aubergine
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What does fMRI measure, anyway?
In the previous post, I began discussing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a popular but controversial experimental technique that allows researchers to investigate brain activity in humans and animals in a relatively safe and non-invasive way. But I found myself commenting more on the problems associated with statistical methods. While these problems are important to…
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Brains, Boats & Baseball bats — some thoughts on fMRI
I wanted to write a post on a new fMRI paper that looks really interesting. But in attempting to do so I felt the need to condense some of my own cloudy thoughts on fMRI. Think of this as one part explanation, one part rant, and one part thinking aloud. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)…
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Metaphor: the Alchemy of Thought
In the murky centuries before the dawn of the scientific age, alchemists used the phrase “As above, so below” to convey their belief that the neat order observed in the heavens could also be discerned amidst the chaos on earth. Thus the alchemists hoped to understand the one in terms of the other — the…
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Science Fiction – The Shadows cast by Modernity
This piece was written at the behest of a friend who works for Down to Earth magazine. It appeared there a few months ago in slightly edited form. * There was a time, not too long ago, when the human ability to conjure visions from beyond the domain of everyday experience expressed itself only in…
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The Great Red Spot (or, When Can a Thing be Said to Exist?)
Consider the Great Red Spot of Jupiter. It is a storm that has been around for two centuries. It’s a vortex big enough to contain two or three planets the size of the Earth. But is it a thing? What does it mean to say that a thing exists? In what sense are plastic cups or…