Click here to read Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science columns. The linked article is really interesting and there are some great clips to watch too. Check out the Brain Gym article, you will see the link highlighted in the text.
Click here to play the Pavlov’s Dog game and access related reading based on some of the scientific achievements of Ivan Pavlov, who was awarded the 1904 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Even though the first image that comes to mind with Ivan Pavlov is his drooling dogs, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his pioneering studies of how the digestive system works.
…and I’m not a terrorist!
I went to see this film last night and was blown away! It is the first Bollywood film that I have watched and expected to find it a lot harder to follow (Hindi with English subtitles). It was really good and I must have cried at least 5 times; it was a clever balance, which enabled serious issues with moving messages to be covered, mixed with comedy to lighten the mood without being insensitive to any issues covered.
The story was romanticised but hey it was Bollywood, so must be expected but that again didn’t detract from the stories but made this a real feel good film
In a nutshell: Bollywood’s Forest Gump and I highly recommend you watch it!
Click here for a link to Odeon Derby information
Click here to listen to a pragramme presented by Sir David Attenborough Scars of Evolution in a two part series looking at the history and current status of the ‘aquatic ape hypothesis’ (AAH), first proposed 45 years ago by Sir Alister Hardy, then elaborated and developed by Elaine Morgan and others.
The hypothesis proposes that the physical characteristics that distinguish us from our nearest cousin apes - standing and moving bipedally, being naked and sweaty, our swimming and diving abilities, fat babies, big brains and language - all of these and others are best explained as adaptations to a prolonged period of our evolutionary history being spent in and around the seashore and lake margins, not on the hot dry savannah or in the forest with the other apes. The programmes explore the varieties of response to the theory, from when it was first proposed to the present day. Why it is seen by many as a very provoking idea and at the accumulating evidence of recent years that seems to be tipping the mainstream towards assimilating many of the AAH proposals. Programme two ends with dramatic new biological evidence suggesting that water-birthing was a very early human evolutionary adaptation.
Psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen and his colleagues at Cambridge’s Autism Research Centre have created the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ), as a measure of autistic traits in adults.
Click here to link to the test. The average score from a control group was 16.4, and 80% of those with autism or a related disorder scored 32 or higher.
This is not a diagnostic test – and many people who score above 32 and who meet the diagnostic criteria for mild autism or Asperger’s have no difficulty in functioning in their everyday lives.
Warning: This is hard hitting and some people may find it upsetting!
Click here to read an article by Rawn, J (2007) about the biological foundations of social, sexual, emotional behaviour, love & memory.
This will stretch you!!!