http://machinemachine.net/stream/feed en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sweetcron therourke@gmail.com http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/03/how-your-cat-is-making-you-crazy/8873/?single_page=true Jaroslav Flegr is no kook. And yet, for years, he suspected his mind had been taken over by parasites that had invaded his brain. So the prolific biologist took his science-fiction hunch into the lab. What he’s now discovering will startle you. Could tiny organisms carried by house cats be creeping into our brains, causing everything from car wrecks to schizophrenia? A biologist’s science- fiction hunch is gaining credence and shaping the emerging science of mind- controlling parasites. ]]> Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:21:02 -0700 http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/03/how-your-cat-is-making-you-crazy/8873/?single_page=true http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/neurophilosophy/2012/feb/05/1?CMP=twt_gu/spaghetti-western-reveals-differences-between-human-and-monkey-brains-mo-costandi-neurophilosophy-blog-science-guardiancouk Spaghetti western reveals differences between human and monkey brains | Mo Costandi http://t.co/EJH3VIO8 ]]> Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:21:10 -0700 http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/neurophilosophy/2012/feb/05/1?CMP=twt_gu/spaghetti-western-reveals-differences-between-human-and-monkey-brains-mo-costandi-neurophilosophy-blog-science-guardiancouk http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2011/11/14/neanderthal-neuroscience/ As scientists began to build a database of human DNA in the 1990s, it became possible to test these ideas with genes. In his talk, Paabo described how he and his colleagues managed to extract some fragments of DNA from a Neanderthal fossil–by coincidence, the very first Neanderthal discovered in 1857. The DNA was of a special sort. Along with the bulk of our genes, which are located in the nucleus of our cells, we also carry bits of DNA in jellybean-shaped structures called mitochondria. Since there are hundreds of mitochondria in each cell, it’s easier to grab fragments of… ]]> Mon, 21 Nov 2011 03:09:18 -0700 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2011/11/14/neanderthal-neuroscience/ http://nplusonemag.com/the-zombie-renaissance-r-n Zombies are “characters” in the sense recently revived by the critic Aaron Kunin—they are a type whose existence extends beyond any one work or even medium. This is why we can speak of “the zombie” in the first place, and why the specter of the ludicrous hovers even over the realist commitment to character. In his book on laughter Henri Bergson observes, “In one sense it might be said that all character is comic, provided we mean by character the ready-made element in our personality, that mechanical element which resembles a piece of clockwork wound up once for all and… ]]> Sat, 01 May 2010 09:44:00 -0700 http://nplusonemag.com/the-zombie-renaissance-r-n