Repetitive perhaps, but certainly not boring

Repetitive perhaps, but certainly not boring

Parental Advice: Given Perhaps, but Not Received.

We all think we give good advice, and we think we do it well. We’ve mastered the anticipatory guidance section of the well-child or nursery visit. We have our formula: we cover the salient topics, throw in some personal experience, and assume our parental advice on child rearing has been received and understood. Unfortunately, as shown by Eisenberg et al in this issue of Pediatrics, we appear t...

Repetitive but not redundant

L ike a parachute jump, mitosis can go badly wrong unless every connection is sound. The repetitive DNA sequences located at centromeres help secure mitotic links, Bassett et al. show (1). Contradicting previous evidence that the sequences are expendable, the study indicates that they help attract proteins necessary to repair faulty chromosome connections. Centromeres ensure that mitotic spindl...

Not boring at all

The element boron is not renowned among biologists, short of a few specialists who know that it is an essential nutrient for plants and an element in boromycin—an antibiotic compound produced by Streptomyces. Yet, on the whole, molecular biologists and, in particular, those in drug development seem to have little use for carbon’s left-hand neighbour in the periodic table. This is about to chang...

Perhaps Unidimensional Is Not Unidimensional

Miller (1956) identified his famous limit of 7 ± 2 items based in part on absolute identification-the ability to identify stimuli that differ on a single physical dimension, such as lines of different length. An important aspect of this limit is its independence from perceptual effects and its application across all stimulus types. Recent research, however, has identified several exceptions. We...