Recently I was asked to answer a “Proust Questionnaire” for a get-to-know-your-teacher blurb. I had never heard the term but the exemplary questions, (e.g. Your favorite virtue; If not yourself, who would you be?; For what fault have you most toleration?; Favorite heroines in fiction) were clear enough that I was able to get into the spirit. I wrote back my […]
Whenever I teach eye movements, I am reminded of how exciting they are. I like that eye movements appear mundane, common, and perhaps even uninteresting. They fly under most people’s wow-o-cool-o-radar, giving all the appearance of a nuts-and-bolts system without lofty aspirations. Despite this unpretentious appearance, eye movements are incredibly interesting and also of the utmost importance to our social selves. There is so much more to […]
This week, neurobiology bumped up into current events and it all played out in the context of teaching. I taught a module on Neural Communication to my second year Pritzker Medical School students. One of the topics that I covered is how neurons understand the message that is sent their way, a lecture that centers on post-synaptic receptors and the drugs […]
Yesterday, a good friend died at the ripe age of 102 years, 3 months, and a couple of days. I met Caryl through my spouse, Gisèle, more than 20 years ago. Gisèle and Caryl were both part of an artists’ cooperative in Hyde Park (Chicago not London). Caryl was a total live wire, funny and unexpected, interesting and opinionated. Caryl […]
For those of you who enjoy watching soccer (known as football everywhere outside of the U.S.), there was an unfortunate episode in the semifinal between the U.S. and German teams. As reported in the New York Times, two players inadvertently crashed heads. Both ended up on the ground, holding their heads, for minutes. New York Times reporter Jeré Longman reports that according […]
The Tim Hunt comments from last week set off a firestorm of ridicule, indignation and despair. In the wake of this depressing reminder of the challenges ahead for women and men in science, I was thrilled to learn that Martin Chalfie, winner of a Nobel Prize for Chemistry, was coming to give a talk. From long ago interactions, I knew Dr […]
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 […]
I have tried and tried, over and over, to write a post relating how teaching Understanding the Brain: The Neurobiology of Everyday Life on Coursera has changed my life. Every time that I have thought of sitting down to summarize my experience in writing, I quickly become overwhelmed by my feelings of deep gratitude for this journey that NeuroMOOCers and […]
I was devastated when my friend and colleague, Sheharyar Hasnain, emailed me to tell me that Sabeen Mahmud had been assassinated in Karachi as she and her mother were going home from her bookstore/café/salon. As of the latest updates, Sabeen’s mother is in critical condition. I am an unlikely person – an Americam Jew – to be touched personally by the […]
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 […]
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