Activity: Use Google to Dig Deeper

Google It

What's our next step? Google it! Or, use your search engine of choice. 

While we don't want to rely on Google to search for reliable sources (the library website is better for that, which we will learn more about later), we can use Google to investigate and learn more about a source. 

Below are Google results after searching "christine liu neuroscience at UC Berkeley"

a Google search showing results after searching "christine liu neuroscience at UC Berkeley"

We can see that the first few results tell us that Christine Liu is indeed a PhD student at UC Berkeley and she studies how nicotine affects the brain. While she may not be an expert on how MSG affects the brain, she is clearly working to become an expert on how other chemicals, like nicotine, affect the brain. 

If we click on the first result entitled "Science — Christine Liu", we are led to Christine Liu's website and CV Links to an external site.. When looking at her CV, we can see that she has a number of credentials. 

She lists her education, research, and publications. Let's look more deeply at her most recent examples of these: 

Education

2014-Present Doctor of Philosophy - Neuroscience
Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute
University of California, Berkeley
Advisor: Dr. Stephan Lammel

Research

2015-Present Elucidating the neural circuitry underlying nicotine-related behaviors
Principal Investigator: Dr. Stephan Lammel
University of California, Berkeley

Publications

de Jong, J.W., Afjei, S.A., Dorocic, I.P., Peck, J.R., Liu, C., Kim, C.K., Tian, L., Deisseroth, K., & Lammel, S. (2019) A Neural Circuit Mechanism for Encoding Aversive Stimuli in the Mesolimbic Dopamine System. Neuron. 101 (1), 133-151.

Yammine, S.Z., Liu, C., Jarreau, P.B., & Coe, I.R. (2018). Social media for social change in science. Science. 360 (6385), 162-163.

Now that we've researched Christine Liu, we should feel confident about answering our guiding questions and determining if we can use this social media source. 

Click next to review our guiding questions and determine whether or not we should use this source in a paper about MSG.