Some researchers at the Ohio State University have been observing the rapidly developing brain in the zebrafish embryo. This is helping them to begin to better understand the basis of brain disorders like autism and schizophrenia.

These researchers are interested in understanding the changes that can take place during neurological development, the kind of changes that come from genetic defects that are often associated with neurological disease. They are particularly interested in figuring out why the loss of the gene Protocadadherin-19. It is already known that this loss-mutation is linked to many brain disorders—this study looks into the mechanics of “why?”

The research demonstrates that a clustering of cell interactions is a likely culprit to healthy brain development.

The study examined normal “wild” zebra fish versus those in which the researchers created PCDH19 loss. They found that, maybe, cell interactions after PCDH19 loss cold be a culprit.

Like many features and objects on the campus of the Ohio State University a new bench has been installed in honor of a deserving Buckeye.

The new bench recently installed at the front of Blankenship Hall at the main campus of the Ohio State University is intended to honor the only member of the Ohio State police department to be killed in the line of duty.

On February 10, 1997 Officer Michael Blankenship was responding to a suspicious person call near the Wexner Center for the Arts. Blankenship was shot by the suspect who committed suicide themselves only days later.

The new bench is an additional honor to Blankenship’s service and resides on the grounds of the building that already bears his name.

The dedication came as part of National Police Week. The Ceremony honored all officers killed in the line of duty along with Blankenship.

The myth that most great scientists are at their most creative when young is missing a larger perspective on the story. A new OSU study looks at the work of winners of Nobel Prizes in economics and finds, in their lives, two cycles of creativity. One particular type hitting earlier and the other often later.

The research found that for economics Nobel laureates the peaks tended to hit in their middle twenties and their middle fifties. This study is supported by previous evidence that found similar patterns in the arts and sciences.

Young economic laureates tended to be conceptual innovators. This kind of innovation usually challenges the conventional knowledge of the field and typically supports sudden blooms of new ideas. These innovators often peak earlier in their careers as they later become mired in accepted theory.

The other kind of creativity and these experimental innovators work a little differently—they accumulate knowledge through their careers and find new ways to analyze, synthesize, and interpret information into new ways of understanding. This kind of analysis requires time, thus the innovations occur later in the laureate’s career.