neurophilosophy | September 12, 2007
Taking its lead from the (Product) Red AIDS fund-raising campaign, the Alzheimer's Association has chosen purple as its signature colour.
To support the initiative, electronics manufacturer SanDisk has co-branded two products. For every purple 2GB Cruzer Micro drive and 2GB SanDisk Ultra II SD card sold, SanDisk will donate $1 to the Alzheimer's Association.
neurophilosophy | September 12, 2007On March 4th 1991, four days after the end of the Persian Gulf War, ground troops from the U.S. 37th Engineering Battalion destroyed large caches of weapons found at the Khamisiyah Ammunitions Storage Facility, a site approximately 25 square kilometres in size, located some 350km south east of Baghdad.
The U.S. Department of Defense initially denied that its troops may have been exposed to nerve agents during the demolitions at Khamisiyah, but following an inspection of the site by the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) in 1997, it emerged that the munitions destroyed on that day…
neurophilosophy | September 12, 2007
This morning, I went with my girlfriend Alice (and our son Oscar) to the Foetal Medicine Unit at St. Thomas's Hospital, where she had the first ultrasound scan of her second pregnancy.
Alice has just entered the second trimester of the pregnancy, and the foetus you see above is just 6 cm in length. Our baby's due in March of next year.
neurophilosophy | September 12, 2007Researchers working in West Africa have observed male chimpanzees taking great risks in order to obtain cultivated fruit, which they then exchange with females, who often became more willing to mate as a consequence.
Kimberly Hockings, of the University of Stirling in Scotland, and her colleagues have spent the last two years observing the behaviour of a small community of chimps in part of the Republic of Guinea called Bossou.
Although the chimps were rarely observed exchanging wild plant foods, they were seen to exchange fruits grown by humans far more frequently. The behaviour therefore…
neurophilosophy | September 11, 2007
A is for Amygdala
B is for Brainstem
C is for Cerebellum
D is for Diencephalon
E is for Epithalamus
F is for Frontal lobe
G is for Gray matter
H is for Hypothalamus
I is for Interbrain
J is for Joints of Luschka
K is for Kolliker's reticulum
L is for Lateral sulcus
M is for Medulla oblongata
N is for Neuroglia
O is for Occipital lobe
P is for Pons
Q is for Corpora Quadrigemina
R is for Reticular formation
S is for Somatic sensory area (within Parietal lobe)
T is for Temporal lobe
U is for Unclassified tumor, malignant
V is for Visual cortex
W is for White matter
X…
neurophilosophy | September 11, 2007 Reed Elsevier is experimenting with open access.
The publishing giant has just launched a web portal called OncologySTAT. The service is aimed at physicians, who will be required to register their personal information at the site in order to gain immediate and free access to research papers from 100 of Reed Elsevier's journals.
Elsevier plans to finance the service with revenue generated by advertising and sponsorship from pharmaceutical companies. It hopes to get 150,000 doctors signed up to the site over the next 12 months.
neurophilosophy | September 10, 2007
From Visions of the Daughters of Albion, a short illuminated text published in 1793:
With what sense does the tame pigeon measure the vast expanse?
With what sense does the bee form cells?
Tell me what is a thought? & of what substance is it made?
Tell me what is a joy? & in what gardens do joys grow?
And in what rivers swim the sorrows, and upon what mountains wave shadows of discontent?
Tell me where dwell the thoughts forgotten till thou call them forth
Tell me where dwell the joys of old? & where the ancient loves?
And when will they renew again & the…
neurophilosophy | September 10, 2007
(Image credit: William Ormerod/ Unversity of Wisconsin-Madison)
A recent study into the biophysical properties of a highly reflective and self-organizing squid protein called reflectin will inform researchers about the process of "bottom-up" synthesis of nanoscale structures and could lead to the development of thin-film coatings for microstructured materials, bringing scientists one step closer to the development of an invisibility cloak.
Reflectin comes from the Hawaiian Bobtail squid, Euprymna scolopes, which is native to the Central Pacific ocean. E. scolopes leads a nocturnal…
neurophilosophy | September 10, 2007 Dr. Deb Serani has just posted the 31st edition of Encephalon.
The next edition will be hosted by GrrlScientist at Living the Scientific Life on September 24th. If you'd like to contribute, send your links to encephalon{dot} host{at}gmail{dot}com, or use this submission form.
Encephalon needs hosts from October 22nd onwards, so if you'd like to host the carnival on your blog, then get in touch.
neurophilosophy | September 10, 2007The Royal National Institute for the Deaf, the largest charity representing the U.K.'s 9 million deaf and hard of hearing people, warns that two thirds of youngsters using MP3 players are at risk of premature and permanent hearing loss:
The charity used decibel meters to test the volume of 110 young people's MP3 players in Brighton, Manchester and Birmingham and found that 72 out of those tested were listening at over 85 decibels. Separate research by the charity found that almost half of young people who use MP3 players listen for more than an hour a day, with a quarter listening for more…
neurophilosophy | September 10, 2007 Sport and recreational activities account for some 21% of traumatic brain injuries in American children and adolescents, and football players are particularly prone to head injuries that can lead to permanent brain damage.
American football is associated with more head injuries than any other. Last year, for example, more than 34,600 football players were treated for head injuries in U.S. hospital emergency rooms. But the incidence of traumatic brain injury among footballers maybe far higher, as injuries that could cause damage to the brain often go unnoticed.
Players experience repeated…
neurophilosophy | September 9, 2007
The current issue of The Economist has an intersting article about biologically-inspired architecture:
So far, the use of biomimetic features in buildings has been driven as much by aesthetics as by function, and has been limited to relatively simple, passive systems. The Arab World Institute in Paris, for example, has an array of mechanical, eye-like irises on its south-facing facade. These open and close to control the amount of light entering the building, thereby regulating the internal temperature.
A quick search led me to this fantastic photograph of said mechanical irises…
neurophilosophy | September 9, 2007Research suggests that liberals and conservatives have different personality traits and "cognitive styles": while liberals are more intellectually curious and tolerant of ambiguity, conservatives have a greater desire to reach decisions quickly and are more consistent in the way they make those decisions.
A new study, published online today in Nature Neuroscience, suggests that there may be a neural basis for these differences in cognitive style. The study provides evidence that there are differences in the way the brains of liberals and conservatives respond to situations involving difficult…
neurophilosophy | September 9, 2007One of my favourite novels, Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, has been faithfully as a comic strip.
neurophilosophy | September 8, 2007
Bill Scott uses electroencephalogram (EEG) data to create computer-generated images like this one.
(Via Dr. Karen)
neurophilosophy | September 8, 2007ABC News has posted a transcript of Osama bin Laden's videotaped statement, in which he refers to Noam Chomsky as "among the most capable" of commentators on the Iraq war.
And in a Mind Hacks exclusive, Vaughan has posted a deleted portion of the statement, in which bin Laden lays out his demands for psycholinguists.
neurophilosophy | September 8, 2007Spiders make my skin crawl, but it's always amazed me that, despite being mechanical and grotesque, they produce silk, which is not only one of nature's finest materials, but also one of the lightest and strongest.
The creator of the fictional superhero Spiderman wasn't too far off the mark when he decided that the character would have the ability to spin webs from his hands, because it is now known at least one species of spider - the Costa Rican zebra tarantula (Aphonopelma seemanni) - can secrete silk from its feet.
Stanislav Gorb and his colleagues filmed the spiders as they crawled up…
neurophilosophy | September 8, 2007
You don't have to be a bibliophile to enjoy this compendium of beautiful libraries.
neurophilosophy | September 8, 2007 Daniel Vasella, chief executive of the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis, discusses the U.S. health care system in an interview with the New York Times.
Vasella, who was listed in the Time 100 of 2004, has this to say about the demographics of Alzheimer's Disease:
In the United States alone, we have an estimated five million patients. The costs are about $150 billion a year. With the aging of the population, and the strong link between senile dementia and Alzheimer's, the patients who will get it is increasing dramatically. By 2050 worldwide, it's estimated that the number of people…