History, Evolution, and the Darwin Debate
Aging and Longevity Tied to Specific Brain Region in Mice
ScienceDaily (July 29, 2010) — Researchers watched two groups of mice, both nearing the end of a two-day fast. One group was quietly huddled together, but the other group was active and alert. The difference? The second set of mice had been engineered so their brains produced more SIRT1, a protein known to play a role in aging and longevity.
Infectious Prions Can Arise Spontaneously in Normal Brain Tissue, Study Shows
ScienceDaily (July 26, 2010) — In a startling new study that involved research on both sides of the Atlantic, scientists from The Scripps Research Institute in Florida and the University College London (UCL) Institute of Neurology in England have shown for the first time that abnormal prions, bits of infectious protein devoid of DNA or RNA that can cause fatal neurodegenerative disease, can suddenly erupt from healthy brain tissue.
Cultured Brain Cells Taught to Keep Time
ScienceDaily (July 19, 2010) — The ability to tell time is fundamental to how humans interact with each other and the world. Timing plays an important role, for example, in our ability to recognize speech patterns and to create music.
Part of the Brain That Tracks Limbs in Space Discovered
ScienceDaily (July 15, 2010) — Scientists have discovered the part of the brain that tracks the position of our limbs as we move through space.
Bright Stars of the Brain Regulate Breathing
ScienceDaily (July 15, 2010) — Astrocytes — brain cells named after their characteristic star-shape and previously thought to act only as the ‘glue’ between neurons, have a central role in the regulation of breathing, according to scientists.
Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience
By STEPHEN S. HALL
Essay by A.C. Grayling
Students of neuroscience have missed the Kantian dimension, and may even have missed the main event: a human soul, or in Kantian terms, a psychology that transcends the space-time categories.
Most unwise.
Chemical Makes Brain Cells Grow, Thwarts Mental Decline in Aging Rats
ScienceDaily (July 8, 2010) — Scientists have discovered a compound that restores the capacity to form new memories in aging rats, likely by improving the survival of newborn neurons in the brain’s memory hub. The research has turned up clues to a neuroprotective mechanism that could lead to a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.
‘Butterfly Effect’ in the Brain Makes the Brain Intrinsically Unreliable
ScienceDaily (July 1, 2010) — Next time your brain plays tricks on you, you have an excuse: according to new research by UCL scientists published June 30 in the journal Nature, the brain is intrinsically unreliable.
Brave Brains: Neural Mechanisms of Courage Uncovered in Study of Fear of SnakesScienceDaily (June 23, 2010) — A fascinating new study combines snakes with brain imaging in order to uncover neural mechanisms associated with “courage.” The research, published by Cell Press in the June 24 issue of the journal Neuron, provides new insight into what happens in the brain when an individual voluntarily performs an action opposite to that promoted by ongoing fear and may even lead to new treatment strategies for those who exhibit a failure to overcome their fear.
Experience Shapes the Brain’s Circuitry Throughout Adulthood
ScienceDaily (June 15, 2010) — The adult brain, long considered to be fixed in its wiring, is in fact remarkably dynamic. Neuroscientists once thought that the brain’s wiring was fixed early in life, during a critical period beyond which changes were impossible. Recent discoveries have challenged that view, and now, research by scientists at Rockefeller University suggests that circuits in the adult brain are continually modified by experience.
Babies Grasp Number, Space and Time Concepts
ScienceDaily (June 15, 2010) — Even before they learn to speak, babies are organizing information about numbers, space and time in more complex ways than previously realized
Individual Brain Cells Can ID Objects as Dissimilar as Cars and Dogs
ScienceDaily (June 9, 2010) — Researchers at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory found that single brain cells, if confronted with a difficult task, can identify objects as dissimilar as sports cars and dogs.
Computational Model Sheds Light on How the Brain Recognizes Objects
ScienceDaily (June 9, 2010) — Researchers at MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research have developed a new mathematical model to describe how the human brain visually identifies objects. The model accurately predicts human performance on certain visual-perception tasks, which suggests that it’s a good indication of what actually happens in the brain, and it could also help improve computer object-recognition systems.
Adolescent Brains Biologically Wired to Engage in Risky Behavior, Study Finds
ScienceDaily (June 6, 2010) — There are biological motivations behind the stereotypically poor decisions and risky behavior associated with adolescence, new research from a University of Texas at Austin psychologist reveals.
New Analysis Reveals Clearer Picture of Brain’s Language Areas
ScienceDaily (May 18, 2010) — Language is a defining aspect of what makes us human. Although some brain regions are known to be associated with language, neuroscientists have had a surprisingly difficult time using brain imaging technology to understand exactly what these ‘language areas’ are doing. In a new study published in the Journal of Neurophysiology, MIT neuroscientists report on a new method to analyze brain imaging data — one that may paint a clearer picture of how our brain produces and understands language.
Invention Regulates Nerve Cells Electronically
ScienceDaily (May 22, 2010) — A major step toward being able to regulate nerve cells externally with the help of electronics has been taken by researchers at Linköping University and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. The breakthrough is based on an ion transistor of plastic that can transport ions and charged biomolecules and thereby address and regulate cells.
Eureka! Neural Evidence for Sudden Insight
ScienceDaily (May 12, 2010) — A recent study provides intriguing information about the neural dynamics underlying behavioral changes associated with the development of new problem solving strategies. The research, published by the Cell Press in the May 13 issue of the journal Neuron, supports the idea of “a-ha” moments in the brain that are associated with sudden insight.
Blinking Neurons Give Thoughts Away
ScienceDaily (May 10, 2010) — Electrical currents are invisible to the naked eye — at least they are when they flow through metal cables. In nerve cells, however, scientists are able to make electrical signals visible. Working with fellow experts from Switzerland and Japan, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg successfully used a specialized fluorescent protein to visualize electrical activity in neurons of living mice. In a milestone study, scientists are able to apply the method to watch activity in nerve cells during animal behaviour.
Brain’s Master Switch Is Verified
ScienceDaily (May 9, 2010) — The protein that has long been suspected by scientists of being the master switch allowing brains to function has now been verified by an Iowa State University researcher
How Nerve Cells Distinguish Odors
ScienceDaily (May 3, 2010) — Whether different odors can be quickly distinguished depends on certain synapses in the brain that inhibit nerve stimulation.
Watching a Living Brain in the Act of Seeing – With Single-Synapse Resolution
ScienceDaily (Apr. 30, 2010) — Pioneering a novel microscopy method, neuroscientist Arthur Konnerth and colleagues from the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) have shown that individual neurons carry out significant aspects of sensory processing: specifically, in this case, determining which direction an object in the field of view is moving.
Sign Language Study Shows Multiple Brain Regions Wired for Language
ScienceDaily (Apr. 29, 2010) — A new study from the University of Rochester finds that there is no single advanced area of the human brain that gives it language capabilities above and beyond those of any other animal species.
How Our Brains Make Memories
by Greg Miller – Smithsonian.com
http://richarddawkins.net/articles/5470
A Brain-Recording Device That Melts Into Place
ScienceDaily (Apr. 18, 2010) — Scientists have developed a brain implant that essentially melts into place, snugly fitting to the brain’s surface. The technology could pave the way for better devices to monitor and control seizures, and to transmit signals from the brain past damaged parts of the spinal cord.
Cat Brain: A Step Toward the Electronic Equivalent
ScienceDaily (Apr. 15, 2010) — A cat can recognize a face faster and more efficiently than a supercomputer. That’s one reason a feline brain is the model for a biologically-inspired computer project
First Direct Recording Made of Mirror Neurons in Human Brain
ScienceDaily (Apr. 13, 2010) — Mirror neurons, many say, are what make us human. They are the cells in the brain that fire not only when we perform a particular action but also when we watch someone else perform that same action.
Carbon Dioxide May Explain ‘Near Death Experiences’
ScienceDaily (Apr. 7, 2010) — Near death experiences (NDEs), reported to include sensations such as life flashing before the eyes, feelings of peace and joy, and apparent encounters with mystical entities, may be caused by raised levels of carbon dioxide in the blood. Researchers writing in BioMed Central’s open access journal Critical Care investigated the unexplained events in 52 cardiac arrest patients.
All for One and One for All: Computer Model Reveals Neurons Coordinating Their Messaging, Yielding Clues to How the Brain Works
ScienceDaily (Apr. 5, 2010) — There is strength in numbers if you want to get your voice heard. But how to do you get your say if you are in the minority? That’s a dilemma faced not only by the citizens of a democracy but also by some neurons in the brain.
Scientists discover gene and part of brain that make people gullible
by Ed Yong – Not Exactly Rocket Science
http://richarddawkins.net/articles/5363
Moral confusion in the name of ‘science’
by Sam Harris, Project Reason
http://richarddawkins.net/articles/5343
from dawkins site
Last month, I had the privilege of speaking at the 2010 TED conference for exactly 18 minutes. The short format of these talks is a brilliant innovation and surely the reason for their potent half-life on the Internet. However, 18 minutes is not a lot of time in which to present a detailed argument. My intent was to begin a conversation about how we can understand morality in universal, scientific terms. Many people who loved my talk, misunderstood what I was saying, and loved it for the wrong reasons; and many of my critics were right to think that I had said something extremely controversial. I was not suggesting that science can give us an evolutionary or neurobiological account of what people do in the name of “morality.” Nor was I merely saying that science can help us get what we want out of life. Both of these would have been quite banal claims to make (unless one happens to doubt the truth of evolution or the mind’s dependency on the brain). Rather I was suggesting that science can, in principle, help us understand what we should do and should want—and, perforce, what other people should do and want in order to live the best lives possible. My claim is that there are right and wrong answers to moral questions, just as there are right and wrong answers to questions of physics, and such answers may one day fall within reach of the maturing sciences of mind. As the response to my TED talk indicates, it is taboo for a scientist to think such things, much less say them public.
Most educated, secular people (and this includes most scientists, academics, and journalists) seem to believe that there is no such thing as moral truth—only moral preference, moral opinion, and emotional reactions that we mistake for genuine knowledge of right and wrong, or good and evil. While I make the case for a universal conception of morality in much greater depth in my forthcoming book, The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values , I’d like to address the most common criticisms I’ve received thus far in response to my remarks at TED.
Harris’ claims here are not clear yet, but we should be extremely suspicious of this clear vaulting ambition to complete the ‘iron cage’ mentality of scientism now current.
On the other hand, Harris’ project was clearly prefigured by Kant in another mode: deriving ethical action from rational premises, a project both brilliant and flawed, but properly founded in the framework of transcendental idealism.
Harris superficial substitute will probably be more scientism, never challenge the dogmas of Darwinism, and be more wishwashy ‘ethics as the search for happiness’ bullshit.
The danger here is of bestseller idiots like Harris et al. creaing a public mood of fanaticism, as with Darwinian propaganda.
The trick here is to claim that ‘future research’ will solve the question, and that therefore it has solved the question. This trick is part of what made Darwinism a dogma of science, even as the failure to produce evidence for the claims of natural selection was phased into the background.
Scientists are angry they can’t reduce morality, and are lusting to make it a corner of scientism.
Keep in mind these idiots can’t get Darwin straight, ethics, well, they are overwheening in their ambition
« Previous Page — « Previous entries « Previous Page · Next Page » Next entries » — Next Page »