Singing from the same hymn sheet, but how?
Songbirds learn to sing from a hymn sheet in their head, according to a new study. Swiss researchers writing in the journal Nature have pinpointed a region of the brain in Zebra Finches which they believe has an embedded recording of how the birds ought to be singing. A separate region apparently provides the birds with the know-how to identify mistakes in their songs. The research could also shed light on how humans learn to speak, according to scientists from Zurich University.
One interesting question to ask (though it’s doubtful it will be) is whether the human brain might also carry pre-sets for language. There have been many reported cases of head and other severe injuries leading to people switching from speaking their native language to another they’ve never spoken before, or been taught. In other cases people don’t switch language, but start speaking with a different dialect—someone from south-east England waking up to find themselves talking with a Scouse (Liverpudlian) accent, for example.
tags: accent, birds, brain, dialect, Fortean, language, life after death, matter, morphic resonance, out-of-the-body experiences, Rupert Sheldrake, science, songs, spirit, strange, strange, telepathyHow would YOU spend the last day of everything?
It’s been a while since I’ve taken part in a meme, let alone started one—but today, I’m asking a selection of fellow bloggers a very simple question, assuming we’re all still around today and over the next week at least, in order to provide answers. The question is this: how would you spend your last day on Earth, not only your last day but the last day for everything?
It’s the day some people have feared, when the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is switched on in an expensive quest to find the so-called ‘God particle’ otherwise known less sensationally as the Higgs boson. It is said to be crucial to gaining a greater understanding of the universe—assuming it exists, and can be found—and is thought to give everything its mass.
tags: apocalypse, end of the world, end times, faith, fear, Large Hadron Collider, particles, science
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