February 2012
The electronic brain ? : your mind vs. a computer
In a 2011 interview, physicist Stephen Hawking declared, “I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail.” Of course, the brain is not a computer in the literal sense of the word, but the brain-as-computer metaphor is a powerful one. Long before the invention of the PC, people used the...
Sat In Your Lap by Kate Bush
Extraverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving
“Clever” is the word that perhaps describes ENTPs best. The professor who juggles half a dozen ideas for research papers and grant proposals in his mind while giving a highly entertaining lecture on an abstruse subject is a classic example of the type. So is the stand-up comedian whose lampoons are both funny and incisively accurate.
ENTPs...
Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving
INTPs are pensive, analytical folks. They may venture so deeply into thought as to seem detached, and often actually are oblivious to the world around them.
Precise about their descriptions, INTPs will often correct others (or be sorely tempted to) if the shade of meaning is a bit off. While annoying to the less concise, this fine discrimination...
The mind is a guess
My recent Beyond Boundaries column for the latest issue of The Psychologist explores how the idea of the ‘mind’ as a single distinct concept is an assumption that many cultures don’t share.
I’d like to talk about people who don’t have minds. This isn’t going to be one of those ingenious philosophy arguments where I claim that we’re all zombies, nor a smug assertion that...
“I can live with doubt and uncertainty. I think it’s much more interesting...”
– Richard Feynman
Early Indicators: High Functioning Autism and Aspergers Syndrome
Disabled World - Disability News for all the Family: http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/article_2255.shtml#ixzz1kBLycV4A
Children with high functioning autism or Asperger’s Syndrome are often misdiagnosed and underserved in our country. The difficulty in understanding and acknowledging autism, primarily...
Everything you know about dieting is wrong, say US scientists who have devised a new formula for calculating calories and weight loss that they hope will revolutionize the way people tackle obesity.
Obesity rates have doubled worldwide in the past 30 years, coinciding with a growing food surplus, and the ensuing epidemic has sparked a multibillion dollar weight loss industry that has largely...
Foundation Medicine: personalizing cancer drugs
Foundation Medicine is offering a test that helps oncologists choose drugs targeted to the genetic profile of a patient’s tumor cells. Has personalized cancer treatment finally arrived?
Michael Pellini fires up his computer and opens a report on a patient with a tumor of the salivary gland. The patient had surgery, but the cancer recurred....
Happy Birthday, My Viking Heart. I love you. Love always, Me.
When questioned why my insomnia seems so much of an urgent issue now, despite having suffered from it since my teens - I quipped that it doesn’t bother my sleep but that of my boyfriend’s. It was never an issue for me. Ever.
However, for now, I’m just gonna give in to it ( again ) and not worry over it anymore - like I haven’t ever.
I’m in quite good company. Sir...
The myth of the eight hour sleep
We often worry about lying awake in the middle of the night - but it could be good for you. A growing body of evidence from both science and history suggests that the eight-hour sleep may be unnatural.
In the early 1990s, psychiatrist Thomas Wehr conducted an experiment in which a group of people were plunged into darkness for 14 hours every day for a month.
...
But I’m really tempted to work for this investment bank in one of the best parts of the financial district, for a shitload of money.
So, I may be applying for a job in biomedical product development.
“A woman loves nothing more than to be wrapped in chains.”
– Coco Chanel
How exercise fuels the brain
Moving the body demands a lot from the brain. Exercise activates countless neurons, which generate, receive and interpret repeated, rapid-fire messages from the nervous system, coordinating muscle contractions, vision, balance, organ function and all of the complex interactions of bodily systems that allow you to take one step, then another.
This increase in...
Idag skal jeg bake kjøttkaker og toscakake.
I wish I were close to you
As the wet skirt of
A salt girl to her body.
I think of you always.
- Akahito
Why quantum theory is misunderstood
What’s the Latest Development?
When Brian Cox, a particle physicist at Manchester University, recently gave a lecture on quantum mechanics to a popular audience, he uttered the phrase, ‘everything is connected to everything else’. It means the subatomic constituents of your body are constantly changing in response to changes occurring at...
“I never had, and still do not have, the perception of feeling my personal...”
– Claude Lévi-Strauss
New book ponders ethical issues of genetic testing
A patient who tested positive for the gene that leads to Huntington’s disease wrestled with a host of questions. Should she have children with her husband, knowing that each baby has a 50-50 chance of inheriting the mutation that causes the degenerative neurological illness? Should she have an abortion if prenatal testing showed the fetus...
“We are what we repeatedly do; excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”
– Aristotle
“Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping them up.”
– Jesse Jackson
Are there biosocial origins for antisocial behavior ?
An assistant professor at Sam Houston State University, College of Criminal Justice is working to unlock the mysteries surrounding the role that genetics and environmental influences play on criminal and antisocial behavior.
“Biosocial research is a multi-disciplinary way of studying antisocial behavior,” said Dr. Brian...
Acts of God and man: on risk
In Acts of God and Man: Ruminations on Risk and Insurance, Michael Powers examines how risk impacts our lives, health, and possessions and how we can go about analyzing the uncertainty. In the following excerpt from the book, Powers discusses the morbidity principle:
In today’s business world, professional risk managers often construct extensive lists of pure...
“You run through your top ten erotic fantasies, ambition fantasies, revenge...”
– Leonard Cohen
“Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.”
– E B.White
Cancer ‘will never be eliminated’
There will never be a single cure for cancer and although its incidence will gradually diminish over the next 50 years, it will never be entirely eliminated, according to Britain’s top scientist.
Sir Paul Nurse, president of the Royal Society, said that scientific advances have helped to understand the fundamental mechanisms that turn a ...
Hopeful consumers choose fruit, happy consumers choose candy bars
Many people fall victim to emotional eating, but it doesn’t happen only when they’re feeling bad, according to researchers.
Having a good day at work, for example, can sometimes lead to a candy bar treat from the vending machine, according to Karen Winterich, assistant professor of marketing, Penn State Smeal College...
It’s not too late to become a yoga believer
One morning, a well-meaning swimming buddy called out for all in the Y locker room to hear: “I can’t believe Jane Brody doesn’t do yoga!”
She was right: I didn’t do yoga and, not knowing what it might offer me, I was loath to try it. I also feared that the meteoric growth of yoga had outpaced the training of quality teachers able to protect...
Fasting can help protect brain diseases, scientists say
Claim that giving up almost all food for one or two days a week can counteract impact of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s
Fasting for regular periods could help protect the brain against degenerative illnesses, according to US scientists.
Researchers at the National Institute on Ageing in Baltimore said they had found evidence...