23/01/2014 Kam Arkinstall

Choosey females should, “like physicians, unclothe the subject, weigh, listen, observe vital capacity, and take blood, urine and fecal samples.” – so said Hamilton and Zuk in 1982, when they first posited that mate choice enables females to select healthy, disease-resistant males, and produce disease-resistant offspring. While I’m not sure that this is the approach… Read more »

17/01/2014 Christopher Foote

By Ciara Ni Dhubhghaill, Assistant Editor, BMC Series Despite lacking nerves, muscles and a central nervous system, sponges (Porifera) are capable of organizing behaviours in response to external stimuli. One such interesting response among the demosponges (the largest class in the phylum Porifera, comprising 90% of all sponges) is an inflation/contraction response, or “sneeze”, as… Read more »

17/01/2014 Simon Harold

By Nawsheen Boodhun, Assistant Editor BMC-series 2013 has seen more than 10,200 articles published across the BMC Series* journals. Now that 2014 is upon us, we thought it would be opportune to look back on some of our most-viewed articles of the past 12 months. 1.    Occupational issues of adults with ADHD (>44 200 Accesses)… Read more »

15/01/2014 Simon Harold

Here at the BMC-series, we’re proud to be able to bring you the latest open access research covering virtually all fields of biological and clinical research — from anaesthesiology to zoonotic disease, and everything in between. To give you a flavour of this diversity, we’ve put together a selection of some of our favourite images… Read more »

06/01/2014 Simon Harold

Definitions and DSM-5 • Sunshine and strength • Rethinking honeybee history •  High altitude horses • Polar bear consuming a seal •  Causes of academic burnout •  Useful urine? •  The Agouti and the ecstasy Psychiatry: Definitions and DSM-5 The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of psychiatry has been described as the ‘bible’ of disease… Read more »