Posts Tagged ‘biology’

The Biology of Your Perception of Reality

Posted on: by Jeremiah Tolbert

Lightspeed Magazine has a funny non­fic­tion piece by the Evil Monkey today about how brain chem­istry ties into what we pre­ceive.

For instance, releas­ing too much of cer­tain neu­ro­trans­mit­ters in one area of the brain is asso­ci­ated with schiz­o­phre­nia; releas­ing too lit­tle of the same trans­mit­ters in a dif­fer­ent brain area will beget move­ment dis­or­ders. Unwanted elec­tri­cal activ­ity in cer­tain visual cen­ters may lead you to hal­lu­ci­nate that your ex-​​wife is hid­ing in the bushes with a butcher knife, wait­ing. Patiently wait­ing. Biding her time.

Learn about the God Helmet!  It’s fas­ci­nat­ing stuff.

Virophage

Posted on: by Jeremiah Tolbert

Damn it, while I’m out immers­ing myself in the sci­ence fic­tion world all week at Denvention 3, sci­ence goes and spits out some­thing truly amaz­ing and I’m only just now read­ing about it. Check this out:

There is a large virus that gets sick by becom­ing infected by a smaller virus.

If that does not blow your mind, then noth­ing will.

It def­i­nitely set­tles the debate for me as to whether or not viruses are life. Maybe one of the def­i­n­i­tions of life should boil down to “some­thing that can be infected by a virus.”