Well, what a week it has been. (And Science Recap of the Week!)

(Skip this first part if you want to, it's mostly just a rant about nothing.) I'm sure its not just me that thinks that this week was filled with lots of things in the news that hit a little too close to home. Let's just recap this week in the news for a second:

• Monday:
• Boston Marathon Bombings
• Tuesday:
• Mail sent to Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) tested positive for ricin
• Wednesday:
• More ricin letters, this time to President Obama
• Fertilizer plant explosion in West, TX
• Thursday:
• MIT police officer shot in the line of duty, leads to a manhunt that extends into Friday for suspects in the bombings that happened on Monday.

All this happens in the foreground of our lives, while several things were less noticed:

• North Korea still does some crazy shit. They say they are ready to deal, as long as they are recognized as a nuclear nation. They demanded that the South Koreans apologize, and to stop defaming the DPRK. They reject aid that a group of South Korean businessmen tried to send their colleagues in a joint industrial zone. They demand to have sanctions lifted, so that they will talk to the United States in negotiations.
• 75 people died in a wave of bombings in Iraq on Monday, 27 on Thursday.
• There was a 7.8 earthquake in Iran.
• Bird flu kills two people in Shanghai.
• 16 people are injured in a bomb blast in Bangalore.
• New Zealand legalizes same-sex marriages.
• 30 migrant workers in Greece are shot by a farm supervisor on a strawberry farm.

Holy shit that's a lot of stuff that happened this week. One thing that I thought of, however, is that it kinda doesn't match up to what is happening around the world. Yes, it's a major event, and I care deeply about everything that happened. I am deeply moved by the people willing to help everyone that is affected by the events of this week. But I am also wondering about why we don't give the same weight to everything that happens around the world. I know the reason: the reason is that we are more overwhelmed this week is because this stuff happened one after another in a place that we weren't accustomed to it happening: home. We are reminded that it's not just stuff that's happening a world away from us. I even have a friend that attends MIT. I don't know anybody affected by the earthquakes in Iran or the shooting in Greece or the earthquake in Iran.I guess that's part of the human condition: we care about things we relate to. We'd be overwhelmed if we cared about everything ever. I get that. But whatever. It's just something I've been thinking about. (/rant)

Now on to a section that I'm personally excited about: Science Recap of the Week! I'll post a study published that week that I find interesting, and give my two cents about it. It's mostly to force myself to read more sciencey things, but I thought it would be interesting to share it.

Anyways, without further ado, this week's article, courtesy of  Dr. Kareken of the Indiana University School of Medicine:

• The taste of beer causes a chemical reward in the male brain.

This is a really cool study, published this week among the madness, if you want to read it. If you don't have access to Nature, or can't read science,  this is a good summary. You could probably explain it away using Pavlovian methods: people who get drunk off beer feel good from the dopamine. The body associates the taste of the beer to the release of dopamine in the body. A small taste of the beer would then convince the body to release dopamine. The interesting part is that people who are predisposed to alcoholism actually release more dopamine than people who aren't. The significance of that fact is truly outstanding, and could lead to further understanding of alcoholism as a disease.