"That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet." --Emily Dickinson According to an article in the Los Angeles Times from September 17, 2011 "Propelled by an increase in prescription narcotic overdoses, drug deaths now outnumber traffic fatalities in the United States, a Times analysis of government data has found. Drugs exceeded … Continue reading Mortality, Mozart, and Madness
In the introduction to Jonah Lehrer's "Proust Was a Neuroscientist," he sums up the problem with only considering brain physiology as the means to come to terms with consciousness: "Scientists describe our brain in terms of its physical details; they say we are nothing but a loom of electrical cells and synaptic spaces. What science … Continue reading Neuroscience and the Arts
“Books on physics are full of complicated mathematical formulas, but thought and ideas are the beginning of every physical theory.” - Albert Einstein The Standard Model of particle physics did not predict the existence of the dark matter that constitutes the overwhelming majority of matter in the cosmos. The Standard Model describes heuristically the "foam … Continue reading The Foam on Top of the Ocean
[image credit: St. Jude Medical; North East Vision Magazine] I recently reviewed a publication I received a while back from Scientific American entitled, "Mind and Brain," written by Gerald D. Fischbach, who served as Chairman of the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School from 1990 - 2000. The complexity of the human brain as … Continue reading Human Brain, Human Mind, Human Consciousness, Human Spirit
A recent article in the New York Times, ("Decoding the Brain’s Cacophony" by Benedict Carey-Published: October 31, 2011) reports on research by Dr. Michael Gazzaniga, professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, which suggests that the functioning of our left brain hemisphere is responsible our familiar view of ourselves--an interpreter--and that what … Continue reading Exploring Below the Surface
"Certain moments from the dream stand out sharply. The moment the vehicle I was traveling in pulled up to the long row of stone steps leading up to the building and I first saw you. We nearly collided as we embraced. We only spoke briefly when you abruptly went back inside the building, as I … Continue reading Dreaming Through a Window
Life has many strata. Upon conception, we begin the arduous journey to the awakening of consciousness. Gradually, the tissues within the embryo begin to differentiate, and by the end of the third week in the womb, the spinal column and central nervous system begin to form. By the end of six weeks, brain waves are … Continue reading Perception begins early in our development
Artistic impression of the universe. Image credit: Pingnews In his recent book, "The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human," V.S. Ramachandran makes a substantial argument and goes to great lengths to express what it is that distinguishes human beings from all others. In reviewing the structure of our brains, he notes … Continue reading A Universe Conscious of Itself
John's Consciousness 