At various times while reading Anil Seth's engaging and accessible Being You, I was reminded of the people in Helen Thomson's Unthinkable, the subject of a previous blog post. Thomson was documenting the distinct experiences of people whose perception of themselves and/or the world around them depart substantially from what is typical: people who think they are tigers or dead or who can have their orientation to the world flipped instantaneously. Seth is giving an account more generally of why perception works the way … [Read more...] about Science Book Review: Being You – A New Science of Consciousness
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Science Corner: Preeclampsia Awareness and Practicing Faith Over Fear
During the last two years, "Faith over Fear" has become a guiding philosophy, and for some people a battle cry, for dealing with the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and everything else going on in the world. All in all, faith over fear is a good mantra. Multiple verses in the Bible give this advice, and there are women and men throughout the Old and New Testaments who amazing examples of people who practiced faith over fear. Abraham following God's command to pack up his family and leave everything he knew for the promise … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Preeclampsia Awareness and Practicing Faith Over Fear
Science Corner: Magical Multiverse Thinking
I went to see Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness this weekend. (There are no spoilers ahead.) This was only my third trip to an indoor movie in 2 years. Part of my calculus was the fact that I'd be going to see my daughter in her first school musical later that evening. I obviously wasn't going to miss that. At the same time, if I were to get sick later, I wouldn't want that to retroactively cloud my memories of my daughter's performance. But with multiple activities in the same weekend, I add plausible … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Magical Multiverse Thinking
Science Corner: Let There Be Light (But Not Too Much)
According to Genesis 1, on the first day of creation God called the light into being, he separated light from darkness, he called the light "day" and the darkness "night", and he called it good. Most of us would agree that light is, indeed, good. Both literally and metaphorically light drives out the darkness and allows us to see so that we can find our way. And it is not only humans that value light--all of the natural world benefits from it. … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Let There Be Light (But Not Too Much)
Science Corner: When Is a Bed Not a Bed?
Over the past two years, you've probably heard more about hospital bed availability than you may have expected to hear in your entire life. Tracking total hospital beds and ICU beds occupied has helped communities know when to increase mitigation to preserve those limited resources. With expanding SARS-CoV-2 immunity through vaccination and prior infection, we can hope to hear less about strained healthcare facilities; already we saw that the combination of immunity and a less severe strain in Omicron BA.1 meant less … [Read more...] about Science Corner: When Is a Bed Not a Bed?