2C+M.&rft.au=Gerlach%2C+D.&rft.au=Yu%2C+M.&rft.au=Berger%2C+B.&rft.au=Naramura%2C+M.&rft.au=Kile%2C+B.&rft.au=Lau%2C+N.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CBehavioral+Biology%2C+Evolutionary+Biology%2C+Genetics%2C+Zoology%2C+Genomics"}


<em>
 This is a post written jointly by Nelson Lau from Brandeis and me, Björn Brembs. In contrast to Nelson’s guest post, which focused on the open data aspect of our collaboration, this one describes the science behind our paper and a second one by Nelson, which just appeared in PLoS Genetics.
</em>
Laboratories around the world are generating a tsunami of deep-sequencing data from nearly every organism, past and present.

Data Diving for Genomics Treasure

Genetically Separable\"
href=\"https://www.slideshare.net/brembs/wcalb14\"
target=\"\_blank\"\>Pavlovian and Skinnerian Processes are Genetically
Separable


Genetically Separable" href="https://www.slideshare.net/brembs/wcalb14" target="_blank"&gt;Pavlovian and Skinnerian Processes are Genetically Separable

Two evolutionary conserved, fundamental learning mechanisms

*[During my [flyfishing vacation last
year](http://blogarchive.brembs.net/comment-n862.html), pretty much
nothing was happening on this blog. Now that I've migrated the blog to
WordPress, I can actually schedule posts to appear when in fact I'm not
even at the computer. I'm using this functionality to re-blog a few
posts from the [archives](http://blogarchive.brembs.net) during the
month of august while I'm away. This post is from [June 9,
2010](http://blogarchive.brembs.net/comment-n616.html):]{style="font-size: 12px;"}  
*

I have no idea when it started, but probably long before Darwin, the
notion of 'design' kept creeping into descriptions of biological
organisms or traits: Birds are designed to fly or the eye is designed to
see. I've also been guilty of using the word 'design' for biological
objects every now and then. However, after reading a fair bit and after
thinking for some time now, I've come to the conclusion that the word
'design' is so misleading and not even wrong, that it should never be
used in biology at all, ever.

I'm only partially saying this because of a prominent creationist
movement in the US awfully dubbed 'intelligent design' (which couldn't
be further from biological reality). My main reason is that the use of
'design' is pernicious for biological research. 'Design' or engineering
approaches have been used over and over in biology and many if not most
of them have gone the way of Newtonian mechanics: extremely useful and
successful initially (and to some extent still today), but
scientifically falsified eventually. Take a rather recent, prominent
example: [Lee
Hood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Hood){target="_blank"
rel="external"}'s automobile paradigm, according to which systems
biology is akin to finding car parts without a manual in the fog and
then trying to assemble the car. Current research shows that genetic
networks are, in contrast to car components, highly plastic and
forgiving of errors (a phenomenon termed robustness, often due to
[degeneracy](https://www.pnas.org/content/98/24/13763.full){target="_blank"}
in evolved systems). Even though the car analogy might seem daunting, it
is still grossly oversimplified and biologically misleading. Indeed,
expecting genetic networks to behave as stably as car components will
lead to the wrong experiments and the wrong conclusions. Nevertheless,
systems biology was and still is a very successful branch of biology.
I'm not a systems biologist, but I would be surprised if many systems
biologists still bought into the car analogy these days any more, after
what they have found out until today.

For the same reasons, there is no [blind
watchmaker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blind_Watchmaker){target="_blank"},
because there is no watch. The analogy may still be useful in a
rule-of-thumb kind of way, but biologically it is completely false.

Another, much older engineering approach is that of brains as
input-output systems in neuroscience (the 'sensorimotor hypothesis'),
which purports that brains passively wait for stimuli to occur in order
to respond to them, much like radios, computers or other equipment that
we have designed. In some fields of neuroscience (and psychology) this
approach has been so pervasive that *any* behavior is referred to as a
response, assuming that there *always* must be an underlying stimulus
triggering the behavior. It is not only recent ecological and
ethological research on predators specializing in exploiting stereotypic
behaviors in prey species which shows that being responsive is not an
evolutionary stable strategy: responding reliably to the same stimuli in
the same predictable way will neither get you to the unexpected food
patch nor prevent a predator or competitor from predicting your next
move. "Nature red in tooth and claw" will make sure that any predictable
species will not last for long. There is a very good ultimate cause for
the Harvard Law of Animal Behavior: "Under carefully controlled
experimental circumstances, an animal will behave as it damned well
pleases": species which didn't obey the law have not survived. It thus
appears that for the last 100 odd years, neuroscience has been studying
the exceptions to the rule that brains are always active and are
constantly producing output, on which sensory stimuli merely exert a
modest, modulatory role. I think it is fair to assume that one reason
for this research direction (apart from the relative experimental ease)
is that there is no mechanism or object we have designed that works in
such a way. Everything we have made responds to commands and so people
thought this is how brains operate.

Given the success of this approach in biology and of Newtonian mechanics
in physics, it is no surprise that some thinkers have come to see brains
as deterministic Newtonian clockworks. Complicated, maybe, but
deterministic and predictable none the less. Any observed behavioral
variability was shrugged off as random noise, when indeed it was the one
brain function that kept animals in the run for the next generation. It
is high time that neuroscientists realize that Newtonian mechanics are
as falsified in biology as they are in physics: the world is not
deterministic and neither are brains. The fact that brains are not
engineered, but evolved allows for freedom of choice without
quasi-magical quantum computing in the brain. All the brain requires to
be unpredictable is some source of variability from which it can
generate spontaneity, and there is plenty of such variability in neurons
and their components, with or without quantum effects. The selection
pressure of predictable animals being outcompeted, eaten or left without
a mate established early on that every brain is equipped with a function
which allows for adaptive behavioral choice. In some animals, there was
need for more of such capabilities. Those animals seem to have more
freedom of choice. Other animals could get away with being more
predictable, giving the impression of being less 'free' and more
[robot-like](https://www.esf.org/index.php?id=6460){target="_blank"}.
I'm starting to get the impression that the model systems used in
neuroscience are predominantly of the latter sort.
![smoking.png](http://blogarchive.brembs.net/e107_images/emotes/yellow/smoking.png){decoding="async"}

Be that as it may, all animals possess this trait to a larger or lesser
degree and have been using it for survival and procreation since the
very first brain evolved. I think it is time biology sheds the last
remnants of classical thinking and starts to study 'free will' as the
biological trait it is: the ability to behave differently in the same
situations, the ability to chose from identical options, the mental coin
toss. The centuries of philosophical thinking on this topic have
provided us with a wonderful framework within which these empiricial
findings can be embedded. Because [brains are output-input
systems](http://blogarchive.brembs.net/content39.html){target="_self"}
(rather than the other way around), our lab has started to study the
[spontaneous choices of the fruit
fly](http://brembs.net/spontaneous){target="_self"}
*[Drosophila](http://brembs.net/spontaneous){target="_self"}* and how
the brain generates them. Currently, a graduate student in our lab is
studying where in the brain these processes take place in order to later
be able to understand how the circuits mediating these choice function.
It is a testament to the idiocy of creationists that [our research was
featured on a creationist
blog](https://www.uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/flies-show-free-will/){target="_blank"}
as supporting creationism. The opposite is the case: all brains possess
free will precisely because there is no design in biology.
[Evolution](http://brembs.net/evolution){target="_blank" rel="external"}
is the only reason why we have free will and it is neither dualistic,
nor spiritual, nor mystic: it is biological.


<em>
 During my flyfishing vacation last year, pretty much nothing was happening on this blog. Now that I’ve migrated the blog to WordPress, I can actually schedule posts to appear when in fact I’m not even at the computer. I’m using this functionality to re-blog a few posts from the archives during the month of august while I’m away.
</em>

Flashback: All brains possess free will because there is no design in biology

[*During my [flyfishing vacation last
year](http://blogarchive.brembs.net/comment-n862.html), pretty much
nothing was happening on this blog. Now that I've migrated the blog to
WordPress, I can actually schedule posts to appear when in fact I'm not
even at the computer. I'm using this functionality to re-blog a few
posts from the [archives](http://blogarchive.brembs.net) during the
month of august while I'm away. This post is from [April 19,
2011](http://blogarchive.brembs.net/news733.html):*]{style="font-size: 12px;"}

 

<div>

The last decades of research on human
[evolution](http://brembs.net/evolution){target="_blank" rel="external"}
have provided an astounding body of converging evidence for an African
origin of the human lineage just under about 200k years ago, with a
subsequent migration across the globe starting around 60k years ago
until all the main regions of this planet were inhabited by humans at
around 15k years ago. Compare this scenario to the creationist story,
where humans were shaped by a magic man out of clay about 6k years ago,
which means it happened just after the Sumerians have invented glue.What
is the converging evidence telling the "Out of Africa" story?It all
started with fossils and artifacts. Archeology, with its own dating
techniques and collection methods, suggested a route that looks
something like this:

[![](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_psXvAyonPUs/TahLImPWf8I/AAAAAAAAEEg/uNw-U56GL1M/2011-04-15_153755.jpg){decoding="async"}](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_psXvAyonPUs/TahLImPWf8I/AAAAAAAAEEg/uNw-U56GL1M/2011-04-15_153755.jpg){target="_blank"
rel="external"}  
([Image
source](https://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0603/feature2/map.html){target="_blank"})

Later, genetic evidence came along. Geneticists, with their own dating
techniques and experimental methods suggested migration routes that
looked something like this:

[![](https://www.dhushara.com/book/unraveltree/mtDNA2.jpg){decoding="async"}](https://www.dhushara.com/book/unraveltree/mtDNA2.jpg){target="_blank"}  
([Image
source](https://www.dhushara.com/book/unraveltree/unravel.htm){target="_blank"})

After the genetic evidence, came evidence from a bacterium associated
with humans: *Helicobacter pylori*. It lives in our guts and can cause
stomach ulcers. It's been associated with our digestive tract for many
thousands of years. Looking at the different strains of these bacteria,
microbiologists, using their own dating techniques and experimental
protocols, deduced that this bacterium in our guts must have traveled
roughly along these routes:

[![hpylori_evol_small.jpg](http://blogarchive.brembs.net/e107_images/newspost_images/hpylori_evol_small.jpg){decoding="async"}](http://blogarchive.brembs.net/e107_images/newspost_images/hpylori_evol.jpg){target="_blank"}  
([Image
source](https://www.nature.com/nrgastro/journal/v7/n11/fig_tab/nrgastro.2010.154_F1.html){target="_blank"})

Most recently, linguists came along and studied the phonemes that make
up 504 of the different human languages around the globe. These
linguists adopted the analysis tools from the geneticists to their own
dating techniques and sampling methods and came up with a map that
suggested the following main routes along which the human languages seem
to have developed:

[![](https://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/NA-BL090A_LANGU_G_20110414190308.jpg){decoding="async"}](https://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/NA-BL090A_LANGU_G_20110414190308.jpg){target="_blank"}  
([Image
source](https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704547604576262572791243528.html?mod=WSJ_World_LEFTSecondNews){target="_blank"})

Clearly, getting the dates correct using phonemes will prove a lot
harder than the previously used dating techniques. Nevertheless, these
are four independent lines of evidence, collected over many decades by
scientists with vastly different backgrounds and training. Yet, the
results agree to an astonishing extent.

However, this doesn't mean it's 'true' or 'scientifically proven'. It
only means that this is the best humans can currently possibly do and
anything new that comes along must not only explain the current
congruence of disparate data, but also explain more data, than the
current 'Out of Africa' theory can explain. A few self-contradictory
passages in an ancient text do not even begin to come close to being a
contender.

Given this sort of evidence, it becomes rather obvious that creationists
are either uninformed or unpersuadable. For the former, information like
the one in this post should be more than sufficient to falsify the
creationist dogma. For the latter, ridicule and derision is the best
response.

This post was inspired by [Lapidarium
Notes](https://aminotes.tumblr.com/post/4633090702/evolution-of-language-tested-with-genetic){target="_blank"}.

</div>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

<div>

Pertinent peer-reviewed literature:

- Green, R., Krause, J., Ptak, S., Briggs, A., Ronan, M., Simons, J.,
  Du, L., Egholm, M., Rothberg, J., Paunovic, M., & Pääbo, S. (2006).
  Analysis of one million base pairs of Neanderthal DNA Nature, 444
  (7117), 330-336 DOI:
  [10.1038/nature05336](https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature05336){rev="review"}
- Linz, B., Balloux, F., Moodley, Y., Manica, A., Liu, H., Roumagnac,
  P., Falush, D., Stamer, C., Prugnolle, F., van der Merwe, S., Yamaoka,
  Y., Graham, D., Perez-Trallero, E., Wadstrom, T., Suerbaum, S., &
  Achtman, M. (2007). An African origin for the intimate association
  between humans and Helicobacter pylori Nature, 445 (7130), 915-918
  DOI:
  [10.1038/nature05562](https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature05562){rev="review"}
- Atkinson, Q. (2011). Phonemic Diversity Supports a Serial Founder
  Effect Model of Language Expansion from Africa Science, 332 (6027),
  346-349 DOI:
  [10.1126/science.1199295](https://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1199295){rev="review"}

</div>


<em>
 During my flyfishing vacation last year, pretty much nothing was happening on this blog. Now that I’ve migrated the blog to WordPress, I can actually schedule posts to appear when in fact I’m not even at the computer. I’m using this functionality to re-blog a few posts from the archives during the month of august while I’m away. This post is from April 19, 2011:
</em>

Flashback: Creationists, this is the evidence you have to beat!

[This third installment of my
[tweetlog](https://bjoern.brembs.net/category/tweetlog/) covers July
10-18:]{style="font-size: 12px;"}

- Cytoskeletal Determinants of Stimulus-Response Habits
  [https://feedly.com/k/15OdS3q](https://t.co/vY2Npama33 "https://feedly.com/k/15OdS3q"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://feedly.com/k/15OdS3q"}
- Wow! 7340 full-text and PDF downloads, and only 5510 abstract views
  for our journal rank paper:
  [https://www.frontiersin.org/Human_Neuroscience/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00291/full](https://t.co/WQ7jx32L6B "https://www.frontiersin.org/Human_Neuroscience/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00291/full"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://www.frontiersin.org/Human_Neuroscience/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00291/full"}
- In Science We Trust: Poll Results on How You Feel about Science:
  [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=in-science-we-trust-poll ...](https://t.co/sq6QQKW5LB "https://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=in-science-we-trust-poll"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=in-science-we-trust-poll"}
- "Doubt is our product" -- how the tobacco industry misrepresented our
  research:
  [https://targ.blogs.ilrt.org/2013/07/16/doubt-is-our-product/ ...](https://t.co/WKduBtYs1f "https://targ.blogs.ilrt.org/2013/07/16/doubt-is-our-product/"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://targ.blogs.ilrt.org/2013/07/16/doubt-is-our-product/"}
  by
  [~~@~~**MarcusMunafo**](https://twitter.com/MarcusMunafo){dir="ltr"}
- Motor Circuit-Specific Burst Patterns Drive Different Muscle and
  Behavior Patterns
  [https://feedly.com/k/1atMeKc](https://t.co/34EE2oN2qe "https://feedly.com/k/1atMeKc"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://feedly.com/k/1atMeKc"}
- Interestingly: the sentence adverbs of PubMed Central
  [https://nsaunders.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/interestingly-the-sentence-adverbs-of-pubmed-central/ ...](https://t.co/F3nOy0StEB "https://nsaunders.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/interestingly-the-sentence-adverbs-of-pubmed-central/"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://nsaunders.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/interestingly-the-sentence-adverbs-of-pubmed-central/"}
- Further Fell Fallout From Finch Folly: The Royal Society Relapse
  [https://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/1021-Further-Fell-Fallout-From-Finch-Folly-The-Royal-Society-Relapse.html ...](https://t.co/UIqvhc8dpN "https://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/1021-Further-Fell-Fallout-From-Finch-Folly-The-Royal-Society-Relapse.html"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/1021-Further-Fell-Fallout-From-Finch-Folly-The-Royal-Society-Relapse.html"}
- Joseph Esposito on the state of Open Access: Where are we, what still
  needs to be done?
  [https://poynder.blogspot.com/2013/07/joseph-esposito-on-state-of-open-access.html ...](https://t.co/YEJuQry74h "https://poynder.blogspot.com/2013/07/joseph-esposito-on-state-of-open-access.html"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://poynder.blogspot.com/2013/07/joseph-esposito-on-state-of-open-access.html"}
- Misconceptions about evolution video has its own misconceptions
  [https://feedproxy.google.com/\~r/Neurodojo/\~3/vOoyPoLrCHk/misconceptions-about-evolution-video.html ...](https://t.co/YCldiGf7rD "https://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Neurodojo/~3/vOoyPoLrCHk/misconceptions-about-evolution-video.html"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Neurodojo/~3/vOoyPoLrCHk/misconceptions-about-evolution-video.html"}
- Science and the public: Promotional tactics corrupt research
  [https://feedly.com/k/15Ogi29](https://t.co/4Gl15Ncagv "https://feedly.com/k/15Ogi29"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://feedly.com/k/15Ogi29"}
- Reproducibility: Two more red flags for suspect work
  [https://feedly.com/k/15OfZ7w](https://t.co/jub7sOeLK8 "https://feedly.com/k/15OfZ7w"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://feedly.com/k/15OfZ7w"}
- Sending a message
  [https://wp.me/p4g7f-nU ](https://t.co/v8DPd9tqzr "https://wp.me/p4g7f-nU"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow" expanded-url="https://wp.me/p4g7f-nU"}
  via
  [~~@~~**researchremix**](https://twitter.com/researchremix){dir="ltr"}
- Why librarians are needed more than ever in the 21st century
  [https://boingboing.net/2013/07/16/why-librarians-are-needed-more.html ...](https://t.co/hx3x2iHEfv "https://boingboing.net/2013/07/16/why-librarians-are-needed-more.html"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://boingboing.net/2013/07/16/why-librarians-are-needed-more.html"}
- Congratulations!
  [~~@~~**ivanoransky**](https://twitter.com/ivanoransky){dir="ltr"}
  leaves Reuters for MedPage Today.
  [https://shar.es/k3t16](https://t.co/y3xCeLdaNY "https://shar.es/k3t16"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow" expanded-url="https://shar.es/k3t16"}
- Open Access DOI Resolver:give it a DOI it gives back OA full-text
  institutional repository URL!
  [https://doi2oa.erambler.co.uk/ ](https://t.co/g1QMj8Tux3 "https://doi2oa.erambler.co.uk/"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://doi2oa.erambler.co.uk/"} via
  [~~@~~**HSSOpenAccess**](https://twitter.com/HSSOpenAccess){dir="ltr"}
- "surprisingly readable for something so depressingly stupid." --
  'Positivity Ratio' Criticized In New Sokal Affair
  [https://bit.ly/17k78JV](https://t.co/fquVtL6QYT "https://bit.ly/17k78JV"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow" expanded-url="https://bit.ly/17k78JV"}
- Animal studies produce many false positives
  [https://www.nature.com/news/animal-studies-produce-many-false-positives-1.13385 ...](https://t.co/5N7TnAp1lU "https://www.nature.com/news/animal-studies-produce-many-false-positives-1.13385"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://www.nature.com/news/animal-studies-produce-many-false-positives-1.13385"}
- "we should not make the author field of papers a proxy for all
  scientific output credit..." --
  [https://bit.ly/1bFzyRZ](https://t.co/3ExSTXwoii "https://bit.ly/1bFzyRZ"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow" expanded-url="https://bit.ly/1bFzyRZ"}
- Anybody with first-hand experience with Primo ScholarRank?
  [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDly9qPpPYQ ...](https://t.co/jhqMoaVbTs "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDly9qPpPYQ"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDly9qPpPYQ"}
- [~~@~~**Protohedgehog**](https://twitter.com/Protohedgehog){dir="ltr"}
  [~~@~~**bioSimonUoB**](https://twitter.com/bioSimonUoB){dir="ltr"}
  [~~@~~**brembs**](https://twitter.com/brembs){dir="ltr"} Judging a
  paper on journal IF like judging photography contest on presence of
  celebrity in background.
- Recombineering Homologous Recombination Constructs in Drosophila
  [https://feedly.com/k/12PrjvY](https://t.co/SWH99VhAaA "https://feedly.com/k/12PrjvY"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://feedly.com/k/12PrjvY"}
- The Molecular Basis of Sugar Sensing in Drosophila Larvae
  [https://feedly.com/k/13JXhQH](https://t.co/5tU9mj1gwj "https://feedly.com/k/13JXhQH"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://feedly.com/k/13JXhQH"}
- Heather Joseph on the state of Open Access: Where are we, what still
  needs to be done?
  [https://poynder.blogspot.de/2013/07/heather-joseph-on-state-of-open-access.html ...](https://t.co/sYNhQOI9Pt "https://poynder.blogspot.de/2013/07/heather-joseph-on-state-of-open-access.html"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://poynder.blogspot.de/2013/07/heather-joseph-on-state-of-open-access.html"}
- It's plain and simple: transparency is good for science and in the
  public interest
  [https://www.trialsjournal.com/content/14/1/215/abstract ...](https://t.co/UkloXci01w "https://www.trialsjournal.com/content/14/1/215/abstract"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://www.trialsjournal.com/content/14/1/215/abstract"}
  [~~\#~~**trials**](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23trials&src=hash){dir="ltr"
  query-source="hashtag_click"}
- Of the 10k downloads, \~6k full-text views:
  [https://www.frontiersin.org/Journal/AbstractImpact.aspx?ART_DOI=10.3389/fnhum.2013.00291&name=human_neuroscience&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Psychology-w28-2013&type=1 ...](https://t.co/kKvi9IhfUw "https://www.frontiersin.org/Journal/AbstractImpact.aspx?ART_DOI=10.3389/fnhum.2013.00291&name=human_neuroscience&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Psychology-w28-2013&type=1"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://www.frontiersin.org/Journal/AbstractImpact.aspx?ART_DOI=10.3389/fnhum.2013.00291&name=human_neuroscience&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Psychology-w28-2013&type=1"}
- Today, 10k+ downloads for our paper on the lack of evidence for
  journal rank:
  [https://www.frontiersin.org/Human_Neuroscience/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00291/full ...](https://t.co/WQ7jx32L6B "https://www.frontiersin.org/Human_Neuroscience/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00291/full"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://www.frontiersin.org/Human_Neuroscience/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00291/full"}
- iPhylo: Learning from eLife: GitHub as an article repository
  [https://iphylo.blogspot.com/2013/07/learning-from-elife-github-as-article.html?spref=tw ...](https://t.co/rbkUgBfLfj "https://iphylo.blogspot.com/2013/07/learning-from-elife-github-as-article.html?spref=tw"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://iphylo.blogspot.com/2013/07/learning-from-elife-github-as-article.html?spref=tw"}
- The cat frog came back, the very next day
  [https://feedly.com/k/1btBayl](https://t.co/S6YqmnOFSq "https://feedly.com/k/1btBayl"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://feedly.com/k/1btBayl"}
- An astonishingly shallow treatment of a very real problem: Risk
  [https://feedly.com/k/10PiLHV](https://t.co/a7PRgYlxjU "https://feedly.com/k/10PiLHV"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://feedly.com/k/10PiLHV"}
- The Evolution of Drosophila melanogaster as a Model for Alcohol
  Research
  [https://feedly.com/k/1bty5OA](https://t.co/NkmSOoLkN2 "https://feedly.com/k/1bty5OA"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://feedly.com/k/1bty5OA"}
- [~~@~~**Technixer**](https://twitter.com/Technixer){dir="ltr"}
  Exactly. To get around this issue, we wrote this instead:
  [https://www.frontiersin.org/Human_Neuroscience/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00291/full ...](https://t.co/WQ7jx32L6B "https://www.frontiersin.org/Human_Neuroscience/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00291/full"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://www.frontiersin.org/Human_Neuroscience/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00291/full"}
- The Selected Papers Network (Part 3)
  [https://feedly.com/k/1btxlch](https://t.co/KDv5xS5Qxu "https://feedly.com/k/1btxlch"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://feedly.com/k/1btxlch"}
- Fruit Flies Seek Mates Leggingly: Scientific American Podcast
  [https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=fruit-flies-seek-mates-leggingly-13-07-11&WT.mc_id=SA_sharetool_Twitter ...](https://t.co/ycbZ2RVJ2s "https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=fruit-flies-seek-mates-leggingly-13-07-11&WT.mc_id=SA_sharetool_Twitter"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=fruit-flies-seek-mates-leggingly-13-07-11&WT.mc_id=SA_sharetool_Twitter"}
  via [~~@~~**sciam**](https://twitter.com/sciam){dir="ltr"}
- Want good reasons to be a Creationist? You won't find them here.
  [https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/doing-good-science/2013/07/11/want-good-reasons-to-be-a-creationist-you-wont-find-them-here/?WT.mc_id=SA_sharetool_Twitter ...](https://t.co/gjHtaPJYIl "https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/doing-good-science/2013/07/11/want-good-reasons-to-be-a-creationist-you-wont-find-them-here/?WT.mc_id=SA_sharetool_Twitter"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/doing-good-science/2013/07/11/want-good-reasons-to-be-a-creationist-you-wont-find-them-here/?WT.mc_id=SA_sharetool_Twitter"}
  via [~~@~~**sciam**](https://twitter.com/sciam){dir="ltr"}
- Brains don't respond to stimuli -- brains act and then evaluate the
  response of the environment:
  [https://bjoern.brembs.net/2013/07/brains-as-outputinput-systems/ ...](https://t.co/ORYvBZx3nD "https://bjoern.brembs.net/2013/07/brains-as-outputinput-systems/"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://bjoern.brembs.net/2013/07/brains-as-outputinput-systems/"}
- Unhelpful Research Advice \#2
  [https://wp.me/pP1Q8-JZ](https://t.co/r8Q8gqn0R6 "https://wp.me/pP1Q8-JZ"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow" expanded-url="https://wp.me/pP1Q8-JZ"}
- Brains as output/input systems
  [https://wp.me/p3walV-4R](https://t.co/JdeX2oqbMg "https://wp.me/p3walV-4R"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow" expanded-url="https://wp.me/p3walV-4R"}
- "Why Has the Number of Scientific Retractions Increased?" New study
  tries to answer
  [https://buff.ly/1dmB7Cx](https://t.co/hQZu5a5hpv "https://buff.ly/1dmB7Cx"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow" expanded-url="https://buff.ly/1dmB7Cx"}
- A call for open access to all data used in AJ and ApJ articles
  [https://buff.ly/1dmzZPn](https://t.co/qX7MF1k5Xj "https://buff.ly/1dmzZPn"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow" expanded-url="https://buff.ly/1dmzZPn"}
- The Cost of Scientific Publishing
  [https://disq.us/8e1c8n](https://t.co/WaIce0ApuY "https://disq.us/8e1c8n"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow" expanded-url="https://disq.us/8e1c8n"}
- Open is a state of mind
  [https://feedly.com/k/13ONY0u](https://t.co/3MMuVxqs0L "https://feedly.com/k/13ONY0u"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://feedly.com/k/13ONY0u"}
- On the Training of Future Neuroscientists: Insights from the Grass
  Laboratory
  [https://feedly.com/k/10O65Rz](https://t.co/GYk6yACfeA "https://feedly.com/k/10O65Rz"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://feedly.com/k/10O65Rz"}
- How Did the Chicken Cross the Road? With Her Striatal Cholinergic
  Interneurons, Of Course
  [https://feedly.com/k/10O5b7B](https://t.co/RFdOQ6veq7 "https://feedly.com/k/10O5b7B"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://feedly.com/k/10O5b7B"}
- Olfaction and Vision Meet in the Retina
  [https://feedly.com/k/10O4FGt](https://t.co/SSLqGPWG3q "https://feedly.com/k/10O4FGt"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://feedly.com/k/10O4FGt"}
- Busting the top five myths about open access publishing
  [https://theconversation.com/busting-the-top-five-myths-about-open-access-publishing-14792 ...](https://t.co/UmYqCnqcmZ "https://theconversation.com/busting-the-top-five-myths-about-open-access-publishing-14792"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://theconversation.com/busting-the-top-five-myths-about-open-access-publishing-14792"}
  via
  [~~@~~**ConversationUK**](https://twitter.com/ConversationUK){dir="ltr"}
- Isolation of Sensory Neurons of Aplysia californica for Patch Clamp
  Recordings of Glutamatergic Currents
  [https://feedly.com/k/10O3Tti](https://t.co/KuMNzxLkJv "https://feedly.com/k/10O3Tti"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://feedly.com/k/10O3Tti"}
- [~~\#~~**Open**](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Open&src=hash){dir="ltr"
  query-source="hashtag_click"} Access and the looming crisis in
  [~~\#~~**science**](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23science&src=hash){dir="ltr"
  query-source="hashtag_click"}
  [~~\#~~**OA**](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OA&src=hash){dir="ltr"
  query-source="hashtag_click"}
  [~~\#~~**scientific**](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23scientific&src=hash){dir="ltr"
  query-source="hashtag_click"} papers
  [~~\#~~**biomedical**](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23biomedical&src=hash){dir="ltr"
  query-source="hashtag_click"} journal
  [~~\#~~**publication**](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23publication&src=hash){dir="ltr"
  query-source="hashtag_click"} \|
  [~~@~~**scoopit**](https://twitter.com/scoopit){dir="ltr"}
  [https://sco.lt/5Oa6uP](https://t.co/Ku0HtzoFlF "https://sco.lt/5Oa6uP"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow" expanded-url="https://sco.lt/5Oa6uP"}
- Open access on the conference circuit
  [https://buff.ly/12lnORq ](https://t.co/Tcypa1K9yx "https://buff.ly/12lnORq"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow" expanded-url="https://buff.ly/12lnORq"}
  via
  [~~@~~**stephen_curry**](https://twitter.com/Stephen_Curry){dir="ltr"}
- The challenge of semantically marking up articles (more thoughts on
  PLoS Hubs)
  [https://iphylo.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/the-challenge-of-semantically-marking.html ...](https://t.co/9MYwwApkXS "https://iphylo.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/the-challenge-of-semantically-marking.html"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://iphylo.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/the-challenge-of-semantically-marking.html"}
- Authors of PLOS ONE paper on UK public's views of science & CAM reply
  to
  [~~@~~**HomeopathicDana**](https://twitter.com/HomeopathicDana){dir="ltr"}'s
  critique
  [https://www.plosone.org/annotation/listThread.action?inReplyTo=68063&root=68063 ...](https://t.co/nvk4sBXbz6 "https://www.plosone.org/annotation/listThread.action?inReplyTo=68063&root=68063"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://www.plosone.org/annotation/listThread.action?inReplyTo=68063&root=68063"}
  [~~\#~~**scicomm**](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23scicomm&src=hash){dir="ltr"
  query-source="hashtag_click"}
  [~~\#~~**pppr**](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23pppr&src=hash){dir="ltr"
  query-source="hashtag_click"}
- Science trash-talk
  [https://buff.ly/1dheMWY](https://t.co/woaXKW10CJ "https://buff.ly/1dheMWY"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow" expanded-url="https://buff.ly/1dheMWY"}
- Open Access to Research Data: The European Commission's consultation
  in progress
  [https://buff.ly/15vqDQo](https://t.co/DvUBh5kKLE "https://buff.ly/15vqDQo"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow" expanded-url="https://buff.ly/15vqDQo"}
- "Greater scrutiny of high-profile publications has had a modest impact
  on retractions"
  [https://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0068397 ...](https://t.co/36ZvFlJPX2 "https://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0068397"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0068397"}
- Life of a Neuro Pope
  [https://feedly.com/k/1aUSTjh](https://t.co/aeQ2M3aOgS "https://feedly.com/k/1aUSTjh"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
  expanded-url="https://feedly.com/k/1aUSTjh"}
- Decapitated Worms Regrow Heads with Memories Still Inside
  [https://shar.es/Akx6F](https://t.co/xnfFuphM9G "https://shar.es/Akx6F"){dir="ltr"
  target="_blank" rel="nofollow" expanded-url="https://shar.es/Akx6F"}


This third installment of my tweetlog covers July 10-18: Cytoskeletal Determinants of Stimulus-Response Habits https://feedly.com/k/15OdS3q Wow!

Messages de Rogue Scholar

Data Diving for Genomics Treasure

Two evolutionary conserved, fundamental learning mechanisms

Flashback: All brains possess free will because there is no design in biology

Flashback: Creationists, this is the evidence you have to beat!

Tweetlog: fruit flies, evolution and #openaccess