The nature of love: Harlow, Bowlby and Bettelheim on affectionless mothers

Harry Harlow, famous for his experiments with rhesus monkeys and cloth and wire mothers, was visited by psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby and by child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim in 1958. They made similar observations of Harlow’s monkeys, yet their interpretations were strikingly different. Bettelheim saw Harlow’s wire mother

Assembly and Functional Architecture of Bacterial Chemoreceptor Nanoarrays

Transmembrane chemotaxis receptors are found in bacteria in extended hexagonal arrays stabilized by the membrane and by cytosolic binding partners, the kinase CheA and coupling protein CheW. Models of array architecture and assembly propose receptors cluster into trimers-of-dimers that associate with one CheA dimer and two CheW monomers to form the minimal core unit necessary for signal transduction. Reconstructing in vitro chemoreceptor ternary complexes that are homogenous, functional, and exhibit native architecture remains a challenge. Here we report that His-tag mediated receptor dimerization with divalent metals is sufficient to drive assembly of native-like functional arrays of a receptor cytoplasmic fragment. Our results indicate receptor dimerization initiates assembly and precedes formation of ternary complexes with partial kinase activity. Restoration of maximal kinase activity coincides with a shift to larger complexes, suggesting that kinase activity depends on interactions beyond the core unit. We hypothesize that achieving maximal activity requires building core units into hexagons and/or coalescing hexagons into the extended lattice. This discovery may also address a previously observed density-dependent transition between signaling states. To further test this, we implemented a paramagnetic relaxation enhancement (PRE) based solid-state NMR approach to obtain long-range (≥ 20 Å) distance constraints across the trimer of dimers interface. Overall, the work presented here shows that minimally perturbing His-tag mediated dimerization promotes assembly of chemoreceptor arrays with native architecture, and thus enabled us to gain insights into the mode of array assembly and the role of the core functional unit

A tale of four countries: How Bowlby used his trip through Europe to write the WHO report and spread his ideas

Attachment theory, developed by child psychiatrist John Bowlby, is considered a major theory in developmental psychology. Attachment theory can be seen as resulting from Bowlby's personal experiences, his psychoanalytic education, his subsequent study of ethology, and societal developments during the 1930s and 1940s. One of those developments was the outbreak of World War II and its effects on children's psychological wellbeing. In 1950, Bowlby was appointed WHO consultant to study the needs of children who were orphaned or separated from their families for other reasons and needed care in foster homes or institutions. The resulting report is generally considered a landmark publication in psychology, although it subsequently met with methodological criticism. In this paper, by reconstructing Bowlby's visit to several European countries, on the basis of notebooks and letters, the authors shed light on the background of this report and the way Bowlby used or neglected the findings he gathered

Percentages of stereotypic labels assigned to each character Because each label was assigned twice, chance distribution would yield 50% for each character.

<p>Percentages of stereotypic labels assigned to each character Because each label was assigned twice, chance distribution would yield 50% for each character.</p

Mean number of positive labels (range 1–8) assigned to each character Black vertical lines represent standard errors.

<p>Mean number of positive labels (range 1–8) assigned to each character Black vertical lines represent standard errors.</p

Sample characteristics.

<p>Sample characteristics.</p

Categorizing by skin color across age groups.

<p>Categorizing by skin color across age groups.</p

Parents’ opinions about Black Pete.

<p>Parents’ opinions about Black Pete.</p

Children’s first answer to the question ‘Who is Black Pete?’

<p>Children’s first answer to the question ‘Who is Black Pete?’</p