Author Archive
artificial intelligence
an eelnet made by man for the eel fighting: An introduction to network theory and practice
The title of this entry contains the penultimate line in a poem by Robert Lowell entitled Dolphin. The net that binds the confessional poet has many strands: the iron-clad spoils of his pitiless memory, the effervescence...
Cool Runnings
The secret of all life: Differential equations
When British mathematician and educator David Acheson was in elementary school, his biology teacher, Ms. H., always gave the same test questions each week. Question 23 was What is the secret of all life? Her answer was chloroph...
computational neuroscience
Using tetration for recursion: more movement for brain science
The problem of conceptualizing movement is one of the oldest human problems. Conceptual models are first static, and only grudgingly ach...
brain experiments
Good ol’ RasMol: Molecular modeling for the masses
Chemical effects on the brain are both fascinating and necessary for survival. Endogenous neuromodulators and neurotransmitters and their receptors are switches whi...
brain experiments
R: free software programming language for statistics and graphics
Statistical analysis has been a bête noire for many students in neuroscience. And yet of all the maths available, statistical analysis has been the real work horse for neuroscie...
altered states
Mental physics
Mullah Nasruddin embodies the way of the wise fool to which one aspires with increasing maturity: One day, people saw Mullah Nasruddin...
basal ganglia
A 20 micron resolution 3D map of a human brain
Resolution is now often measured in pixels, but the more familiar method is to use measures of distance. Resolution is not the same as size, although the two terms are sometimes conflat...
brain experiments
What chance do we have of understanding your thought, Reverend Bayes?
http://yudkowsky.net/rational/bayes From the site: While there are a few existing online explanations of Bayes’ Theorem, my experience with trying to introduce people to Bayesian reasoning is that the e...
brain experiments
NOVA beta
Please put away your books and notes, it’s time for a quiz. Circle the answer below which best represents the date of the first computer. 1822 CE 70 BCE 1206 CE 1941 CE 2700 BCE Depending on your perspective, and wh...
Cool Runnings
The single best idea anybody ever had
In the history of science, evolution stands alone as a theory of causality. A leading scientist wrote: Darwin’s theory of natural selection came very late in the history of thought. Was it delayed because it...