Further very sad news (following so soon after the death of Bill Lipscomb): My good friend and longtime collaborator Jerry Lettvin died this week. Jerry was such a huge—in almost every sense—figure that he and his work defied quick description. But I’ll try. This is from a book I started writing more than a decade […]
Tag: brain
Torn-Up About Torn-up Money
If you have never watched someone rip up large amounts of cash, you may be unsure as to how the different parts of your brain would respond in the event that you did see someone tearing valuable banknotes into tiny, worthless shreds. A new study may help you how to predict what would happen. The […]
Stefan Carmien joins LFHCfS
Stefan Carmien joined the Luxuriant Former Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS), a sibling club of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS) and the the Luxuriant Facial Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS). He says: I was previously the proud possessor of long flowing luxurious hair: I am now reduced to what you see in […]
The influence of Head on acting
Sam Shuster adds, more or less, to the legend of Lord Brain and Dr. Head (the former of whom succeeded the latter, after a gap, as editor of the journal Brain, as we described yesterday): My story is about the guy who taught me neurology, who was a little younger than Brain, and who, when […]
Shocking: Cheating at math?
An eminent mathematician alerts us to this news report, and asks: “Would you want to receive a mild shock? Well if you were a college student failing math, and you read this report, you might. So the question then becomes: Is this considered cheating?” The report, by Charles Choi of Live Science, says: Zap, You’re […]
28 Straight Hours at the Keyboard
German and Austrian researchers analysed what happened to pianist Armin Fuchs when he spent more than a full day playing over and over again, nonstop, an oddly-named piece of music by a French composer. They also analysed what happened to the music. This was a tour de force of artistic and neurological repetition. The research […]
Inheritance and the brain
The Associated Press issued a report about inheritance and the brain: NM family sues funeral home over brain in bag (10:21 a.m.) By The Associated Press Posted: 01/06/2010 10:16:23 AM MST ALBUQUERQUE – Members of a New Mexico family are suing an Espanola funeral home after their grandmother’s brain was sent home in a bag […]
“in a brain scanner… stocks & bonds”
This week’s Phrase of the Week is: “participants were placed in a brain scanner while they chose stocks and bonds“. The phrase appears in a Feb 1, 2010 Carolyn Johnson article in the Boston Globe. The article describes the study “Variability in Nucleus Accumbens Activity Mediates Age-Related Suboptimal Financial Risk Taking,” Gregory R. Samanez-Larkin, Camelia […]