Author: Matt Kristoffersen
I’ve only been put under general anesthesia once in my life, and ever since I’ve wondered what exactly happened to me during those lost hours. It turns out nobody really knows. But if they ever find out, they may get a little closer to solving the riddle of consciousness. That’s the subject of my newest brain column for Discover. Check it out.
Originally published March 17, 2009. Copyright 2009 Carl Zimmer.
I’ll be in Providence, RI, tomorrow to give a talk at Brown at noon entitled, “Science Meets Talk.” I’ll be discussing the fascinating, troubling, and sometimes bizarre intersections of scientific research and the media. It will be at Metcalf Chemistry Lab Auditorium, 97 Waterman St. Here are the details.
Originally published March 15, 2009. Copyright 2009 Carl Zimmer.
I’m about to fly to California for my talk tomorrow at the Sage Center for the Study of the Mind in Santa Barbara, “Soul Made Flesh: Neuroscience in 1659 and 2009.” Here are the details.
Hope to meet some Santa Barbarans. (Or is that Santa Barbarians? Suddenly I have visions old Saint Nick with a pole-axe.)
[Image: Frontispiece to a Dutch edition of Anatomy fo the Brain and Nerves (1665) by Thomas Willis. For more on Willis, see my book of the same name as my lecture]
Originally published March 11, 2009. Copyright 2009 Carl Zimmer.
Animals, as I explained in my recent column for Discover, take precautions not to get sick (including the famous anal cannon). We take precautions too–conscious ones, based on what we have learned about how diseases spread, and perhaps also unconscious ones that lower our risk of infection.
But if those precautions fail, we humans sometimes take medicines to kill off the pathogens making us sick. And there’s an intriguing body of evidence suggesting that animals take medicine too.
I’ve been writing from time to time recently about the poor job that op-ed sections do with science. As my prime example, I’ve focused on a column George Will wrote poo-poohing global warming for the Washington Post. But I’ve never meant to imply that that particular column was some isolated fluke. I think similar problems can be found in the editorial pages of many newspapers, and many branches of science are affected.