Introducing...Street Art Pittsburgh!!

Our final project, Street Art Pittsburgh, is now up and running. Thank you to my amazing team!

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They say that appearance is only skin deep, that you can't really learn a lot about someone based on how they look or dress. I'm calling shenanigans on that. On most days, her fashion sense reflects her outlook on life: usually casual jeans and a sweatshirt, laid-back, not taking life too seriously, or at least not any more seriously than it needs to be taken. You probably wouldn't label her loud or outspoken, but her wit can catch you by surprise. If there are many people who could compete with her sports knowledge and passion, I certainly haven't met them. 

How to feel like a Jedi

Sure, you can don your Jedi robes and wield your plastic lightsaber. Or you can buy the Star Wars Force Trainer or perhaps the slightly more sophisticated Mindflex, games that allow you to move a small ball simply with the power of your mind. Seriously. It's not magic, it's not sleight of hand; it's pure, unadulterated science. Headsets equipped with electrodes sense your brain's activity as you concentrate on moving the ball, and this signal is used to power a small fan that pushes the ball into the air. Concentrate harder and the fan will increase its intensity, making the ball rise higher.

This technology is a simplified version of research being conducted by Pitt's own Andy Schwartz. The basic principle is this: thinking about and planning a body movement involves activity in a specific part of the cortex. This planning activity generates an electrical signal that can be picked up by electrodes. Schwartz and his team have implanted electrodes into this region of monkeys' brains, and, through complex algorithms that I can't even begin to understand, the electrical activity is used to move a mechanical arm in three-dimensional space. The researchers restrain the monkey's arms and present him with a marshmallow. And, just by thinking about reaching out and grabbing the marshmallow, the mechanical arm moves, retrieves the marshmallow, and delivers it to the monkey.

Clearly, this kind of Jedi magic technology has the potential for much more than kids' games. It might even hold the key to helping those with quadriplegia and other forms of paralysis live more normal, independent lives.

Turkey Talk

If you want to hear stories about tic-tac-toe-playing chickens, gangster turkeys, and cruelty-free foie gras, Ira Glass is your man.

Every time I listen to This American Life, I wonder how on earth they find these smalls gems of stories.

A little dose of vertigo

Just when I thought I was over my horrible cold/flu, it returns with a vengeance, this time wreaking havoc on my inner ear and making me feel like Lucille Austero.



Okay, it's not that bad. I'm not actually falling over like Lucille 2; I just have a case of the dizzies, as she might say. What a great opportunity to revel in my science nerd-dom with a mini-lecture on the vestibular system!

Much of our sense of balance and our sense of the position of our body in space comes from our inner ear. The inner ear contains the three semicircular canals, each located in its own plane.

NIH Medical Arts

  Each semicircular canal has a bulge of tissue at its base which houses the cupula. Inside the cupula are hair cells that bend and sway based on the movement of fluid through the semicircular canals. Their movement sends a signal to a sensory nerve, and this information goes to the brain.

The canals are responsible for transducing rotational movement like shaking your head from side to side or nodding. But the inner ear also contains the otolith organs (the utricle and saccule), which transduce linear movement, like when you are walking.

Infection or inflammation of any of these structures in the inner ear or of the nerve leading away from the inner ear can cause the nerve cell to send an improper signal to the brain, one that doesn't jive with visual and other sensory information coming in. The result? Dizziness and vertigo. This kind of vertigo is common in the flu and upper respiratory infections, but there are other non-viral causes as well, some of which can cause more severe and longer-lasting vertigo. Poor Lucille.

Advanced Batman Theory

Cracked published an interesting take on why Christopher Nolan might decide to off Batman in the trilogy's next, and final, installment. According to the author, it would really only be Bruce Wayne that dies because Batman, assuming he's kicked enough butts and inspired the citizens of Gotham, will have become an immortal symbol.

At least if he dies, there's a backup Batman.   

 

"I want to do that thing rich people do where they turn money into more money."

An article published yesterday in The New York Times described how Ronald Lauder, heir to the multi-billion dollar Estée Lauder empire, has been able to avoid paying millions in taxes. Now, let's get one thing straight: I'm no fan of the Occupy Wall Street movement or any of the protests it has spawned. But I'm pretty sure this is exactly the kind of thing they're fed up with, and I have to say that I agree. Before we even begin discussing raising or lowering taxes, perhaps a good start would be to close the loopholes that Lauder and others have been able to take advantage of, like getting a tax break for buying art and "donating" it to your own charity. Just sayin'.