This newly published study may by the most impressive—in some senses—academic publication of our time: “The ‘Proust Phenomenon’: odor-evoked autobiographical memories triggered by direct amygdala stimulation in human,” Fabrice Bartolomei, Stanislas Lagarde, Samuel Médina Villalon, Aileen McGonigal, and Christian G. Benar, Cortex, epub December 18, 2016. The authors write: Vivid memories triggered by odors were […]
Year: 2017
A look back at the Ig Nobel Prize-spurring Sokal hoax
The 1996 Ig Nobel Prize for literature was awarded to the editors of the journal Social Text, for eagerly publishing research that they could not understand, that the author said was meaningless, and which claimed that reality does not exist. The “research” paper was “Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity,” written by Alan […]
Music discriminations by carp (Cyprinus carpio)
“Prior to this series of experiments, the prevailing opinion appeared to be skepticism as to whether koi could discriminate one piece of music from another under any circumstances. Now it appears that these animals can discriminate polyphonic music, discriminate melodic patterns, and even classify music by artistic genre.” Koi (Cyprinus carpio), which are members of […]
Dott on Wacke
Here Dott opines on wacke, and on graywack. And that’s not all: “Wacke, graywacke and matrix; what approach to immature sandstone classification?” Robert H. Dott [pictured here], Journal of Sedimentary Research 34, no. 3 (1964): 625-632. “It is suggested that sedimentary rock classification systems have become confused because factors of genesis related to tectonics, provenance, […]