Skip to main content

The Minimally Conscious State

No, it's not a new term for not enough sleep. This New York Times Magazine article, titled "What if There is Something Going On in There?" by Carl Zimmer, explores "a new category of consciousness: the minimally conscious state". New PET evidence that some individuals with traumatic brain injuries previously considered "vegetative' exhibited significant levels of brain activity. Zimmer explores some of the issues involved including ethical and practical policies.

Caution: this article requires free registration for viewing. Unfortunately, it's necessary to catch this article before next week, when it goes into the archives.

Popular posts from this blog

Stress, Health and the Urban Environment Here is another New York Times Magazine article, "Enough To Make You Sick" by Helen Epstein. While I know there is a larger political context to this story, I think that the writer makes it clear how intertwined the influence of an urban environment is on one's health. Her writeup at the end about a program placing people from poor urban environments to a middle class environment is interesting. Followup of this group would be important. Please catch this article before it goes into the archives.
Read more

Hey, it's July, and it's National Minority Mental Health Awareness month

NAMI is the go-to source for events around the nation, even inspiring a Soul Train line in honor of Don Cornelius. Wish I could find a Youtube video for that one. The final count was 352 dancers, all of whom busted a move to popular hits of the’70s and ’80s. There was a serious side to the event as well. July is Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, and in memory of Cornelius’ death in February, due to suicide, renowned author Terrie Williams addressed the visibly anxious crowd prior to the record-breaking attempt. “In a few words, we are dying.” she said. “We keep it all inside, it’s the silence that is killing us.” After her brief remarks, the mood quickly turned festive as the audience lined up for the soul train. People of all ages and races moved down the line as the producer of the original Soul Train program, Aida Chapman Ayala, started the festivities. Though there was no representative on hand from the Guinness World Book of Records, protocol dictates t...
Read more
Knowing A Wee Bit More About How Cancer Works New Scientist writes about recent research published in Clinical Cancer Research. By interfering with how a specific type of protein attaches to another protein, a team of scientists at UCSF and the University of Lund noted slower growth of tumors as well as fewer tumors overall in mice. Although this is a long ways away from an actual cure to be used in people, it seems as though this is an important piece of information about how cancer cells may grow and proliferate. (Note: The title of the New Scientist article was, I thought, a bit misleading).
Read more