I found a mystery sculpture and it got me thinking. How often do our preconceived notions make us miss new discoveries as scientists? I fear this happens very often. What got me thinking about closed and open minds was of course inspired by my dog, Elvis. I was walking her very early one morning last […]
Mystery sculpture: how the brain eats up new things Read More »
Why doesn’t the brain fix itself using stem cells the way other organs do? Earlier this week I was lecturing to students here at UC Davis on stem cells. One of the points I raised was that most if not all of our organs have a compliment of stem cells that are there to maintain
Stem cells on the brain: why can’t the brain just fix itself? Read More »
Welcome to the NFL era of the brain injury epidemic. It’s always been an epidemic, but we as a society are only realizing it now. Remember those old anti-drug commercials that aired on TV I think in the 80s saying “This is your brain on drugs”? They showed an egg frying in a pan (see
The end of the NFL? The “new” brain injury epidemic Read More »
Why do people have such a big brain compared to other animals? Vertebrate embryonic development is a highly conserved process, particularly in the earliest phases. (note: you may find this September 2020 post on regulation of bee brain size to be interesting.) A wide variety of vertebrate animals including humans start out with embryonic body plans
Why is the human brain super-sized? Read More »