Databasing tools such as The Cognitive Atlas and Neurosynth collect and systematize results from fMRI studies. The databases collect activation results from across studies, and index them by the cognitive faculties they are supposed to measure. So, a given study …
Where molecular science meets perfumery: A behind-the-scenes look at SCAPE microscopy and its theoretical impact on current olfaction, by Ann-Sophie Barwich
Hindsight may make this revelation seem obvious. As a witness to the development of this experiment, however, I observed two narratives. The first is a story of triumph. The second story involves the varying paths taken until success became a …
Guest Post: The Ethics of the Insulted—Salman Rushdie’s Case
What we learn from Ibn Arabi is we are all Abraham in this world, immersed in the ocean of interpretations. It is our moral duty to exercise our metaphorical cognitive capacity when we are faced with intellectual works, let it …
To Better Twist the Lion’s Tail: Progress in Making Tools for Intervention, by Carl Craver
I use the recent emergence of optogenetics in neuroscience as an opportunity to explore how scientists evaluate their intervention tools. I look at how scientists promoted and defended optogenetics and what they took to constitute its improvement over time. My …
Now Featured — The Tools of Neuroscience Experiment: Philosophical and Scientific Perspectives
The first thing one notices when one enters a neuroscience laboratory are the research tools and their infrastructure. They dominate the space. Neuroscience is a paradigmatic laboratory science. Even in our increasingly “computationalist” times, lab-generated data remains paramount. What Motivated …
Putting Theory in its Place, by John Bickle
John Bickle, Mississippi State University and University of Mississippi Medical Center The chapter’s fundamental conclusion is that the new experiment tools on whose use our best current theories in neurobiology depend are themselves the product of atheoretical laboratory “tinkering”: “fooling …
Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur: Ideal Time Management
Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura was an inspirational figure in the history of Gaudiya Vaishnavism and his ideal utilization of time stands as a tall standard for followers to emulate. 08:00 pm – 10:00 pm Rest10:00 pm – 04:00 am Write04:00 …
Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s Dream
“Lord Chaitanya did not advent Himself to liberate only a few men in India. Rather, His main objective was to emancipate all living entities of all countries throughout the entire universe and preach the eternal dharma. Lord Chaitanya states in …
Śrī Vāmana Dvādasi: Appearance of Lord Vāmanadeva
Bali Mahārāja Surrenders the UniverseWhenever the activities of Vāmanadeva are described in the course of a ritualistic ceremony, whether the ceremony be performed to please the demigods, to please one’s forefathers in Pitṛloka, or to celebrate a social event like …
In Defense of Obfuscation
‘Meaning’ and truth can, then, be conceptualised not as single, fixated and decidable, but as phenomena in a relatively open space of uncertainty and possibility. And communication of and theorising about them can, accordingly, be meaningfully conducted as suspensive rather …