My mom was supposed to come visit me this past week while I have been teaching in Paris. She was scheduled to arrive Wednesday morning and in a reprisal of our fabulous time together in 2015 (see picture above), we planned to pack our afternoons with art museums and our evenings with concerts. Then, a few days before she was due […]
Over the holidays, I took two of my students out for lunch. We actually left campus and ended up at a small, packed-to-the-gills-deli where we sat at long tables with the other refugees from the lunch joints with larger seating capacities and individual tables that were closed for the holidays. Hyde Park is within the city of Chicago but has […]
A miracle has occurred. Actually there was no miracle at all, just a ton of hard work by a number of talented professionals and me. The second edition of my textbook, Medical Neurobiology (Oxford University Press, 2017) is in production. My part is done. Of course my part started with a few years of writing which was greatly aided by my […]
Just a few days ago, I wrote a post about a very unusual occurrence: a serious change in a fundamental piece of neuroanatomy. To recapitulate, Jean Francois Brunet and his colleagues, including lead author Isabel Espinosa–Medina, used a modern molecular approach to show that the autonomic motor neurons in the sacral cord share their characteristics with the sympathetic motor neurons in […]
There has been a revolution in the unlikeliest of disciplines! Neuroanatomy! Yes neuroanatomy – so cut and dry – has been seriously altered by new research. The textbook world of neuroanatomy turned upside down yesterday. A team led by Jean François Brunet of INSERM in Paris has made the audacious proposal that the autonomic outflow of the sacral cord is […]
I just finished teaching Pritzker Medical students (Class of 2015). Once again, it was fun; I learned things and had new thoughts. Teaching is indeed learning. Today I want to share a recent teaching joy. Pritzker students gathered together on their own initiative to explore caloric testing, which I had talked about in class but never included in laboratory […]
This morning, Diana Keat, a NeuroMOOC student and friend texted me about a story on NPR’s The Takeaway that was about air conditioning as a necessity. As some of you may know from a previous post, the neurobiology of heat waves is one of my pet topics. Mammals have no way to actively cool themselves aka to “refrigerate” their bodies. We can heat ourselves very […]
Three years ago, an incoming University of Chicago student named Haozhe Shan emailed me asking for an opportunity to work in my laboratory. His letter was well written and demonstrated a focussed and specific interest in social neuroscience. I agreed to talk with him and immediately liked him. Even prior to taking a single college class, he had a knowledge of psychology […]
Last Friday, I had a delightful visit from Diana Keat, a MOOC student and Facebook friend, and her husband Eddie. It was great fun to meet Diana and Eddie. I am hoping to see them again soon if I can manage to get to their home town of Philadelphia to see the Greg Dunn exhibit at the Franklin Institute. One of […]
As you may know, I am working steadily on the second edition of my book, Medical Neurobiology (OUP, 2011) and have had no time for play. This blog is play for me, a total relaxing tonic for me. Yesterday, I received a bunch of brain pictures from a colleague. I really like this one but I cannot use it in my book […]
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To learn much much more about the brain in all of its splendorous detail, check out my textbook. The second edition is now out!! Get it here: textbook. 
The brain is sooooo cool! 