Architecture is not only about aesthetics. Like the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum buildings also need to respond to the functional needs of the occupants, and users need to be provided with adequate lighting, well-modulated heating and cooling systems, structural soundness, and public safety provisions. These requirements can vary according to the type of building, a hospital has other requirements than a museum. If we could relate this knowledge to neuroscience we would then know how the design of classrooms can support the cognitive activities of students, how the design of hospital rooms can enhance the recovery of patients, and how the design .....read more »

Surgeon and inventor Catherine Mohr tours the history of surgery (and its pre-painkiller, pre-antiseptic past), then demos some of the newest tools for surgery through tiny incisions, performed using nimble robot hands. Fascinating -- but not for the squeamish. Don't forget that much of the work done on surgical robotics is done by biomedical/mechanical/electrical engineers, chemists. These are the people behind the scenes that make the new awesome technology work. Related posts: The bio-future of joint replacement 2 Myths that Haunt Me From the Past about Mental Illness and Schizophrenia The Future of Wireless Medicine ..read more »

Here is Destino, the collaboration between Walt Disney and Salvador Dalí. Production began in 1945 and the film didn't premier until 2003. Apparently, it will finally see an official home DVD release in 2010 along with a documentary about the two artists' history together. Needless to say that besides Kandinsky I'm also a fan of Salvador Dali. Stunning graphics in this short video. Thanks BoinBoing Related posts: Did Salvador Dali suffer from Mental Illness? Painters and Psychiatry Feature documentary film about psychedelics ..read more »

Brain Rules is the title of an excellent book. If your new to neuroscience of "brain science" this book is an excellent starting point. In a clear and funny way it explains complicated brain functions and their use in every day life. I read it with much pleasure. The author, John Medina uses entertaining examples and stories to substantiate the recent results of neuroscience research without loosing nuance. How do we learn? What exactly do sleep and stress do to our brains? Why is multi-tasking a myth? Why is it so easy to forget—and so important to repeat new knowledge? You can .....read more »

This parody of Wu-Tang Clan's "Gravel Pit" was made for Human Biology 4A's unit on Neuroscience. The unit is taught by Russ Fernald (who is featured on his bicycle). For the lyrics and other background information check out SciVee Thanks Mind HacksRelated posts: Pioneering New Frontiers in Tumor Angiogenesis Gender Diffrence Panic Disoder Explained? E-Mail Behavior Explained ..read more »

Digital literacy is the ability to employ a wide range of cognitive and emotional skills in using digital technologies. 6 digital skills: (a) Photovisual literacy is the ability to work effectively with digital environments, such as user interfaces, that employ graphical communication. (b) Reproduction literacy is the ability to create authentic,meaningful written and artwork by reproducing and manipulating preexisting digital text, visuals, and audio pieces. (c) Branching literacy is the ability to construct knowledge by a nonlinear navigation through knowledge domains, such as in the Internet and other hypermedia environments. (d) Information literacy is the ability to consume information critically and .....read more »

Rankin uses a weekly hashtag to organize comments, questions and feedback posted by students to Twitter during class. Some of the students have downloaded Tweetdeck to their computers, others post by SMS or by writing questions on a piece of paper. Rankin then projects a giant image of live Tweets in the front of the class for discussion and suggests that students refer back to the messages later when studying. This video is an example on how to use twitter during classroom. The disadvantages encountered so far are: There are some topics we discuss that need more information than Twitter's 140 character .....read more »

Information designer Tom Wujec talks through three areas of the brain that help us understand words, images, feelings, connections. In this short talk from TEDU, he asks: How can we best engage our brains to help us better understand big ideas? Very instructive video about basic brain functions and their location integrated in explaining how we give meaning to our surroundings.Related posts: The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain Top Ten Myths About The Brain Brain Blogging, The Fourty-Fifth Edition ..read more »

Scientia pro publica is a blog carnival dedicated to bringing together in one place links to the best of science blogging that would be of general interest You can submit entries to the carnival by going here. The next edition will be at A DC Birding Blog. Especially enjoyed Things I like to Blog About: Neurotransmission, an excellent post on neurotransmission with nice graphics and Nerve Cells and Glial Cells: Redefining the Foundation of Intelligence on AK's Rambling Thoughts Both very excellent educational comprehensible posts on interesting topics.Related posts: Medicine 2.0 Blog Carnival Edition #37 Scientia Pro Publica #27 is up at Melliferax Encephalon 60, A .....read more »

The answers: 89% (32/35) of physicians used at least one Web 2.0 tool in their medical practice, with 80% (28/35) reporting the use of wikis, only one respondent contributed to web 2.0 making regular contribution to a medical wiki site physicians checked for medical information on an average of 2.6 different sites a day, with 1.4 visits a day or 53% of the total (235/444) being to sites using user-generated or Web 2.0 content most commonly visited sites were Google, used on 32% of all recorded cases (142/444) and by 80% (28/35) of all physicians, and Wikipedia in 26% (115/44) of cases and .....read more »