ThunderSnow.us

Tuesday’s Boston Globe has a nifty article about what we know (and don’t know!) about cortical folding - how all those wrinkles on the surface of the brain develop. Turns out that fetuses in the first and second trimesters have basically smooth brains; all the folding happens late in neonatal development.

…because so much of the folding takes place during the latter weeks of fetal development, premature infants arrive with much of their cortical development yet to be completed. And the folding patterns of preemies relegated to the neonatal intensive care unit don’t match those of their counterparts who spend their full nine months in the womb. New research from Van Essen’s lab shows that even when preemies reach their originally forecasted due dates, their brains are not as large or as folded as those of full-term newborns.

“That means there’s something different in how those brains are organized and in the connections that have formed,’’ Grant said. Perhaps some extra environmental influence in the hospital is disrupting folding or preemies are missing out on some vital influence that their counterparts get in the uterus, though researchers haven’t yet narrowed down what these influences may be.

From a comment here

When I have students who suggest that they’ll never use the basic algebra I teach them, I first ask them a question: when will they use the material they learned in biology in their lives? When will they use what they learned in their history class in their careers? What percent of the things they learned in school will they directly use in the workplace?

Then I explain one of my philosophies about math classes. The fact of the matter is that most people don’t retain all of the math that they’ve ever learned. For someone in a developmental math course it might be something like 50%. For a grad student, it might be something like 80% (as a former math grad student, I can tell you that I retained significantly less than that). So if we need someone to be very comfortable with arithmetic to function in society, stopping at the end of arithmetic won’t be enough for them to retain it. They’ll need a bit more in order to retain everything.

Since math does build on itself, we can start teaching these students algebra. In using algebra, students will be challenged to use their arithmetic skills in many different ways, forcing them to actually own arithmetic. It will give them the practice of not only performing arithmetic, but also knowing when it’s appropriate to use different operations.

Finally, the problem solving and even logic skills one employs in an algebra class are really a dimension higher than that in an arithmetic class. Being introduced to a different way of thinking (using variables to represent unknown quantities, as well as using symbolic manipulation) is immensely helpful in any sort of problem solving arena, whether or not it involves math. Everyone needs problem solving skills: if jobs didn’t require them, everything would be run 100% by computers.

After explaining this to the few argumentative students I get, they generally stop complaining. And they’re art students. Sure, they might not ever need to solve an optimization problem involving a system of inequalities, but learning how to do it reinforces many of the more basic skills they will use and improves the problem solving skills they will need.

CERN Rap from Will Barras on Vimeo.

Sayeth Ajay, in a thread on Making Light:

A euro is a nocturnal marsupial of the kangaroo family, just over a metre long and weighing up to 35 kg (80lb). It is highly adapted to desert living and requires little food or water to survive. It makes a loud hissing noise.

Yes, it is. Really.

African Lion Family Objects To Their Portrayal In Recent Discovery Channel Documentary

Sister Lion (Tiffany)

They took shots of me pooping! Can you believe that? Get a life! I was all the way over by the far shrubs, doing my business—my business!—and I turn and notice everybody right there behind me. One guy who was holding this huge mirror thing, reflecting light on my behind, was giggling. Getting his kicks. Becky and Vanessa say that that is an invasion of privacy and I can get all those guys fired. Becky said that her cousin’s best friend knows this crocodile and she got this guy fired for touching her where she didn’t give him permission to touch.

More here.

Julianne on what she calls the cult of genius in physics: the belief that if you’re not “Feynman-Einstein-Hawking smart”, then you just won’t ever accomplish much.

A medium-sized octopus escaping through a 1″ hole in its container. Video from The Cephalopod Page.

(If you want more, marinebio.org has some cool videos on its mimic octpus page.)