I thought the bloggers of DI might be interested in a short video I recently had a hand in creating and during which I got to see behind the scenes at a sensory laboratory. Chemist Michelle Gallagher, while doing her post-doctoral research at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, became fascinated…
As I mentioned in two previous posts (here and here), I recently had the opportunity to attend several of the sessions of the “Future Directions in Genetic Studies” workshop at Washington University in St. Louis. One of the speakers was Carl Craver of Washington University. Craver's talk was titled, "The…
I stumbled onto this unusual and visually disturbing site. Yes, I gawked. But it made me wonder what the God-is-omnipotent-and-omniscient crowd think of these sorts of occurrences. Are they evidence of God's majesty and ability to intelligently design his creatures? Or do they lead believers to think that human are…
My family shared a vacation house with several other families this year. One afternoon, one of my wife's friends (a philosophy professor in his 40's) was relaxing on the porch when I looked down and noticed his unusual right foot: I found myself blurting out, "So tell me about your…
Here's a standard account of autism, from Wikipedia: Autism is a brain development disorder that first gives signs during infancy or childhood and generally follows a steady course without remission or relapse. Impairments result from maturation-related changes in various systems of the brain. Autism is one of the five pervasive…