NicoleCRust

Sheril, 3 days ago to books

Once again, I’m in need of a new book to get lost in & would love recommendations 📚

Some of my favorite genres include science fiction, historical fiction & satire. What are you reading? #books

NicoleCRust, 4 days ago to random

Fact check gem of the day: On Karl Popper's contribution to neurotransmission

In the early 1950s, neuroscientists were arguing about whether neurons communicate with one another via electricity (sparks) or chemical neurotransmissions (soups). It was known as "The War of the Soups and the Sparks" (Big reveal: It's mostly soups).

The experiment that put the debate to rest (at least for the spinal cord) was performed in 1950 by John Eccles and colleagues. In that experiment, they demonstrated that their own hypothesis (sparks) was wrong.

What inspired them to do a "disproving" experiment as opposed to the type that would gather support for their favorite theory? In 1944, Eccles met Karl Popper, and they began corresponding. Per one historian,

"The association with Popper made Eccles reformulate his experimental questions in accord with Popper’s philosophy that apparent ‘‘authentication” is no proof at all. It is only the clear-cut ‘‘falsification” of a theory that carried intellectual weight."
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18617413/

NicoleCRust, 5 days ago to random

Fact check gem of the day: An update to the Evolutionary Computation Bestiary website:

"If you send us a message asking to have your own recently-published paper included here, you are publicly acknowledging that you have absolutely no idea what you’re doing with your academic life, and that you’re too distracted to even realise that we’re making fun of you. You have been warned."
http://fcampelo.github.io/EC-Bestiary/

For the CliffsNotes on the Evolutionary Computation Bestiary and all its brilliance:

https://neuromatch.social/@NicoleCRust/110655965657588931

Facts check out: bachelors, bacteria, barnacles, bats, bees, beetles, the big bang, birds, bison, black widow spiders, blind naked mole rats, bonobos, butterflies, and buzzards ....

@caranha, @fcampelo

NicoleCRust, 5 days ago to random

On the joys of fact checking and the diameter of Phineas Gage's rod ...

How thick was the rod that pierced Phineas Gage?

Some reports say that the diameter was 1.25 inches = 3.2 cm.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Phineas-Gage

Others say the diameter was 6 mm = 0.25 inches.
https://www.bmj.com/content/317/7174/1673.2

Some say it was tapered:
"It was 1 1/4 inches in diameter at one end (not circumference as in the newspaper report) and tapered over a distance of about 1-foot to a diameter of 1/4 inch at the other."
https://www.uakron.edu/gage/story.dot

That might resolve the discrepancy!