Sci is at SciAm today, talking about the latest “wastebook” a book released to point out “ridiculous” public spending, and which singled out many STEM projects this year, including one on cocaine…and risky sex habits in quail. At SciAm, I’ll talk about why we need these research projects, and why pointing it out in a […]
After somewhat of a hiatus, the cranial nerves RETURN! After all, we can’t quit now! Only four more to go. And here’s where we’re at: Oh: Olfactory Oh: Optic and Optic 2 Oh: Oculomotor To: Trochlear Touch: Trigeminal And: Abducens Feel: Facial Virginia’s: Vestibulocochlear and Vestibulocochlear 2 Gucci: Glossopharyngeal Vest: Vagus Ah:Accessory Heaven: Hypoglossal So […]
Sci loves Portal. I think it’s a magnificently clever game, and Portal 2 is the in the same vein. I love the songs, I love the humor, and I love the concept (puzzle solving with a giant gun! That makes portals!), and I DESPERATELY want to play. I can’t. Sci, not unlike many people on […]
Ok, I had a lot of fun writing about the Trigeminal. Making it all about a Bollywood movie makes EVERYTHING better. Unfortunately, Bollywood movies do not apply to everything (but they DO apply to most things). So now, we move on to Cranial Nerve VII, the Facial nerve. Why, you say, WHERE was Cranial Nerve […]
You know, doing a series on the Cranial Nerves can get you down sometimes. I know this thing is going to be MAD useful for everyone (and may already be useful to many of you!) when it’s done. But right now, it’s “blah de blah nerve goes to the herp derp nucleus located in the […]
Today we continue ONWARD with the series on the Cranial Nerves. But we’re doing something a little different. Because last time we covered the Oculomotor Nerve, which innervates FOUR of the SIX muscles which control the eye, today we’re going to round out the eye (heh, round, eye, heh) and do the other TWO. But […]
So I posted something the other day on bees and cell phones. The science in the paper itself wasn’t convincing to me, but the other references they pulled out in the discussion made me pull an about face. I thought, hey, maybe the electromagnetic field potentials from the cell phones ARE contributing to colony collapse […]
IMPORTANT NOTE: Sci was too credulous when she wrote this post. I have since seen the error, written a correction, and the result is up here. PLEASE GO THERE for the real story on bees and cell phones. Thanks, y’all! – a very ashamed Scicurious Sci has been really interested in the latest literature on […]
In the last few posts we’ve covered the first two cranial nerves, the Olfactory and the Optic nerves (remember our mnemonic: Oh, Oh, Oh, To Touch And Feel Virginia’s Gucci Vest, Ah Heaven). Both of these cranial nerves carry sensory information IN to the brain for processing, and don’t really control motion. For nerves like […]
Last time we talked about the very basic anatomy of the eye. It was a lot of material. It’s too much. For you, I will sum up. Light and images come through the cornea and hit the lens. The lens flips the image backward. The light continues to the back of the eye, often to […]