A couple of months back Mind Hacks stopped doing their weekly "Spike Activity" round-up of neuroscience and psychology news. That's a pity because it was really handy. So I've decided to step in and fill the gap.
So...
Image of the week is this, which looks like some kind of delicious glazed doughnut covered in sprinkles. Mmm. It's actually a disk on which mouse hippocampal neurons are growing thanks to some clever work at Pittsburgh.
The big story this week is that Science asked for the retraction of the famous 2009 paper implicating a virus, XMRV, in chronic fatigue syndrome. The authors are holding fast, for now, but there's growing evidence that the results may have been caused by contaminated lab products. Mind Hacks has a good overview and there's a detailed discussion going on at VirologyBlog.
Acupuncture has minimal benefits for "medically unexplained symptoms", according to a new trial. ...
