Redux: The Art (& Science) of Lefty Portraits

By: | August 11, 2015

It’s a Redux week here at LWON as we take a short summer break. My holiday reading is Tales From Both Sides of the Brain: A Life in Neuroscience, by Michael S. Gazzaniga. It’s a memoir of the amazing discovery of split-brain phenomena in patients whose left and right brains have been separated. It put me in mind of this guest post by Sam Kean that ran on May 5, 2014. I think it might be my favorite guest post so far. Enjoy!

504179143_1b6093ad22_bIf neuroscientists could pick one idea to pack into a wormhole and expel to the outer reaches of the galaxy, there would be several worthy candidates. Some would probably pick the notion that you can “read” people’s tastes and preferences and even political ideologies on brain scans. Others might banish all talk of “neuroplasticity” and “mirror neurons.” Still others would rejoice to never hear another person ramble on about the “logical” left brain versus the “artistic” right brain, and how you can fulfill your creative potential only by thinking with both halves of your brain at once. Who knew!

All that said, backlashes can go too far sometimes. And in the last case especially, it’s a shame that hippie-dippy pseudopsychology has turned a lot of people off to the fascinating world of left brain/right brain differences. The two hemispheres really do have distinct talents, and while it’s easy to make too much of those differences, they do offer a fascinating peek at how the brain evolved and how it works in certain situations. Take the ability to read emotions on other people’s faces. Continue reading →

The Last Word

By: | August 8, 2015

Boyden_Tripod_Nirvana_01August 3 – 7, 2015

Produce from our lovingly tended gardens is communal property, whether we like it or not, finds Ann. The tragedy of the commons never sounded so joyful.

Erik Vance wishes his sequenced genes could explain everything about him and predict the course of his unborn son’s life. Alas, the crystal ball of genetics is cloudy.

After a summer of extreme forest fires, Michelle reports on an artist who collects charcoal from burnt trees and converts it into printer ink with which he produces photos of those trees.

Office thermostats are set according to a formula optimized for the male metabolism, says Jenny. Just as women get used to shivering at work, along come the hot flashes.

Michael Jackson underwent nightly anesthesia instead of sleeping. It killed him – but otherwise, does it work? My take.

Image: c/o Ian Boyden

Can anesthesia satisfy the need for sleep?

By: | August 7, 2015

michael jacksonWhen Michael Jackson died, it came to light that he had been receiving an IV drip of the anesthetic Propofol throughout the night for the previous two months. His death was attributed to cardiac arrest, brought on by an overdose of the drug. Clearly, this kind of treatment is a bad idea, and I don’t know anyone who would support it. But in the months that followed, the underlying principle — that anesthesia can replace sleep — was summarily dismissed. I think it deserves a second look.

In the wrongful death suit that followed his private doctor’s trial, a Harvard sleep expert came in to testify:

Q: Is Propofol a sleep medication?

A: No; it’s an anesthetic.

Q: And is there a difference between an anesthetic and a sleep medication?

A: Yes.

 

Continue reading →

The Cold Truth

By: | August 6, 2015

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A little while back I needed a gift for a friend, and I came across some pretty hand-knit gloves at a craft fair that I knew she’d like. They were fingerless but still quite warm and they’d go nicely with the wooly shawl I’d gotten her the year before.

Never mind that it was the middle of summer. I was sure she’d be wearing them every day anyway. At the office.

Continue reading →

Painting Fire With Fire

By: | August 5, 2015

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The Carlton Complex, the largest wildfire in the history of Washington state, started on July 14, 2014 in the foothills of the North Cascades. When it was finally extinguished, almost 40 days later, it had burned more than 250 homes and disrupted thousands of lives in Okanogan County, a rural county on the northern edge of the state. Over the past year, I’ve been reporting on the county’s recovery from the fire, and along the way I heard about an artist named Ian Boyden.

In the summer of 2007, during a trip to Okanogan County from his home in southern Washington, Boyden decided to hike up an 8,000-foot peak called Tiffany Mountain. He’d read that it was one of the most striking climbs in the Pacific Northwest, and he was not disappointed. “It was probably the most transformative hike of my life,” he told me recently.

Continue reading →

The Brain I Wish I Had

By: | August 4, 2015

shutterstock_65835514I’ve been spending a lot of time lately thinking about my bloodlines. Perhaps it’s my impending fatherhood, perhaps I’m just at that age. I’ve been tracing my grandfathers’ heritages back through the Revolutionary War and to the Tudor conquest of Ireland. I’ve planned a trip to Norway, which is my grandmother’s homeland, and hope to visit a lighthouse that was once manned by my great great grandfather.

And I had my genome sequenced by 23&Me. I didn’t do it for my family heritage or to find out how much Neanderthal DNA I have (a disappointing 2.7 percent, given the size of my brow and forehead). I wanted to know something deeper. I wanted to understand why I am how I am. I wanted to get the genetics of my personality. Continue reading →

Petty Larceny, Vegetable

By: | August 3, 2015

4864648444_3f02419f1d_bI may have stolen my neighbor’s tiny cherry tomatoes right off the vine. They were so glowingly red, so warm, how could I help myself?

Maybe “stolen” is a little harsh because I didn’t have to go onto her property to get the tomatoes, we share-crop them in pots in my back driveway.  And after all, she was going away and asked if I would harvest any that came ripe while she was gone.  And I knew she was gone but I have to be honest now, I didn’t know when she was coming back.  For all I knew, she was back already.  I’m in the realm of putative petty larceny here. Continue reading →

The Last Word

By: | August 1, 2015

tadpoles on my fingerJuly 27 – 31, 2015

Christie’s dog continues to live life as stupidly as possible, this time involving a skunk; and Christie solves the problem with the power of science.  This post is a public service.

Guest Chris Arnade’s pond is drying up; he saves the life of a one-eyed spring peeper but those tadpoles might never graduate into frogs.  He’s got heroic, heart-rending pictures.

In yet another public service, Helen squarely faces the dilemma of the CSA and her frig, applies her superb mental abilities, and shares the solution.  Except for beets, she hasn’t solved beets yet.

What if Cassie didn’t obey the doctors and before she went into the  hospital, she ate a cherry scone? What would she risk?  Would they even know?

The week ends with the latest in LWON’s preoccupation with hapless animals: guest Emily Underwood’s hamster, Hamlet, may well have committed suicide.  He was prone to that kind of thing.