Alva Noe

In Allan Jones’s presentation, A Map of the Brain, he explains his current project and why is essential to the modern day. Jones first starts off by giving the audience some background information about the brain. He states that the brain is a complex organ that receives around twenty percent of the blood from our hearts as well as twenty percent of the oxygen from our lungs. Jones explains that the brain is essential to the body because it controls everything we do. Even though the brain is very complex, it does not mean that it is not organized and structured. In the past century, scientists have created a blue stain that stains neuron bodies. This showed scientists that neurons were unevenly distributed throughout the brain depending on

Richard Wright, both the author and main character of “Library Card”, experiences prejudice first hand throughout his piece. Acting as an obstacle, this prejudice often prevents him from being able to visit the library. Along with this, his lack of books leaves him ignorant. Questioning the world around him, Wright struggles to see the world as anything but black and white. This impairs his reading and writing skills. He demonstrates this with the use of rhetorical questions. What is a rhetorical question? It is a rhetorical device that is often used to persuade or subtly influence the reader in a form of a question. Used correctly, these stylistic devices can have an enormous impact on the reader. In “The Library Card”, Wright uses rhetorical questions to emphasize and accentuate his points.

“A cat-scan computer generated x-ray pictures of the human brain, exposing the secrets that lay hidden within the skull.” (Ch8, pg38)

“The Human Brain”, by myPerspectives, is an informative article that claims that the brain is a complex organ that is truly impressive. The brain is a key part of the central nervous system, that controls the entire body’s activities, to simple things such as breathing. These actions are fired through neurons, that quickly travel through the spinal cord. Surprisingly, the brain transmits these messages at an unimaginable rate, at 150 miles per hour, through 85 billion cells, called neurons. These neurons can form up to 10,000 synapses, or connections to each other. By itself, the brain can create billions of synapses, which change the structure of the brain every time new information is learned. However, there is still much that scientists

In the article titled, “Secrets of the Brain” published in the February 2014 issue of National Geographic, we learn that there have been many advances in understanding the inner workings of our brains. One of the leading scentists, Van Weeden, is working hard to understand the connections that occur within our heads.

Many researchers have sought out an explanation for the mysteries hidden within our brain and how it operates. Recent studies have shown that the brain functions more as a muscle allowing it to continue to grow or contract. If these studies prove to be true, this could forever change how people interact or associate with their brains.

The progress of neuroscience has been significant in the past 500 years. and with the advance of technology, there is yet a multitude of chapters left to write in the history books of neuroscience. The book The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: written by Sam Kean was an engrossing and captivating read. It gives the reader a better appreciation for the growing pains of neuroscience and provides an educational, albeit entertaining overview of the anatomy and physiology of the brain and nervous system. From the early life and discoveries of Santiago Ramón y Cajal and his fascination with Golgi’s method la razione nera, which allowed Cajal to deduct after observing

Vital Paths is the title of the second chapter in Nicolas G. Carr's book, The Shallows. This chapter continues Carr's argument, posed in chapter one, in highlighting the dangers of the internet, regarding our cognitive abilities. Specifically on format, this chapter argues for our brains neurological flexibility through an array of examples, ranging from historical observations to scientific experiments, and ends cautioning that with malleability negative neurological effects are plausible.

I read the article, “Secrets of the Brain”, found in the February 2014 issue of National Geographic written by Carl Zimmer. I chose this subject because I have been fascinated with the brain and how it works. The research of the brain has been ongoing for many centuries now. The history in this article is interesting. It explained how scientists used to understand the brain and its inner workings. For example, “in the ancient world physicians believed that the brain was made of phlegm. Aristotle looked on it as a refrigerator, cooling of the fiery heart. From his time through the Renaissance, anatomists declared with great authority that our perceptions, emotions, reasoning, and actions were all the result of “animal spirits”—mysterious, unknowable vapors that swirled through cavities in our head and traveled through our bodies.” (Zimmer, p. 38)

“What, if anything, lies beyond our senses?”- Neil deGrasse Tyson. Neil deGrasse Tyson is an Astrophysics and also the author of “Coming To Our Senses”, which was published March 1st, 2001. This is a rhetorical essay arguing that our senses are limited. Neil deGrasse Tyson used allusions, ethos, and logos effectively to deliver an essay about our five senses to a non-scientific audience. One rhetorical device that the author used was allusions.

Exercise and understanding has crushed the theory humankind had about the brain being localized and specialized. In

The author uses rhetorical questions to make the reader think about the subject in depth. Rhetorical questions are put into the article to try to make the reader think rhetorically about the topic. Sometimes these questions can be hard to answer but not the questions put in this article. For example, in the begging the author puts “If someone

However, the most memorable thing I was able to see that day was the human brain. Looking at it, it didn’t look much different than models we had used in class. The student in charge of that section went over the fundamental parts of the brain, things I had studied for class. Though it was interesting, the moment that made it really real for me was the moment I was able to hold it. Holding it is my hand, the basic anatomy of the brain went away. I stood in an awed silence as I tried to imagine the things it had seen, had heard, the life it had lived. This was the motor to human existence. Though brains may look similar on the outside, on the inside they were so unique, so different, each like a snowflake, only ever occurring once. It was in that moment that I knew I wanted to learn all I could about this fascinating object that is the mind, unlock doors that had previously been closed, and leave the world a better place than I found it.

The human brain is a mystery that has been studied for centuries in attempt to understand how it functions. Scientists first thought that the brain was a structure that functioned a whole. It was in the early 1600’s where the first ideas of localisation of function in the brain started. At this time Rene Descartes discovered a tiny structure called the pineal

     One of the most complex and fascinating things in the human body is the brain. The body is “capable of almost everything, but it would not be possible, without the brain receiving information, and analyzing the information.”