Merging Brain and Machine

A PDF article (from Rolling Stone mag) can be found here



Is it far fetched? Less and less with everyday that goes by!

Human nature explained by science: A slippery slope?

I am a person of great skepticism and I almost never believe anything unless I experiment it by myself but I am convinved that human behaviour can be explained in plain scientific terms. Genes regulate many aspects of our personnality but the extent to which the gene effect will be measured involves social interactions and other things that cannot be explained in biochemical/genetic terms.

Yet, bot aspects of who we are are connected through genes, mind, conscience, perception, stress etc.... (May I propose a very good podcast about the effect of a crowd on human behaviour? CLICK HERE to access it) and the scientific community seems to be reluctant to create relationships between Science and Human Nature. According to an article from the Skeptical Inquirer there are two reasons that explain the distance observed between "hard science" and "social sciences":

"There are two overly concise reasons for the segregation of social science from biology.

The first has to do with a broad allergy to “reductionism”—in effect, trying to explain a social phenomenon by a physical or genetic cause."

The second and perhaps more significant reason for the segregation of the two sciences has to do with the appropriation of some biological and many nonbiological materials by various fascist groups, especially the Nazis. Consequently, there was plausible and understandable suspicion of attributing to genes any major social or cultural phenomena."

In an interesting intellectual twist, the author (Lionel Tiger) refers to a set of behavioral "vitamins" that explain our needs, when these "vitamins" are missing, problems seems to emerge. Curious about the nature of these "vitamins"? Read HERE

Science tattoos

I know a few students that have, somewhere on their body and I do not care, a tattoo of a molecule. For instance a known carcinogen or the famous double helix....anyway...if you are thinking of getting one or if you already have a science tattoo, THIS SITE might be of interest to you.

Picture source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/_tim/149500684/

How to become a genius

Being a genius has a lot to do with perception...either you perceive yourself as a genius and nobody else does or you think you are just a regular person and everybody thinks you are a genius. Sometimes you might be a real genius and everybody knows it, including you...but that is quite rare. It seems there are ways to "become" a genius and it has little to do with a gift from mother Nature (or God for that matter) rather than being able, or lucky enough, to "see" something nobody else saw or even bothered looking at.

Here is a paper published in PLOS Computational Biology that just might help you. I decided to bring the highlights to you...read on genius....

1) Nobody cares about your age, especially if you are young and, it gets even better....if you are a "nobody", nobody really cares. You can imagine very controversial concepts and maybe you will be lucky enough (and smart enough) to be right on target. The most important thing is to keep your mind open to new ideas and concepts....people once thought planet Earth was flat!

2) Look out for the weird....something unusual happens? You can do two things...you can trash the results that would screw up your error bars or you can try to replicate these "weird"result. By the way, if you need to refresh your statistical knowledge, the Bayblab guys have something for you.

"This should be encouraging news for those of us who don't consider ourselves geniuses. The best way to promote scientific success may be to maximize exposure to chance occurrence and events—especially those that have more upside than downside potential. So, don't just ignore those little inconsistencies that arise in your work, give them some room for consideration. This is something anyone can do, though it takes time and courage"

3) Take risks....ah...risks! Calculated risks maybe but risks are an important part of it. I suggest you buy a Magic 8 Ball if you are too scared. Chances are you will come up with news ways of analysing the situation!

4)Enjoy your work....nuf said!

5) Learn to say NO!...that is difficult. Here is a way to look at it: Saying NO is actually saying YES to other things! Ah...logic!

6) Learn the joy of writing and presenting. Open an account on Blogger and try to say things that make you look like a genius....Expose your ideas to other ones. CONFRONTATION!!!! Eventually, you will have to present something, so remember that practice makes perfect...just like your mother tells you (or used to tell you)

7) See the big picture. You are going somewhere with this new concept...right? Remember and, most importantly, understand the WHY...WHY is this important, WHY should someone listen to you for more than 5 minutes (or 5 seconds)...WHY????

You are now on your way to become the very best scientist this planet ever had.


Reference:
Giddings MC (2008) On the Process of Becoming a Great Scientist. PLoS Comput Biol 4(2): e33. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.0040033

The best science Podcasts

Podcasts are a very efficient, and fun, way to learn about the last developments in the world of science. I strongly promote this medium to my students and, one in a while, I quiz them on specific segments. Furthermore, these science podcasts are all produced by highly reputable journals and news organizations. Pure and FREE listening pleasure...Enjoy!

• Nature magazine podcast
• Science magazine podcast
• Scientific American podcast
• NPR Science Friday podcast
• The naked scientist podcast
• New Scientist podcast

There are more and more podcasts....so many things to learn and so little time!