16Jan 2026 by Post

Remembering Bernie Widrow, a Great Engineer and a Wise Scientist

ADALINE, Adolf Hitler, algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, Bell Labs, Bernard Widrow, Boeing, Claude Shannon, Computational Sciences, copper, copper plating, Earl Sannard Herald, electrical engineering, electroplating, Engineering, English, Frank Rosenblatt, French, IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal, IEEE Neural Networks Pioneer Medal, Japanese, Least Mean Squares, MADALINE, Marcian Hoff, National Academy of Engineering, Neural Networks, neurons, pennies, Science in Action, Seattle, silver nitrate, speech recognition, Stanford University
Widrow called his learning machine a neural network because it was loosely based on the 1943 McCulloch-Pitts model of the biological neuron. Source
Read More
09Sep 2025 by Post

Even in Mice, Decision-Making Is More Complex than We Thought

brain, brain activity, brain regions, decision-making, hindbrain, human thinking, Life Sciences, Live Science, Matteo Carandini, midbrain, motor regions, mouse study, muscle responses, neurons, Neuroscience & Mind, pop psychology, processing, R. J. Mackenzie, textbooks, visual cortex
If it’s this complex in mice, what are we to make of simplistic representations of human thinking in pop psychology textbooks? Source
Read More
14Nov 2024 by Post

Design, Engineering, Specified Complexity: Appreciating the Fruit Fly Brain

brains, C. elegans, coherence, Complexity, cortex, crystals, Drosphila melanogaster, efficiency, flight control, fruit flies, Intelligent Design, mating courtship, morphology, mouse, navigation, neural network, neurons, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, optimization, pheromones, Research, snowflake, specified complexity, subnetworks, swarming
Groundbreaking new research has documented the complexity and design of the brains of fruit flies. Source
Read More
17Sep 2024 by Post

Water Is a Problem, and Your Body Has an Ingenious Solution

brainstem, cardiopulmonary arrest, cell membrane, cell's, chemical concentration, chemicals, death, diffusion, Evolution, evolutionary biologists, extracellular fluid, extraterrestrial life, Genetica, Google AI, Günter Bechly, hospice, information, Intelligent Design, intracellular fluid, just-so stories, liquid water, Medicine, molecular machines, multicellular organism, neurons, osmosis, potassium ions, protein, sodium, sodium ions, sodium-potassium pump, Steve Laufmann, The Extracellular Space (series), The Wonder of Water, water, Your Designed Body
The sodium-potassium pump is an innovation that allows your cells to combat the forces of nature and in doing so, prevents disaster. Source
Read More
08Aug 2024 by Post

Research with Mice May Explain How the Placebo Effect Works

Adam Kovac, animals, brain, brain circuits, cruelty to animals, expectation, Gizmodo, humans, illness, imagination, medication, Medicine, mice, neurons, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, pain, pain control, placebo effect, researchers, sugar pill, University of North Carolina
The mice had to be placed in a painful situation in order to trigger a placebo effect. With humans, it is often just a matter of communicating orally. Source
Read More
15Feb 2024 by Post

Fruit Fly Eyes and More Surprises for Darwin

apoptosis, biology, body systems, Charles Darwin, circulation, convergent strategies, courtship, Current Biology, descending neurons, digestion, Drosophila melanogaster, Evolution, feedback control, fine control, Flight, fluctuating asymmetry, fruit flies, Hermann J. Muller, Intelligent Design, jointed appendages, Marco Milán, muscular, natural selection, neurons, Nobel Prize, odors, ommatidia, PLOS Biology, reproduction, saccades, sharp turns, Stephen Crane, timing, visual system
Don’t swat too quickly! There’s more awe in that little fly than might be apparent from  a cursory glance. Source
Read More
24Jan 2024 by Post

Brain as a Quantum System: Theory Gets New Traction

Al Gore, anesthesiologists, Astonishing Hypothesis, behavior, Bill Clinton, birds, brain tissue, consciousness, Dorje C. Brody, Francis Crick, George Musser, human mind, internal compass, materialism, Medicine, neurons, Neuroscience & Mind, New Scientist, Orch Or Theory, organoids, proteins, Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation, quantum computation, Roger Penrose, Stuart Hameroff, Trinity College Dublin, University of Surrey
Hameroff and Penrose’s Orch Or Theory sees consciousness as the outcome of a quantum collapse of a wave function. Source
Read More
31Aug 2023 by Post

Introducing the Unknome, Biology’s Black Box

23andMe, Advanced Biology, Alireza Mashaghi, biochemistry, biology, central dogma, Complexity, DNA transcripts, genetics, genome, genomics, Harvard University, information, Intelligent Design, interactome, Leiden University, Life Sciences, metabolites, metabolome, molecular biology, mouse, neurons, omics, protein unfolding, proteins, proteomics, Public Library of Science, Science (journal), transcriptome, transcriptomics, unknome, Unknown Genome Project
Biology is becoming overwhelmed by new vistas of dynamic complexity. Attempts to get a handle on this complexity has ushered in the era of Omics. Source
Read More