To be quite honest, I’ve never written for a blog before. That seems as good of a sentence as any to start off with. Each week my fellow neurobiology students and I will be writing about something to what we’re studying in class. We may write thoughts on our discussions of the non-fiction books we’re reading, or perhaps things in our everyday lives that pertain to neurobiology that we may not have noticed before. The only instructions we’ve been given are to have fun writing about anything that relates to neurobiology.
Backtracking a bit, I’m a college sophomore majoring in chemistry and biology. The reason I’m taking neurobiology is that I would like to learn more about the biophysics behind nervous systems. So far our neurobiology class is very interesting and enjoyable. I hope that everyone enjoys reading and/or critiquing our compositions over the next few months.
Just don’t bless us…
“Just don’t bless us…”
Although you’re quite welcome to fondle us with any noodly appendage you have hidden away.
Yes, yes, but how do you mis-spell PZ’s surname?
Bob
“Although you’re quite welcome to fondle us with any noodly appendage you have hidden away.”
I saw that on Galaxy Quest.
HA! this sounds exactly like every first Journal entry I did in college when I had to do a weekly entry. Quick! BS something up!
Not that it’s a bad thing, just made me smile.
Expect insightful posts from this student in the future, i can see it.
I’m glad you’re enjoying the class, Blue Expo. Welcome to writing for teh intarwebs.
I took the liberty of adding a word for you.
If you keep the posts simple and well written it works in your favor. I am only a year removed from my own graduate work and found out quickly that it paid to be overlooked just a little bit. Your colleague Bright Lights unfortunately will not benefit from that as the Pharyngula war machine has turned on that posting and made it the most active in ScienceBlogs.
Good Luck.
It’s supposed to be PZ Miersys, right?
Welcome to the fold Blue_Expo. you’re not a Vikings fan are you? It is football season after all.
So would a lot of other people – particularly those concerned with trying to fix broken ones. Here’s an example for you (although possibly beyond the scope of your course).
Yes, yes, but how do you mis-spell PZ’s surname?
I propose we go one step further and mangle the first bit too: PJ Meyers. Like an evil alter-ego that never gets out of bed.
Welcome aboard Pharyngula, Blue_Expo!
I envy you. Make the most of your time at college.
Welcome, Welcome,
To the nice, cranky, well-mannered, ill-behaved, intelligent, dumb ass, irreverent, reverent – yada, yada, yada – bunch of us at Pharyngula. Opinions count alot. Not so much for what the opinion is, but that you have one.
Welcome Blue Expo,
You have introduced yourself, so I would in turn like to introduce you to my all-time favorite single cell Eukaryote: toxoplama gondii. If you can get a chance to write a paper on his one you will have fun.
This tiny critter can jump into a mouse and drive it like a self-drive rental car up to a cat where the mouse gets eaten and toxoplasma moves into the cat.
It also gets in humans where it many change the character of individuals and even nations.
This will do as an excellent introduction if you follow a few links:
http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2006/08/01/a_nation_of_cowards_blame_the.php
Welcome! Good luck, as well; your chosen path of majors sounds interesting, I hope t’be reading about your works in journals in a few years.
Welcome BlueExpo (and other students). Good luck. I look forward to your posts.
If you get a few trolls, it’s ok. Their stench washes out pretty easy if you apply just the slightest spritz of logic.
The only instructions we’ve been given are to have fun writing about anything that relates to neurobiology.
SmellyTerror demands a neurobiology component to this blog entry!
Haha, no, just being a pedantic essay-marker…
I tell you a story! This may be completely urban myth, but it’s a good story and I’m to lazy to look it up:
Three-odd-thousand years ago, and for a damn long time after that, it was believed that you thought with your heart. Makes sense, really – when you get excited it beats faster. They thought the brain was basically sponge and padding, or maybe a heat dissipater. I’m pretty sure Aristotle thought the brain cooled your blood.
Anyway, the people who worked out that you used your brain for thought was the battle-field surgeons, and I guess the people who had to look after the long-term injured. They noticed that it was the guys who got smacked in the head that lost their cognitive abilities.
…and ever since, a massive amount of what we know about brain function comes from what we see when it goes wrong. “That bit there got a great bloody spear through it, and he stopped being able to whistle, so that bit must be the Whistle Cluster”.
I think that’s cool. Scary, though, and humbling – the sheer depth of human misery, the number of tragic, bizarre events, the lucky escapes and the lives ruined, all so we can know that that bit right there is a bit you really REALLY don’t want to get a tamping pick embedded in.
Hey, Blue_Expo! I love the idea of having students post on this blog. As a fellow undergraduate majoring in chemistry at Reed College, I feel the love. Good luck, and have fun!
Blue Expo and friends, welcome. Anyone gets too narky with you, they’re probably just hacked off that we only get to comment but you get to blog with PZ.
“I think that’s cool. Scary, though, and humbling – the sheer depth of human misery, the number of tragic, bizarre events, the lucky escapes and the lives ruined, all so we can know that that bit right there is a bit you really REALLY don’t want to get a tamping pick embedded in.”
… or a tire iron, or a pipe segment, or a bullet, or (usually) a tumor. Although sometimes brain injuries cause very interesting behavior:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22416798-2,00.html
I’m mostly fascinated by synethesia, until I learned that for some people it causes the color red to be painful :-(
I actually find that looking at hot chicks is painful… but only when the hot chick is not my wife, and my wife is within smacking distance.
PS: the tamping pick thing wasn’t just whimsy. I ware makin’ wot the kids call a klassical illusion!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage
Ooooh – chemistry!
I used to study that. I wish you better luck than I had.
“The only instructions we’ve been given are to have fun writing about anything that relates to neurobiology.”
Forget that. What we really want is more dirt on PZ.
At any rate, practicing writing won’t hurt. Its the critics that hurt.
Its like falling. Its actually quite alright, until that sudden stop at the end.
WELCOME!