Current thoughts on mind, life and culture
In 1928, a biologist named Ditlef Rustad caught an unusual fish off the coast of Bouvet Island in the Antarctic. The "white crocodile fish," as Rustad named it, had large eyes, a long toothed snout and diaphanous fins stretched across fans of slender quills...
This week a team of scientists published a study in Nature Biotechnology * explaining how they created an artificial jellyfish dubbed a 'medusoid.' Let's be clear: scientists have not built a fully functional living jellyfish from scratch...
On Friday I read a post by novelist and essayist Tim Parks on the New York Review of Books blog. Parks argues that the most memorable character in novels of the twentieth century is "the chattering mind, which usually means the mind that can’t make up its mind, the mind postponing action in indecision and, if we’re lucky, poetry."Although I enjoyed Parks's post overall, I take issue with aspects of his analysis...
In the 18th century Carl Linnaeus named them lemurs, after the Latin lemures —spirits of the dead, wandering ghosts. He knew the primates roamed Madagascar's forests at night, their large eyes brimming with moonlight, their shrill cries crashing through the treetops...
Previously, on Know Your Neurons:Chapter 1: The Discovery and Naming of the NeuronChapter 2: How to Classify Different Types of NeuronsChapter 3: Meet the GliaChapter 4: What is the Ratio of Glia to Neurons in the Brain?...
Previously, on Know Your Neurons:Chapter 1: The Discovery and Naming of the NeuronChapter 2: How to Classify Different Types of Neurons, or The Dendrology of the Neuron ForestChapter 3: Know Your Neurons: Meet the Glia*By Daisy YuhasTrillions of cells in your brain communicate with one another, respond to infections, guide tissue development and support learning and memory—but none of these cells are neurons...
Previously, on Know Your Neurons:Chapter 1: The Discovery and Naming of the NeuronChapter 2: How to Classify Different Types of Neurons, or The Dendrology of the Neuron ForestScientists have organized the cells that make up the nervous system into two broad groups: neurons, which are the primary signaling cells, and glia, which support neurons in various ways...
Over the years, I have taught my copy of Microsoft Word a lot of neuroscience terminology: amygdala, corpus callosum, dendritic spines, voxel. But it always knew what neuron meant.
Welcome to the new Brainwaves blog. I am an associate editor at Scientific American, where I assign, edit and write articles for the magazine and website, mostly about neuroscience and psychology...
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