Author: Lori Jia
My talk last week at Carleton University in Ottawa went well–here’s an interview with the university’s magazine, and here’s a report from someone in the audience.
More talks are coming up–
Next week: The evolution of whales at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida.
Next month: Soul Made Flesh at the University of Denver.
And plenty more coming in May and June…
Hyenas are fascinating in many ways, such as the way female spotted hyenas are equipped with a penis of sorts (pdf). In tomorrow’s New York Times, I look at a new kind of fascination: hyena brains. Hyenas have a remarkably complex social life, and it appears to have altered the shape and size of their brains. The same social forces were at work in our own ancestors. Humans and hyenas, in other words, have been rolling on parallel evolutionary tracks.
For further details, check out the densely packed web site of Kay Holekamp, the biologist who has been investigating the social hyena brain. And don’t miss the slide show the Times has put together for my article.
“Backstory: my parents met at a wedding on July 20, 1969, a very important date in the annals of human scientific achievement – the night humans first set foot on the moon. All my life, I have had a fascination with the moon not just as a tangible, graspable place (science fiction made real) but as a symbol for what the human race can achieve when we apply the best abilities of the best minds.”
When one of the founders of cognitive neuroscience is helping you plumb the mysteries of consciousness, the self, free will, and the two minds that coexist in our skulls, it helps every now and then to touch your nose. To understand why touching your nose is such a profound experience, check out my talk today on bloggingheads with Mike Gazzaniga.
(And if you want to see what Mike was like as a young post-doc 50 years ago, check out this video from the early1960s about his split brain research. It’s also evidence of how much science documentaries have changed…)
Continue reading “Smart drugs, constructed selves, and the tip of my nose”
LTY writes:
“The first is an ECG, single lead, called a rhythm strip, which shows a common and generally benign arrhythmia called second degree heart block, Mobitz Type I, also called Wenckebach. The interval between the P wave (atrial contraction) and the QRS (ventricular contraction) progressively increases till a QRS is dropped. The second is a three-lead ECG showing an acute inferior myocardial infarction, aka a heart attack.”
Continue reading “Let Me Just Roll Up My Sleeves to Make Sure You’re Not Dying”