Chris Mooney has invited me to participate in an intriguing conference in New York in May called “The Two Cultures.” From the meeting website:
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.
Discover, March 16, 2009
I was looking forward to my first experience with anesthesia. I had been laid out on a stretcher, and nurses and doctors were prepping my midsection so they could slice it open and cut out my appendix. After a bout of appendicitis, a short vacation from consciousness seemed like a pleasant way to spend a few hours. I had no idea what anesthesia would actually feel like, though, and suddenly I was seized by skepticism. I tried to hoist myself up, already swabbed in iodine, as I suggested that I ought to pop into the men’s room before the scalpels came out. I wouldn’t want to interrupt the surgery with a bathroom break. “Don’t worry,” one of the nurses replied. “We’ll do that for you.”
Continue reading “Could a Dose of Ether Contain the Secret to Consciousness?”
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.