Author: Lori Jia
My mid-year resolution is to become a more sociable blogger–to point out good posts elsewhere that might otherwise be missed. Today’s link: Philip Ball casts a steely gaze at the latest round of papers about the so-called “memory of water” over at homunculus
Originally published August 3, 2007. Copyright 2007 Carl Zimmer.
There’s been a small, but stunning, step forward in the quest to help people who have suffered consciousness-impairing injuries. Scientists inserted electrodes into the brain of a man in a minimally conscious state. They used the electrodes to stimulate parts of the brain believed to be crucial for binding together the brain into an aware state. As the doctors hoped, the stimulation made the man more responsive. He was able to name objects and to hold a cup to his lips. The details of the experiment appear in this week’s issue of Nature.
Last update of the day: Tomorrow’s New York Times has a profile I wrote about Martin Nowak, a mathematical biologist at Harvard. Nowak uses games to understand how cooperation evolved–whether that cooperation is between people or between cells or between genes. I’ve written about Nowak in passing before–his work on language evolution turns up in my book Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea, and there’s a bit on his research on cancer evolution in an article I wrote last year for in Scientific American. But I was very curious to talk to Nowak and figure out how all these topics fit inside the head of one scientist.
The article I wrote for Scientific American in 2005 on the self has been anthologized in a new book: The Best of the Brain from Scientific American: Mind, Matter, and Tomorrows’ Brain. Check out the book’s line-up, which Oliver Sacks calls, “an irresistible guide to this new territory.”
Originally published July 30, 2007. Copyright 2007 Carl Zimmer.
Today is a day for short updates, rather than deep essays. Update number 1: if you’re interested in going to Mars, check out this podcast from Popular Mechanics in which I discuss the challenges astronauts would face living and working on Mars. The magazine will be running a series of articles on the future space travel, including one by me on the Red Planet. (NB: contrary to how PM introduces me, I am not officially “New York Times astrobiology reporter.” The Times just lets me write about life elsewhere when a cool story arises.)