As always, a lot of interesting stuff I won’t get to deal with at length:

Wired has a great story on the DSM-V, psychiatry’s main diagnostic manual, taking us Inside the Battle to Define Mental Illness. I’m not sucking up to management here (especially since the magazine and Wired.com are different entities); this is an ongoing interest for me, and this story gets inside it nicely.

Deborah Blum has a wonderful piece on drinks and other scary mixtures available At the Prohibition Bar.

The original 1998 study linking autism to vaccines was fraudulent, says the BMJ. Also echoed by CNN. If you’ve ever wondered why a few journalists press the need to call bullshit when bullshit is published, this is your answer.

Ball squeezing and creativity Not quite what you think, but, uh, worth exploring

Bored birds, busy brains: Habituation to song initiates significant molecular changes in auditory forebrain of zebra finch This one I hope to get to later. It looks at the genetic dynamics behind ‘habituation,’ which is when we adjust to a new stimulus and turn down its volume so it doesn’t keep striking us as novel. For brain geeks.

Biophemera draws attention to Alexis Gambis’ science films: fruit flies, surrealism and sex

Discuss.