A brainy post 20 Jun 2009 AK’s Rambling Thoughts has an absolutely wonderful post on the role of glial cells in brain function. The money quote (for me) is this: In the traditional view, the brain was made up neurons, which processed data, and glial cells, which performed support functions, including “surround neurons and hold them in place, to supply nutrients and oxygen to neurons, to insulate one neuron from another, and to destroy pathogens and remove dead neurons.” (Wiki). In recent years, this picture has been breaking down. General Science
General Science Some more on Toulmin 12 Dec 2009 The History of the Philosophy of Science list has been unusually active, and even more unusually fairly restrained and complimentary, in discussing Stephen Toulmin’s significance. One point, made by Avner Cohen, is that Toulmin himself had given an assessment of his work and his modus operandi in an interview in… Read More
Evolution Levitt on Fuller 19 Dec 2007 As I mentioned earlier, I love a good book review if it excoriates a stupid book. Norman Levitt, of Rutgers University, has an absolutely lovely piece of critical invective for Steve Fuller’s defense of Intelligent Design here. Fuller is a sociologist philosopher* of science who seems to dislike science intensely,… Read More
Evolution Development of the universe 25 Jun 2008 The French have always had an affinity for developmental models of historical processes. Comte famously argued that societies had four stages to go through. Lamarck held that species were like individual organisms that had a youth, maturity and senescence. And more recently Teilhard held that evolution was heading towards a… Read More
Nah, it’s a WordPress thing, and it’s in every theme. Apparently, displaying a special image of some sort is necessary for obtaining visitor statistics. Reference.