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It is blackmail. If you refuse to cite a paper the reviewer just says he thinks that changes are not adequate and recommends rejection. A good editor can keep tabs on that sort of behaviour but the author has no way of knowing whose side the editor is on. I am now lucky that my salary does not...

Why don't they remove the citations and blacklist the reviewers? This practice has been going on ever since I have been in science. The easiest way to tell who has reviewed your paper is by what papers they require you to cite in order to satisfy their comments. It happened to me a couple of...

Maybe someone in Oslo has an auntie in Tromso.

Are you suggesting that viruses buried in the permafrost might with climate change be released to cause pandemics amongst populations that have no immunity?

Not the ones I know. Or the ones with small cardiac volumes in the various studies.

Yup. And a dog dropped dead on Hampstead Heath yesterday - no kidding. All very worrying.

It think it is very possible that signals derived from events in the rest of the body, like immune responses, could alter the ability of neurons to carry out the processes of thinking. The problem with metabolic suggestions involving oxygen or waste products is that: 1. these ought to have been...

A very interesting question. So to answer it we want to know what limits toe-touching. Toe-touching, or more than that, palm to floor touching, is one of the criteria for hypermobility and is usually assumed to be a sign of lax ligaments. But toe or floor touching is, I suspect, almost...

Do you get manunsplaining and womanunsplaining? And what would that be in German or Norwegian?

I think I agree Trish, but I get stick for doing so. Ordinary people think brains think but Gilbert Ryle the philosopher said that was a category mistake, only people think. I won't go on about it but my reasoning is given in an essay called 'Giving Descartes His Due' in a monograph by Hackett...

Indeed. I said a clue! I don't remember bringing in psychological accounts - I was responding to you bringing them in with 'people'. I still don't know what that can mean in biological terms. The event domain of thinking is smaller than the brain, not larger. For sure, antecedent events in...

Hi @Woolie. I don't buy it. But I realise my disagreement is not a personal one. Asim Roy and I co-edited a volume of Frontiers in Psychology recently on representation in the brain where we tried to make the case for the neuronal level being central to understanding brain and thought, hoping...

I am not sure I have a lot more useful to say on this. Too many unknowns.

I think I read in the Guardian that there is a new plan that when anyone is hungry and thirsty they should get food and drink within 52 weeks minimum. I may have got that wrong. (Note: I have just prorogued the moderation team so they cannot do anything about posts that might seem to be...

`Could a patient organisation in Denmark hire me (free of charge) as a representative?

Could someone suggest he/she engages in dialogue with me? I am not a patient or patient organisation but I am critical!

Well if they are paying for it they should be accountable for its use, as I see it! Prospero comes under NIHR. It is clearly not simply a registering tool. The idea is to guarantee quality, as in: 'We hope that this will reduce the potential for bias by reducing the opportunity for data...

A very good friend of mine was once a soloist at the Royal Ballet. She and my wife go to open days at the ballet school to spot new talent. To have any chance of success ballet dancers have to start as children, often quite young. As far as I am aware all the flexibility they show is a...

I see this is under the UK National Institute for Health Research NIHR. How the heck does NIHR get to register a commercial product being reviewed by the people selling it?

I don't think that is likely. RoB2 has been in progress for about 3 years. My understanding is that there are some discussions occurring mid September. Whether there are other reasons for delay I don't know.