Arthur K Mason, Washington attorney, turned-wood collector, and lately a memoirist, died at home at the age of 93. He was among the youngest 10% of those who served in World War II, and one of less than 3% of WWII veterans who survived to 2019. Arthur’s health turned sharply worse around the holidays, and he was airlifted off Upper […]
I am thrilled to say that after roughly 3 ½ years, our work on empathic helping has been replicated by Nobuya Sato and his colleagues. Not only did Dr Sato confirm that rats help other rats in distress but he extended this finding in several ways. Rats help a soaked conspecific Dr Sato and his colleagues published an article entitled “Rats demonstrate […]
A few days ago, a friend texted me, Is this for real? followed by a link to an article about a pair of sunglasses that “fix” color blindness. Well, before even clicking, I was certain that the EnChroma sunglasses were no fix or cure. Cures are rare, exceedingly so. We treat conditions, we don’t cure them. Indeed the sunglasses made by EnChroma will alter a […]
Head Games is a powerful film that lays out the history of head trauma, concussions and the NFL within the context of other organized and professional sports. Watching the film, I was struck by the rapid progress in awareness and knowledge that has been made since 2006. Prior to 2006, dementia pugilistica was the term used to refer to what […]
Last week, I was at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra enjoying a program of Lutosławski (Musique funèbre), Beethoven (Piano Concerto No. 3), and Tchaikovsky (Symphony No. 6 aka Pathétique), conducted by Christoph von Dohnányi. I was thinking about the fact that Beethoven was deaf and wondering whether too much music had been his undoing. It is not uncommon that peoples’ individual […]
This is a common octopus (Octopus vulgaris), which has the ability to regenerate arms. Photo credit: Shuichi Shigeno, Cliff Ragsdale’s Laboratory, University of Chicago. In response to my recent regeneration post, my brother-in-law writes: “The brain IS cool – and so are your articles! Might functional recovery be self-directed? – have you read the research on neuroplasticity?” I have to […]
This is cell CIO 4-5-1, one of my favorite cells of all time. I injected this cell with dye in the late 1980s and I still remember the joy that I felt when I found it under the microscope. Two readers have asked whether the brain regenerates. The answer is “No.” Let’s start by defining regeneration. A salamander that loses […]
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The brain is sooooo cool! 