August 19, 2004
The Allen Brain Atlas Project
aims to take brain mapping to a new level. It sounds exciting, though to be honest I'm not sure I understand precisely how they are doing it. They'll never come up with anything as appealing as these, anyway, or this (from quite an interesting paper).
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I used to dabble in phrenology, myself. I used to predict the weather, by feeling the bumps on my ex-wife's head. She had quite a lumpy head, as I recall. Sadly, only accurate for short-term predictions.
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the atlas looks good. part of my dissertation involves comparing distribution of specific cell and nerve fiber types in the brains of four different species of rodent - i've been trying to take existing data from publications and combine it into one chart, so i can compare my results with other people's data. i can say from experience that the number of names people use for the exact same region of the brain is pretty crazy. doing this for people? that'll take a while. you need thousands of thin sections, stained with a variety of different cytoarchitectural dyes, to make a decent atlas.
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I read the link as The Alien Brain Atlas Project and got all excited. Now that I'm reading it correctly, I'm sorry, but I just can't get interested. It's too much of a letdown.
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I read the link as The Alien Brain Atlas Project I had exactly the same experience.
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I didn't know it wasn't Alien till I read your all's comments, so.
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Sorry to disappoint, chaps. Xenobiology really needs a bit longer to develop. (Isn't 'Ferengi' somebody's word for Europeans, historically meaning 'Franks', BTW??) Sorry, that didn't help, did it?
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Isn't 'Ferengi' somebody's word for Europeans, historically meaning 'Franks', BTW? Indeed it is; it's very widespread in both the Middle East and the Far East, and even Ethiopia (where it's f@r@nj or f@r@nji, using @ to represent the schwa, as in but or sofa). There are dozens of forms, with some history, here (along with speculation that the Star Trek name is derived form it).