Man's Best Friend Revisited

They are uniquely loyal to their masters. Unlike cats, they are oriented to what we want, and they understand that we are trying to communicate. They have an uncanny ability to read and respond to human emotions. Humans, in turn, respond to them with oxytocin, the same hormone responsible for bonding mothers to their babies. How did this incredible relationship between them and humans come to be? And how can they, so closely related to fearsome wild wolves, behave so differently? And of course you know what am I talking about, don't you?

Sparrows, Nature & Nurture

I walk among the shadows of my memories and in the distance I see a boy playing in the hay mow of an Iowa barn built over a century ago by his ancestor.

Spooky Action at a Distance & Reinhold Bertlmann's Socks

John Bell said there was no mystery in Albert Einstein's Hidden Variables. In the 1935 Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Paradox, the four scientists posited that spooky action at a distance --nonlocal interaction of objects spatially separated-- could be explained by Hidden Variables. That is, two entangled particles could affect one another though light years apart, and this mutual influence was due to something hidden from observation. In 1981 John Bell said it could be explained by the socks on his friend's feet.

Richard Halliburton Lost at Sea

On October 5, 1939, the Chancery Court in Memphis, Tennessee declared Richard
Halliburton officially dead. “Lost at Sea,” newspaper headlines declared of him, his crew, and his Chinese junk, Sea Dragon. This was big news. Another famous adventurer had disappeared. The year before, Amelia Earhart, with her navigator Fred Noonan, had ditched a Lockheed Electra somewhere in the Pacific.

Morality, Wall Street, & Capuchin Monkeys

In Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 epic, Charleston Heston descends from Mount Sinai to deliver morality from God to His people. The Ten Commandments  indicates that it comes from the top down, from the deity to us. We are told what to do and that is that. But does moral behavior depend on rules from on high?

Facts You Always Wanted To Know But Were Afraid To Ask About

Thomas Crapper invented the flush toilet. Hence, "to take a crap". I can think of many ways for my name to be remembered, but that isn't one of them.

Poet Hart Crane's father invented Life Savers candy. Crane committed suicide by jumping off a cruise ship into the Gulf of Mexico. Defying all logic, there is really no connection between the two facts. Dare I say he did not have a life saver?

Famous last words:

The Curious Case of the Benjamin Button Jelly Fish

Is immortality worth it? What if you could turn off the aging clock? You see your loved ones die around you as you keep your fresh face. Or, is there another way to look at all this?

The Axe Murderess's DNA Lives On

Consider this. You are a neuroscientist with a special interest in the brains of psychopaths. Knowing your interest, your mother suggests you check your own family tree for skeletons in the closet. Some of your ancestors were strange indeed, she says. You do that and discover that, among other psychos, Lizzy Borden, the Axe Murderess, is in your family tree.  You check DNA in your immediate family and are astonished at what you find.

There I Was, Minding My Own Business When Socrates Spotted Me

To sharpen my wits, sometimes I imagine myself in ancient Athens queried by Socrates. But suppose this, I ask myself--suppose he has been asking people very tough questions so when I see him I try to duck out of sight, but it is too late. He spots me on a street corner.

She Has No Fear, Which Is Dangerous

Near the opening of David Lean's epic movie, Lawrence of Arabia, we view Lawrence with non-coms in the mapping room of British HQ, Cairo, during WWI. As if damning the British class-system, Lieutenant Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) strikes a match to light a corporal's cigarette, then very slowly closes his finger and thumb upon the flame. His face is very attentive while the sergeant and corporal watch, fascinated, as Lawrence extinguishes the flame. The corporal then tries the trick with a burning match but drops it in pain. He complains that it hurts, to which Lawrence answers, "Certainly it hurts."

"Well what’s the trick then?" asks the corporal.

"The trick," says Lawrence, "is not minding if it hurts."

The scene serves as a metaphor of what neuroscience has learned about pain.