Stanford School of Medicine: Brain imagery is a revelation

Dr. Stephen Smith, Stanford University

One neuron may make as many as tens of thousands of synaptic contacts with other neurons, said Stephen Smith, PhD, professor of molecular and cellular physiology and senior author of a paper , published Nov. 18 in Neuron. Smith is a professor at Stanford university.

Stephen Smith developed a quick, accurate method of locating and counting the millions of synapses in the brain. Smith said this about mouse brain tissue:

Observed in this manner, the brain’s overall complexity is almost beyond belief, One synapse, by itself, is more like a microprocessor —with both memory-storage and information-processing elements — than a mere on/off switch.

In fact, one synapse may contain on the order of 1,000 molecular-scale switches. A single human brain has more switches than all the computers and routers and Internet connections on Earth,” he said.

Rightardia found an article about this study on Dangerous Intersection. Check out the Sanford University hyperlink for a video of the array-tomography of the synapses in the mouse somatosensory cortex.It is amazing!

Source: http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2010/november/neuron-imaging.html

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Astroturfer brain anatomy

The current health care debate says much about the Astroturfers as about the issue. It goes something like this: "There can be no common ground such as Obama has called for. Either we maintain the status quo or life as we know it in the US will end. 

That kind of simplistic black and white mindlessness is at the heart of what passes as "thinking" among conservatives. It makes a bi-partisan solution impossible.

Slavery is another good example. Sure, following the Civil War, slaves were freed. But were they "free" when they were forced to lives of share cropping, violence, servility, racial intolerance, second class citizenship and lack of suffrage for 100 years?

Many Blacks were in a gray zone between slavery and freedom. And cons just can't handle gray zones.

And it turns out for a very good reason. In a study published in Psychological Bulletin, the authors determined that conservatives essentially are damaged goods, having a pathological reliance on hierarchy, authority, nostalgia, resistance to change and intolerance of ambiguity.

Both slavery and health care are civil rights issues.  Health care should not be tethered to employment. It should not be something a US citizen loses when they are laid off.  Sick people should not be penalized with pre-existing conditions that causes them to lose health care when they need it the most.

source: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1823541/why_are_conservatives_so_ah_err_conservative.html?cat=37


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