Happy Friday: Animation on ‘divided brain’ lecture

Ian McGilchrist. Source: http://www.iainmcgilchrist.com

This Friday, enjoy this animation made to accompany one of Iain McGilchrist’s lectures about “the divided brain”. His argument is that our separate hemispheres of the brain (left vs. right) and sometimes conflicting functions have implications in modern culture and society.

I’m not sure if I agree with all of his points but they are interesting, and the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) has done a cute animation to go along with his part of one of his lectures (about 12 minutes).

Procrastinate Friday: watch this giant squid

This isn’t neuroscience-related but you totally have to see it anyway. Scientists have filmed footage of the giant squid in the depths of the ocean (its natural habitat) for the first time. This LA Times article has a couple of breathtaking photos of it, and you can see a really short video clip below (originally seen on Dot Earth):

Squids have neurons too, so I’m not completely going on a tangent. In fact, squid brains are fascinating and have been the source of much neuroscience research. Giant squid have pretty complicated nervous systems, and their vision is also quite amazing, with really big eyes that are positioned so that they don’t have a blind spot. Cephalopods, including squid and octopus, seem to have specialised sections of their brains for memory and learning, and you can read about this in a study showing that they may be able to be classically conditioned.

Photo: © Diver721 | Stock Free Images

Science t-shirts!

Happy Friday everyone! If you are like me, you probably walked around all December gloating to everyone that you finished all your Christmas shopping in November and then a few days before Christmas you woke up in a cold sweat to the realisation that you’ve completely forgotten one person.

Better luck next year. And next year, if you have any scientists on your list, check out this review of 101 T-shirts for Scientists, Science Geeks and Nerds on Coty Gonzales. I love them all. Although, being a musician as well as a scientist, this was probably one of my favs:

Experimental Music by Glennz Tees

The perils of working in academia

Apparently this is so much of a problem in my building that it warranted a sign. They kind of look like they’re doing some kind of crazy dance. A science dance. Happy Friday, people, and always beware of crazy, dancing scientists.