Gene limits learning and memory in mice [via Medical Daily]
Scientists at Emory University’s School of Medicine have found that “deleting a certain gene in mice can make them smarter by unlocking a mysterious region of the brain considered to be relatively inflexible.” Mice without the gene were better able to remember objects and navigate mazes, indicating the gene somehow limits memory or the ability to learn. Researchers jokingly dubbed it the “Homer Simpson gene.”
Pope’s astronomer says he would baptize an alien if it asked him [via The Guardian]
Papal astronomer Guy Consolmagno said at a talk before the British Science Festival this week that alien species, if ever found, might have souls and could be baptized if they request it. “Any entity – no matter how many tentacles it has – has a soul,” Consolmagno said. The astronomer also dismissed intelligent design. “The word has been hijacked by a narrow group of creationist fundamentalists in America to mean something it didn’t originally mean at all. It’s another form of the God of the gaps. It’s bad theology in that it turns God once again into the pagan god of thunder and lightning.”
Lost Libraries: The strange afterlife of authors’ book collections [via the Boston Globe]
Read the whole thing. A teaser: “Most people might imagine that authors’ libraries matter–that scholars and readers should care what books authors read, what they thought about them, what they scribbled in the margins. But far more libraries get dispersed than saved. In fact, David Markson can now take his place in a long and distinguished line of writers whose personal libraries were quickly, casually broken down. Herman Melville’s books? One bookstore bought an assortment for $120, then scrapped the theological titles for paper. Stephen Crane’s? His widow died a brothel madam, and her estate (and his books) were auctioned off on the steps of a Florida courthouse. Ernest Hemingway’s? To this day, all 9,000 titles remain trapped in his Cuban villa.”
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