From the ever-handy linkfrenzy, this article about autistic people who "don't want to be cured". I get where they're coming from, in a way that I *don't* get other disabled-rights activists (such as deaf parents who don't want their kids to have implants to let them hear). I'm not sure why I comprehend one group and not another - perhaps it's because, though ( Read more... )

" Battling scientists around the world are racing to be first to develop practical robots remotely controlled by harvested monkey brains over the internet. "

I for one welcome our new monkey-brained-cyborg overlords...

A few fun links from my hiatus:

"A multi-national team of biologists has concluded that developmental evolution is deterministic and orderly, rather than random, based on a study of different species of roundwormsThey accomplished this by studying minute vatiations in roundworm vulvas. Imagine the date potential in that profession- "What do you do ( Read more... )

First, the Zombeatles with 'A Hard Day's Night of the Living Dead'

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And then Send More Paramedics give us their rendition of 'Nothing Tastes Like This'

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Want more? Google 'zombiecore'!

From Kung Fu Monkey, this delight. Written by the man who gave us the end song in the game Portal (seriously one of the sweetest and funniest moments in gaming), this is,

"All we want to do is eat your brains".

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No, not left-wing... left *hemisphere*.

An excellent piece by the hard SF writer Peter Watts:

" This is an ancient review article - about ten years old, judging by the references - but it contains an intriguing insight from split-brain research that I hadn't encountered before: The right hemisphere remembers stuff with a minimum of elaboration, ( Read more... )

From the newsfeed at Better Humans - a great resource for all your science needs - these;

"Scientists know that information travels between brain cells along hairlike extensions called axons. For the first time, researchers have found that axons don’t just transmit information - they can turn the signal up or down with the right stimulation ( Read more... )

Ever since I heard about cases of anencephlia (absence of brain matter) where the sufferer is fully conscious and functional (instead of, to quote 'The Man With Two Brains', sitting in the corner and going *pttttthhhhh*), I've been trying to find actual source material to quote here.

Thanks to Nature, here is some"Three years ago, a 44-year-old ( Read more... )