Jemsweb

The Nikon Small World prize is an annual competition for microscopic photography which always has stunning images, like this one of a chicken embryo:

Or this amazing photo of a mouse hippocampus with the individual neurons coloured:

Heaps more cool pictures here.

Interesting post from a great blog about the tendency of the media and scientific literature to present statistical correlations as if they prove some important causal relationship. We see examples of this nearly every day in the media it seems. I think it’s one of the dangers of trying to draw conclusions purely from statistics without examining the causes and effects properly.

Junkfood Science: Lice and good health and other spurious correlations

A great lecture by a brain researcher who herself suffered a stroke. And it’s a good chance to see a real human brain on a platter!

There are lots of other great talks on the TED website as well.

Jill Bolte Taylor got a research opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: She had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions — motion, speech, self-awareness –- shut down one by one. An astonishing story.

Astounding photos today of a tribe found in the Amazon, in Brazil, that are as yet uncontacted by “civilization”. The pics were taken by a Brazilian government department which is in charge of such tribes, and keeps the land around them untouched in “Ethno-Environmental Protected Areas”. Apparently in this one Area there are 4 different tribes who know nothing of each other or of the outside world.

Here’s one of the photos:

Smile, you’re on Candid Camera! I mean, if you’re not going to contact these tribes, why the f fly over them in a plane taking happy snaps? Surely that rather gives the game away?

It’s an interesting ethical dilemma though. Obviously the Brazilians have decided it’s best to not contact these tribes and leave them to their own autonomy. But is there a duty to contact them and bring them the benefits of modern medicine? Or is the likely outcome their decimation by foreign microbes anyway? I guess it’s never turned out well in the past. But how long can you keep these people uncontacted? Will they never be integrated with the rest of humanity?

My favourite uncontacted tribe are the Sentinelese, who live on an island in the Andaman Islands near India. Whenever anyone from the outside attempts to land on the island, the Sentinelese immediately attack and kill them – most recently two fishermen in 2006. They even drove off the helicopter that was attempting to collect the bodies with a hail of arrows. Thus it is assumed that they pretty much don’t want to be contacted, so they are now left to their own devices.

Check here for a full list of known uncontacted peoples.