The Accidental Blog | The Accidental Mind

Brash and Breezy

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:01:35 -0400

Noted psychiatrist Lawrence Hartmann, M.D., writes the following in his review of The Accidental Mind in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

"This thoughtful neuroscientist’s book about brain evolution, structure, and function, which places refreshing emphasis on some relatively messy and ad hoc qualities of brain evolution and on the inefficiencies of brain design and function, seems to me significantly flawed by its frequently brash and breezy style. For example, the last words of the introduction are “let’s roll.” The author is fond of words such as “downer” and “cool.”

So true, dude.

Yakkity-Yak

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 09:56:01 -0400

For those of you who just can't get enough of me running my mouth on the topic of brain evolution, here's a podcast from the American Physiological Society aka The Home Team. It's episode 12 of the "Life Lines" series and it also features kewl nooz on athletic blood doping and fetal alcohol syndrome.

Perspicacity, Savannah Georgia, July 2008

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:31:06 -0400

Ford Fiesta of the Mind

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:47:03 -0400

Phil Hogan, writing in The Observer (UK), says he's made it up to Chapter 5 in The Accidental Mind and offers this useful summary of the book so far...

"Now, where was I? Ah, the book, The Accidental Mind by David J Linden. It's brilliant, I'm sure, though the more I read the less I know. I gather from his general thesis that brains are not as brilliantly engineered as we like to think. We might have a hundred billion cells going at it round the clock but they're constantly misfiring or getting the wrong end of the stick. Brains are more Heath Robinson than Bill Gates, having evolved over…

Monkey See

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 18:08:02 -0400

So, I wrote a "welcome editorial" to mark the beginning of my term as Editor in Chief for the Journal of Neurophysiology. In it, I briefly laid out a few points-- what I liked about JN and what I thought could be productively changed. I also preached a bit about author and referee behavior. I didn't think that any of the ideas therein were particularly provocative-- they echo the sentiments that I hear from my colleagues every day at lunchtime. Nonetheless, the editorial seems to have sparked some interesting and productive debate and commentary at the science blogs DrugMonkey and The…

Panacea, Florida, July 2008

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:01:06 -0400

In Germany, before the wars

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 09:50:12 -0400

Some relative of mine pressed these flowers in a photo envelope in Frankfurt, sometime around 1905. I wish I knew the story behind them.

Dang

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 18:58:34 -0400

Apparently, The Accidental Mind has won the Silver Medal in the "Science" category at the 2008 Independent Publisher Book Awards. I didn't even know I was entered and only learned about the award through the dubious practice of self-googling (which is prohibited in many of the world's religious traditions).

"By the facial hair of my ancestors..."

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:02:31 -0400

It sounds like the beginning of an elaborate curse, doesn't it? I recently uncovered a huge stash of old family photos, which I'm just starting to examine. I dig the tonsorial splendor of these fine fellows, circa 1900.

Decapitation Averted (For Now)

Wed, 21 May 2008 21:09:41 -0400

On Monday, I unlocked the door to my office and found the place totally trashed. My scanner was smashed to bits, books were strewn everywhere, my desk and chair were crushed. My first thought was, "Damn. Those creationists who've been sending me all the death threats since The Accidental Mind was published managed to get in here." Then, I realized that all the mayhem resulted from a single action- the huge wall-mounted cabinets full of books had broken loose and had come crashing down (one would have neatly bisected my cranium, had I been sitting at my desk.) Examination of the cabinets…

Neuroscientists Talk Shop

Wed, 14 May 2008 14:58:45 -0400

...is the name of a new podcast series from The University of Texas at San Antonio. These are roundtable discussions with UTSA Neurobiology faculty and a different guest each week. Recent guests include Linda Overstreet-Wadiche, Mario Capecchi, John Lisman and yours truly. These podcasts are intended for an audience of neuroscientists and so they get into the nitty-gritty fairly quickly.

A Kludge By Any Other Name

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:21:05 -0400

From the promotional material for Gary Marcus' new book Kluge:

"Are we noble in reason? Perfect, in God's image? Far from it, says New York University psychologist Gary Marcus. In this lucid and revealing book, Marcus argues that the mind is not an elegantly designed organ but rather a "kluge," a clumsy, cobbled-together contraption. He unveils a fundamentally new way of looking at the human mind -- think duct tape, not supercomputer -- that sheds light on some of the most mysterious aspects of human nature."

Damn, that's clever. I wish I had thought of that. From Chapter 1 of The…

Neuropharmacology In The Real World

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:02:35 -0400

"Phil was probably passed out somewhere, enjoying his dead father's legacy. I found myself wishing I had a loved one who would die and leave me their barbiturates, but I couldn't think of anyone who'd ever loved me that much. My uncle had already promised his to the mail lady."

Donald Ray Pollock, "Bactine"

from his superb collection of stories, Knockemstiff

I love cranky writers

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 17:52:40 -0400

"Closure is a greasy little word which, moreover, describes a nonexistent condition. The truth, Venus, is that nobody ever gets over anything."

--Martin Amis, House of Meetings

Chuck Close Tells It Like It Is

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:34:36 -0400

"I don't deal with inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs. I just get to work."

"Chuck Close: Process and Collaboration" Exhibit

DIY Brain Surgery

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:51:05 -0400

The Times of London reports that British neurosurgeon Henry Marsh has been visiting Kiev in the Ukraine, twice a year, in order to assist and train a Ukrainian colleague. In London, Marsh would use an expensive (30,000 pound) specialized medical drill to create holes on the skull. But, due to lack of funds in Kiev, he and his colleague have made do with a handheld Bosch drill favored by home hobbyists. Cost: 30 pounds. If this cheapskate solution becomes known in the USA, I'm afraid that the insurance companies will reimburse for nothing else.

A Good Yarn

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 12:17:44 -0500

Yesterday, I spoke at a conference entitled "Law of the Body: Implications of Medical Science on Legal Decision Making" at Willamette University College of Law in Salem, Oregon. One of the other speakers was Bill Harbaugh, an economist and neuroscientist from the University of Oregon. In addition to doing cool experiments in which he and his colleagues image the brains of women in the process of paying taxes and making charitable donations, he is also the curator of the online "Museum of Scientifically Accurate Fabric Brain Art" which features this lovely dissection by Karen Norberg.

7 Train from Queens, February 24, 2008

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 18:22:32 -0500

Intelligent Design Goes to the Movies

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 11:23:40 -0500

My old pal Attila Girl is a fan of the upcoming film from Ben Stein entitled "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" which was recently screend at the Conservative Political Action Committee meeting in Washington D.C. I haven't seen the film, but a longish preview is available online. It purports to tell the story of how academics at American universities are suppressing discussion of Intelligent design creationism, which they claim to be a legitimate scientific theory.

Now, I don't rant that much, but every once in a while, one is called for. So here it goes.

Hostility to evolutionary biology…

Cheeseburger In a Can

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 09:26:35 -0500

From Germany comes the latest in backpacker cuisine, the cheeseburger in a can. A steal at 3.95 euros.

To paraphrase Michael Pollan...

"Eat beef. Processed in a factory. With lots of packaging."

Update: they also sell dehydrated wine. I swear. I couldn't make this up if I tried.

Narrative creation in the brain

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 09:32:44 -0500

I say... Our sensory world is anything but pure and truthful. Built and transformed by evolutionary history into a very peculiar edifice, it responds to only one particular slice of possible sensory space. Our brains then process this sensory stream to extract certain kinds of information, ignore other kinds of information, and bind the whole thing together into an ongoing story that is understandable and useful. Furthermore, by the time we are aware of sensations, they have evoked emotional responses that are largely beyond our control and that have been used to plan actions and understand…

Akumal, Mexico, 2008

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 22:33:36 -0500

In my family, when we get our teeth into a joke, we don't like to let go until it's good and dead.

Kangaroo farts and global warming

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:04:07 -0500

A research group in Australia has determined that, unlike those of sheep and cattle, kangaroo farts don't contain methane, a major contributor to global warming. The kangaroo stomach is host to bacteria that aid digestion, and do so with great efficiency, but don't produce methane as a byproduct. Now, efforts are underway to isolate the bug or bugs responsible and then use them to innoculate the digestive systems of cows and sheep in a bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Another group of Australian scientists have proposed a different solution: raise less beef and lamb and eat more…

Not Photoshopped

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 08:18:47 -0500

This amazing little dude looks like a Pokémon, but is really a long-eared jerboa, an endangered nocturnal hopping rodent from the Gobi Desert.

via BBC News.

Versus

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 14:54:04 -0500

I've received a lot of interesting mail since The Accidental Mind was published, but nothing quite like this dollop of haute-geek poetry by Dr. Hilton Stowell of Milledgeville, Georgia.

Kuntry Ham Kludge

In Harvard where the Mind is an Illusion

There's a Kludge of computational confusion

About neurons in the brain

Being mainly in the rain

Of Silly Con Soft plain

While the rest are just an NPG intrusion

Now an Accidental Mind

Was a radiative find

For peripatetic cooling

By Aristotelian ruling,

Where cognitive emotion

Was by cardiac promotion:

Neocortex was an airconditioning rind

Nobel…

Zip, Nada, Zilch, Goose-egg

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 14:31:31 -0500

The New York Times released its list of "100 Notable Books of 2007" a few days ago. Lots of good stuff there. Novels by Ha Jin, Richard Russo and Haruki Murakami. Stories by William Trevor and Alice Munro. History, Biography, Politics. How about Science? Well, no. Out of a selection of 100 books published this year, the number of "notable" science books was zero. Go team.

A New Low

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 08:35:19 -0500

A few days ago, I was getting on a plane for Burlington, Vermont and I had the depressing realization that the novel I was carrying was the same one I had carried on two prior airplane trips stretching back to October 11. Now the book, Denis Johnson's Tree of Smoke, is 600+ pages, but it's actually a very fast and fun read and would be consumed in great lusty bites if I weren't so totally distracted. Today, I'm gonna finish that sucker.

I'm being rewarded with wonderful prose, like this snippet. In the story, it is the musings of a conflicted CIA agent in Vietnam in 1968. It could just…

Tree of Smoke

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 10:56:46 -0500

Tree of Smoke is the title of a kick-ass-wonderful new novel by Denis Johnson. Set in a CIA Psy Ops Group in Vietnam in 1967, it offers this nugget of neurophilosophy:

"Something's warping you," Jimmy told the lieutenant. "Maybe it's your perception of how the brass will see you-- but they're not seeing you at all right now, so it's a perception of a nonperception, man, which is a perception of nothing, which is nothing, man."

For this, I'll cross-dress

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 10:30:45 -0400

This stunning brain-inspired handbag, designed by Jun Takashi, is da bomb. Unfortunately, I don't have the shoes to go with it.

via coolhunting.com

Cannabinoid receptor comix

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 10:32:05 -0400

from the amazing Joe Sayers.

Is it a synapse?

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:26:12 -0400

A map of the Tokyo Metro? Psychedelic dog vomit? No, it's God and the Devil Argue Over the Details by the visionary digital artist and Honorary Neuroscientist Kevin Mack. I've just ordered a copy of this print for my office wall and I'm totally psyched about it.

The Brain is Real Simple (Learn How to Knit One at Home in Your Spare Time!)

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 12:29:40 -0400

So, I know that I've hit the big time now that I'm featured in the November issue of Real Simple magazine. Did they want my great recipe for Moroccan Lamb Tagine? My helpful hints for getting rid of stubborn stains using only natural ingredients? No. They wanted to talk about brain activation in memory and dreaming.

From the article by Kristyn Kusek Lewis:

"When scientists do brain scans on subjects during REM sleep they find that the visual center of the brain, the dominant area that processes all the new information people encounter while awake, is shut down. The visual memory center,…

Boo!

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 20:34:59 -0400

eros. laore

The bottom version is by Natalie Linden, age 10.

Deathswitch.com

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 12:22:22 -0400

Deathswitch.com is website that offers an interesting and unique service. From their description:

"Imagine that you die with computer passwords in yur head, leaving coworkers without access to critical files. Imagine that your loved ones cannot find your bank accounts, or that you die with a secret that that you longed to reveal in your lifetime. A deathswitch is an automated system that prompts you for your password to make sure you are still alive. When you do not enter your password for some [user determined] period of time, the system prompts you again several times. With no reply,…

The Electronic Orifice Orchestra

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 09:10:05 -0400

File this one under "New Frontiers In Biofeedback." The musicians of the Electronic Orifice Orchestra insert sensors of muscular contraction into their naughty bits and then use signals from these sensors to modulate synthesizers, drum machines and the like. And, no, to my knowledge, they don't cover "Mr. Blue Sky." Although, that would be kinda cool.

via wired.com

The Elevator in my Shanghai Hotel...

Sat, 22 Sep 2007 06:22:55 -0400

...has a sign which announces the following (as an ad for their spa).

"Foot soaking in Springtime will strengthen Yang and reinforce vital energy. In Summer, it will dispel disease caused by heat and dampness. In Autumn, it will lubricate the intestines and in Winter, it will warm the pubic region."

Well, I'm sold. Dude, sign me up.

Shanghai, September, 2007

Sat, 22 Sep 2007 06:16:24 -0400

Yasukuni Shrine, Tokyo, September, 2007

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 18:56:10 -0400

Puff piece!

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 10:40:16 -0400

Every author needs an ego-boosting puff piece once in a while. Mine comes from the home team, aka Johns Hopkins Magazine.

El Dorado Canyon, Colorado, August, 2007

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 11:42:06 -0400

Blue Lake, Colorado, August, 2007

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 13:23:00 -0400

Punk neuroanatomy

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 10:41:27 -0400

Now I guess I'll have to tell 'em

That I ain't got no cerebellum

--The Ramones, "Teenage Lobotomy"

via yourbrainonmusic

Spook Country haiku

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 20:06:56 -0400

from the incomparable William Gibson.

You, she thought, are seriously creeping me out.

But she only nodded gravely and picked up her own burger.

99 pages about 44 neurons

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 11:54:20 -0400

Marshal Zeringue is a book enthusiast who runs the websites "Campaign for the American Reader" and the "The Page 99 Test." The idea behind the latter comes from a quote from Ford Madox Ford: ""Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you." Marshal has asked various authors to extract a quotation from page 99 of their book and then comment upon whether it truly revealed "the quality of the whole." So, when I was contacted by Marshal, i quickly filpped to page 99 ofThe Accidental Mind and was relieved to find that it did not entirely suck. …

New York City, July, 2007

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 18:57:21 -0400

What's so funny about peace, love and nasal spray?

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 11:19:26 -0400

Aside from the intense and immediate pleasure of orgasm, there is also the warm, lingering post-orgasmic afterglow. This state, which is thought to be crucial for sexual pair bond formation, may be mediated, in both men and women, by release of the hormone oxytocin from the pituitary gland, under control of the hypothalamus. Treatments that block oxytocin release do not prevent orgasm or the immediate pleasurable sensations, but do seem to interfere with the crucial afterglow. It is worth noting that the oxytocin-releasing system appears to be involved in more general aspects of pair bond…

Podcasts out the wazoo

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 09:09:01 -0400

Yesterday, I did an interview with Dr. Kevin Keough of Mind and Body Podcasts. Conversation ranged from the evolution of narrative dreams to internet porn addiction to light therapy for depression. You can download the podcast in MP3 format by clicking here.

Ne vous fiez pas à vos neurones!

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 08:59:22 -0400

I really dig this snippet about The Accidental Mind from Agence Science-Presse in Canada. My favorite part was learning that French for a "popularization," like my book, is an "ouvrage de vulgarisation." How true.

Se habla cerebellum

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 16:45:29 -0400

I'm delighted to announce that a Spanish translation of The Accidental Mind will be published by Ediciones Paidós Ibérica of Barcelona, sometime in 2008. This reminds me of the following...

¿Qué es más macho?

Even though there is very little information in these stick figures, we can easily assign them to typically male and female categories. This illustrates that our brains’ visual systems have become very highly specialized for gender recognition.This image was kindly provided by Professor Nikolaus Troje of Queens University, Ontario, Canada.

Tent Rocks, New Mexico, 2006

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:22:44 -0400

[Georgie O'Keefe? Never heard of the dame.]

Faith and the brain

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 15:44:40 -0400

I just did an enjoyable interview on Richard Spencer’s Internet Radio Show and podcast “Faith and Freethought” which explores religious issues from different perspectives: philosophical, historical, political and biological. Richard is a smart and talented guy and this interview was a pleasure. You can download an MP3 of the interview here.

Too busy to read a book...

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 12:02:29 -0400

David Tyler, writing on the website of the "Access Research Network," an intelligent design creationist advocacy group, takes The Accidental Mind to task. He writes: "This book tells us more about the ideology of its writer than it does about the human mind." Fair enough. Everyone should have their shot at critique after all. However, it's revealing that Tyler never makes any specific references to the content of my book. It's very likely that he never bothered to read it. Rather, I suspect that he simply read the review in Nature and went from there. Too bad. If he had actually read…

Amnesiac Sea Lions?

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 08:29:25 -0400

The New York Times reports...

A distressed, possibly pregnant sea lion was wheeled recently into the Marine Mammal Care Center here, just as two other lions were herded into cages in preparation for their return to the ocean.

“That’s just the way it is,” said Lauren Palmer, the chief veterinarian at the center. “Two go out and more come in.”

Peter Wallerstein of the Whale Rescue Team, a private group authorized by Los Angeles to rescue whales and other marine mammals, said he had found the sea lion on the sand in nearby Manhattan Beach. Mr. Wallerstein said he feared she could have been…

"All Thinking is Wishful"

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 09:47:06 -0400

...is a quotation from Jonathan Lethem's breezy new novel "You Don't Love Me Yet." Considering it, I would have to agree. Not in an optimistic way, but in the sense that the act of thinking somehow presupposes that there will be a future.

Neurotoxin in the News

Sun, 27 May 2007 07:38:20 -0400

This, from the L.A. Times..

Hong Chang Corp. of Santa Fe Springs said Thursday that it was recalling frozen fish from China that might have been mislabeled and could contain puffer fish, which carries a potentially deadly toxin. The seafood importer began a voluntary recall after reports that two Chicago-area people became ill after eating soup that contained the fish, according to a statement. The frozen shipments were packed in 22-pound boxes that were sold to wholesalers in California, Illinois and Hawaii beginning in September. Each of the 282 boxes was labeled "Monk fish, gutted and head…

Can you determine...

Thu, 24 May 2007 08:49:25 -0400

...when this site got a mention on boingboing.net?

Not exactly a subtle effect.

Snail Preserve, French Polynesia, 2007

Tue, 22 May 2007 08:33:23 -0400

Yum!

Magic and the Brain

Sun, 13 May 2007 10:13:51 -0400

I've always loved magic tricks and stagecraft. The great thing is that even when I know what to look for, I still get drawn in by the illusionist and wind up utterly fooled. From a neurobiological perspective the key issue in most magic tricks is sensory attention. The magician draws your attention to one action in order to facilitate a ploy elsewhere.

At any given moment we are only attending to a small subset of the stream of sensory information that's pouring into our brains. Example: how does your underwear feel on your skin right now? Probably, you weren't attending to that…

Nerds Unleashed

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 16:54:17 -0400

Slate magazine recently asked a panel of brain-geeks including Oliver Sacks, Patricia Churchland, Steven Pinker and me the following question: "Describe how your knowledge about the brain has affected the way you lead your daily life." Needless to say, hijinx ensue. You can read all about it right here.

I smell things. I take baths.

Sat, 21 Apr 2007 11:48:58 -0400

To date, Dana Spiotta has only written two novels, but they're both freakin' brilliant. I can't write fiction to save my life. But if I could, I would want to write like her. Check out this gem from her first effort, Lightning Field.

Mina Stood watching David. David watched the screen, which contained a small screen within the screen that watched some other guy's computer, attended and unmoving. Free-streaming live-feed video. Sometimes you could watch him at his computer. Sometimes he left and you could just watch his computer.

"I can watch him for minutes at a time," David said.

"I do…

Stinky Self

Fri, 13 Apr 2007 13:59:17 -0400

One of the fun things about The Accidental Mind and Blog, has been the opportunity to hear from folks with really interesting questions about brain function. A few days ago, I received this clever query from Jim:

Is there a connection between the brain processes that keep us from tickling ourselves and whatever it is that makes our personal odors more noticeable to others than to ourselves?

Here’s my answer….

In the more general sense, all of our sensory systems are designed to pay less attention to sensory stimuli that are always there and more attention to those that are new. You know this…

30 seconds of fame

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 10:05:15 -0400

You gotta love popular culture. Even a lab nerd like me can have his 30 seconds of fame on late night network TV. Here’s the strange and convoluted tale of how it went down (not for the faint of heart).

In The Accidental Mind I wrote the following:

The cerebellum is also important in distinguishing sensations which are “expected” from those which are not. In general, when you initiate a movement and you have sensations which result from that movement, you tend to pay less attention to those sensations…This may all sound a bit abstract, but let’s consider an example. It is well known that…

News-geek

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 08:34:10 -0400

Today's Newsweek magazine carries a piece in the Technology and Science section by Sharon Begley featuring The Accidental Mind. It's a bit of an odd duck, actually. It's not really a book review as it contains no evaluative statements about the book. Neither is it a general feature piece on advances in brain research as it is based, as near as I can tell, entirely on The Accidental Mind. What it really is, is a "book report"-- like the ones we had to write in 7th grade. Only, in this case, it's been written by a professional science journalist and published in a magazine with a…

Bookstore on steroids

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 09:00:44 -0400

Powell's Books, the Portland-based "bookstore on steroids" has graciously chosen me as one of their Featured Authors for their newsletter and website. I'm honored to be in the company of some of my heroes like Jared Diamond, Jonathan Lethem and Will Shortz. They did a brief interview with me in their "Technica Q and A" section which you can read here.

First, there was Spinal Tap...

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 17:18:19 -0400

The incomparable brain reseacher and author Joe LeDoux has joined forces with 3 other NYU scientists, Daniela Schiller, Tyler Volk and Nina Galbraith Curley to form a neuro-themed rock band called The Amygdaloids. They sing geek-rock tunes of their own composition like "All in a nut" about the neural substrates of fear (amygdala, a brain region involved in fear perception means "almond" in Greek, hence "nut"). Sometimes, however, they fall back on cerebral standards like "19th Nervous Breakdown."

It kinda makes you wonder how many other neuroanatomically-themed rock bands are waiting to be…

Talk To Me, Baby

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 17:38:25 -0400

So, a few days ago I went to the KPCC studios in Pasadena, California to be interviewed on Patt Morrison's radio show. Originally, the plan was to have it go out live, but the day before, they called me and said that we'd tape it instead for later broadcast. This reduced my anxiety a bit, but not much.

What if I sound like a jerk? What if I blank out and forget the word "brain"? What if I have an uncontrollable urge to shout expletives (something that happens frequently)? What if I pee?

Fuck. Uh, I mean, "Oh my."

The look of Pasadena City College only added to my creeping malaise. The…

By Any Other Name

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 04:52:05 -0500

Now that The Accidental Mind has been printed and will soon arrive in stores, I thought you might enjoy some titles for the book that were suggested by friends but were not selected. They include:

“Dr. Dave’s Big Golden Book of the Brain”

“Grey Matters”

"My Second Favorite Organ" (via Woody Allen)

“Molecular Cognition for Dummies”

“See Brain Run”

“The Mind’s Pissed” (a riff on Michael Gazzaniga’s The Mind’s Past)

...and the vaguely pornographic “Fun With Dick and Brain”

[which one wag suggested would be better as a title for a memoir]

Head-butting

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 05:25:05 -0500

The head/heart duality is a well known cultural phenomenon. In everyday speech we use “heart” as a shorthand to refer to our emotional state or our faith and “head” to refer to cognition or reason.

"Should I follow my head or follow my heart?"

Both “head” and “heart,” while they are literally the names of body parts, are commonly used to stand for non-bodily phenomena, in particular, mental processes. But, what word do we use when we want to refer explicitly to our corporeal self? Why the humble “ass” of course!

Consider the tagline for this blog (from the Funkmaster George Clinton)

“Free…

Hack Writer

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 06:54:19 -0500

For a few hours on Friday January 26th, this site was hacked by a guy calling himself Iskorpitx the Turkish Hacker. Folks navigating here hoping for a little brain-and-mind buzz were diverted to a page featuring an animated warrior swinging a battle-axe and the creative messages "FUCKED USA!!!!" and "FUCKED BUSH!!!!!"

The funniest thing about the whole deal was the background music the Turkish Hacker had chosen for his page: an instrumental version of "House of the Rising Sun" which, of course, glorifies an American brothel.

Ullapool Scotland, July 2005

Thu, 25 Jan 2007 11:57:41 -0500

Well put.

Giant Rabbits for North Korea

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 14:44:15 -0500

Just when you thought things couldn't get weirder...

Karl Szmolinsky, a 67 year old, East German pensioner who has bred rabbits the size of dogs for 47 years was asked by North Korea's ambassador whether he might be willing to sell some rabbits to set up a breeding farm in North Korea.

No transgenic trickery here, just old fashioned bunny breeding.

Via tobeasian.com

3: Misadventures in Science, Part Three

Sat, 06 Jan 2007 10:08:32 -0500

In May of 1991, I went on the academic job market.This was after a 1.5 year period as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of John Connor, a pioneer in electrophysiology and optical imaging of neurons. I was having a great time in John’s lab and was in no hurry to leave this position. Most postdoctoral fellowship last 3 - 5 years, so I was nervous about going out on the job market so soon. But, my wife, a professor of music, had made it clear: “Get us the hell out of New Jersey and do it now.” So, I sent out my applications and was happy to get some offers to give job talks.

My…

Boulder, Colorado, December 29, 2006

Fri, 29 Dec 2006 06:56:21 -0500

Dorset Coast, England, June 2005

Sat, 23 Dec 2006 12:50:28 -0500

2: Misadventures in Science, Part Two

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 16:50:43 -0500

I was raised in a beach town in California in the 1960’s and 70’s. Like many kids of my generation, I avidly watched Jacques Cousteau and the voyages of the research vessel Calypso on TV. Not surprisingly, I grew up wanting to be a glamorous marine biologist. I had visions of cruising around the tropics on a research ship and going SCUBA diving every day to look at weird critters. Plus, those bearded French guys in wetsuits, seemed like total babe magnets. Marine field biology was appealing to this nerdy white boy on several levels.

In my first two years of college at UC Berkeley, I…

Venice, Italy, January 2005

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 03:30:42 -0500

. .

1: Misadventures in Science, Part one

Tue, 12 Dec 2006 04:35:10 -0500

In the summer of 1980, I had finished my first year of college and was excited to have been accepted as a volunteer in a laboratory studying the basis of pain sensation in the brain. This group, directed by a creative, wise and kind researcher at UCLA named John Liebeskind, was my first lab home. It represented a big step up from my previous summer’s employment: cooking for late-night drunks and stoners at Shakey’s Pizza Parlor, to the maddening accompaniment of a ragtime piano loop tape. I was feeling very nervous and was desperate to make a good impression on the “real scientists” in the…

Jongmyo, Seoul, South Korea, October 2006

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 05:04:51 -0500

Eat The Document...

Sat, 09 Dec 2006 10:38:38 -0500

...is the title of the new novel by Dana Spiotta that contains this truly perspicacious line:

"This was the power of a couple-- their doubts occurred at different times and canceled each other out, making them much more fearless as a pair than they would ever be on their own."

Hershey Park, PA, August 2006

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 04:10:38 -0500

This sign was posted at the entrance to the "Superdooperlooper" roller coaster. I can only imagine that the Hershey Corporation legal department was involved.

Big brass ovaries

Thu, 07 Dec 2006 03:39:42 -0500

When I wrote The Accidental Mind, I didn't give up my day job. I wrote it during a blissful sabbatical year in Cambridge, England. As I struggled with the writing it was a huge relief to know that, even if I crashed and burned trying to write the damn book, I could just go back to my life and continue running my lab at Johns Hopkins. My old pal Jan Steckel, was much braver. She gave up her thriving practice in pediatrics to write full time and we are all the richer for it. She writes poems and stories that are deep and wise and sad and occasionally hilarious. A sometimes-magical-realist…

Guaranteed to infiltrate your dreams

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 03:26:30 -0500

Connie Imboden is a Baltimore area photographer who creates surreal images of the human form using mirrors, water and clever lighting, but absolutely no digital manipulation. Her photographs are lovely, horrific and everything in between.

Lab laid bare

Sun, 03 Dec 2006 07:59:39 -0500

I've just finished reading Allegra Goodman’sdarkly hilarious novel Intuition, set in a molecular biology lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the 1980’s. Romance, betrayal, culture clashes, and shitweasel scheming lab chiefs are all there-- just like in real labs. Most novels set in the world of science don't quite get it right. Either the depiction of the social interactions or the physical surroundings are a bit off. Goodman, to her credit, is spot on. If you've worked in a lab, it will be so real it will spook you. If you haven't, here's an opportunity to read about scientists acting…

But what about the...er...you know.

Sun, 26 Nov 2006 09:41:59 -0500

This drawing shows a view of the human male in which the sizes of the body parts have been scaled to the size of their representation in the brain. In particular, the brain region that first processes touch sensation, called the primary somatosensory cortex. Most people who look at this image (which is called a sensory homunculus) long enough will eventually stammer out something like “Dude, given how sensitive the genitals are, shouldn’t they be, like, larger?” This is a good question and there is not an absolutely definitive answer. We know that the genitals are sensitive to touch and…

Your cheatin' heart (and brain)

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 18:12:49 -0500

What is it that makes some of us true to our mates while others just can’t resist the appeal of a new sexual partner? We don’t know the answer to this complex question, but in recent years some interesting ideas have emerged from the study of wild rodents (no, “wild rodent” is not being used here as a zoological pejorative term like “philandering toad” or “two-timin’ snake”). Voles, also known as field mice, are found around the world in a number of temperate habitats. Some species of vole like the prairie and pine voles live in social groups and have a monogamous mating system: after a…

Drugs for improving memory and cognition

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 02:18:57 -0500

Everyone wants a free lunch. The desire to improve cognitive function by simply taking a pill is so strong that in 2005 over $1 billion worth of “smart herbal” supplements were sold in the USA despite little proof of their effectiveness. Mostly, these supplements peddled in vitamin stores and on the internet, are a scam. However, this suggests the more important question: Is it possible to make real “smart pills”?

In order to have successful learning of facts and events several things have to happen. First, one must pay attention, stay focused on the relevant information and use working…

Amazing sleep and dream trivia

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 18:07:16 -0500

Do animals dream?

While we can’t ask them, the answer is almost certainly yes for mammals and birds. They have REM sleep and they will “act out” complex scenarios that are presumed to be dreams following neurosurgery to disrupt the neural pathway that blocks the commands to muscles during this stage. Whether lower vertebrates like reptiles and amphibians dream is a more difficult question. If they do, it is more likely that they have the short, fragmentary dreams found during early-stage non-REM sleep in humans.

Can sleeping people still use their senses? Is it possible to communicate with…

Are you gonna eat that?

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 06:13:38 -0500

For almost every one of the key molecules involved in neuronal electrical signaling there is a naturally-occurring toxin which interferes with it. Both plants and animals have evolved these neurotoxins in response to their surroundings. Some, like those injected through the bites of poisonous snakes or spiders, function to make the animal a more effective hunter. Others work by sickening or killing animals which would prey upon them.While this might not do much good for the animal or plant which has just become lunch, it may function to protect its relatives and thereby get more of its own…