Monthly Archives: December 2006

Some words I learned in 2006

inchoate aleatory ambit echt (ok, I actually learned that in 2005, but I just saw it again) lusus naturae aetiology (I really should have known that one already – no excuse) alible amerce mutatis mutandis deictic pogonip enchiridion virgule Sometimes … Continue reading

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Faces of Poverty

Beavis Tom Stone, 2006 Stoneth’s Photos on Flickr Tom Stone Gallery Now that John Edwards has made poverty one of his platform issues, we’ll no doubt be hearing a more about it in the news again. But these haunting photographs … Continue reading

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A GOOD idea

A friend sent me a link to this new magazine called GOOD. It includes features such as “The Color of War: An embedded artist chronicles Iraq” and “Search And Destroy: Ramming and sinking whale boats wherever they can be found.” … Continue reading

Posted in Science in culture & policy, Uncategorized, Words | Comments Off

A truly weird case of mimicry

The moth in spider’s clothing, via the Neurophilosopher’s weblog Earlier, I posted about the tendency of prey species to mimic the appearance of other prey, usually to take advantage of the predator’s learned aversion to noxious species. Now the Neurophilospher … Continue reading

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A Garden of Neurons

Purkinje Cells Ludovic Collins, confocal micrograph Wellcome Biomedical Image Awards 2006 After they get over the thrill of cutting it up, my students occasionally complain that brain tissue looks boring (somewhat like pinkish white cheese). Perhaps because the brain is … Continue reading

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“Huge” Circadian Clock News

A Blog Around The Clock : Huge New Circadian Pacemaker Found In The Mammalian Brain I love this stuff. In grad school, I wrote a hugely ambitious outside proposal on circadian photoreception mechanisms in the mammalian retina, prompting one of … Continue reading

Posted in Biology | 2 Comments

Christmas Lightshow

This remarkable light show in my home town is clearly visible from several miles away. I could only capture part of it in this photo, because the street was too narrow for me to back up far enough.

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Happy Holidays from bioephemera!

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For once, a difficult vocabulary quiz

Schmies Vocabulary Quiz I found this old but still amusing thing whilst rooting around online at 4am. (Procrastinator::Me.) I usually find vocab quizzes pretty easy, but this one’s tougher than usual. See if you can beat my score (183).

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The Economist on free will

The Economist: Liberalism and neurology | Free to choose? As if the concept of free will wasn’t fraught long before we had MRI. Update: this post from musings on neurology, etc. offers a reading list of primary literature on neurology … Continue reading

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