Often people say they are good at one subject but worse at the other. For instance one claims to be good at math, but not so good at english. It is a dividing line in the way people think about how they learn, i.e. an identity construct like anything else.

Both english and math are simply systems of abstractions "algorythmytized" by the brain. They are two sides of the same coin. Ultimately the purpose behind learning either subject, is to give you a special nichefied edge in being social with these concepts. The real value of learning anything comes mechanistically from being able to talk about it with other people.

Researchers have discovered that the genetic malfunction that causes a form of mental retardation called Noonan Syndrome (NS) produces an imbalance in the genesis of two types of cells in the developing embryonic brain. This imbalance, they theorize, could explain how the genetic abnormality gives rise to the neural pathology of the disorder. More broadly, they said, the new insight into the mechanism underlying NS could apply to other inherited forms of retardation.

Marvin Chun of Yale University and colleagues have pinpointed brain regions critical to one of the brain’s more remarkable feats — piecing together a continuous view of the world by integrating snippets of visual input from constantly moving eyes.

Since the eyeball has only a narrow field of clear view, it must continually make tiny shifts to sample the visual world. And during these shifts, which last thousandths of a second, people are essentially blind.

Despite the fact that they both infect the liver, the hepatitis A and hepatitis C viruses actually have very little in common. The two are far apart genetically, are transmitted differently, and produce very different diseases. Hepatitis A spreads through the consumption of fecal particles from an infected person (in pollution-contaminated food or water, for example), but hepatitis C is generally transmitted only by direct contact with infected blood. Hepatitis A produces fever, nausea and abdominal pain that can last for weeks, but rarely lead to death; hepatitis C, by contrast, often spends decades quietly damaging the liver, until a victim’s only hope for survival is an organ transplant.

This device, called HeartLander, can be inserted using minimally invasive keyhole surgery. Once in place, it will attach itself to the heart and begin inching its way across the outside of the organ, injecting drugs or attaching medical devices. In tests on live pigs, the HeartLander has fitted pacemaker leads and injected dye into the heart.

An international research team has found evidence of the Earth's earliest forest trees, dating back 385 million years.

Upright stumps of fossilised trees were uncovered after a flash flood in Gilboa, upstate New York, more than a century ago. However, until now, no-one has known what the entire trees looked like.

New evidence of the brutish and short lives of Stone Age Britons has been revealed by researchers from Cardiff University and the University of Central Lancashire.

Carbon dating of 14 human remains discovered at a prehistoric burial site suggests that most could have died together in a massacre, possibly in a scramble for land or a cattle raid.

Ethanol is widely touted as an eco-friendly, clean-burning fuel. But if every vehicle in the United States ran on fuel made primarily from ethanol instead of pure gasoline, the number of respiratory-related deaths and hospitalizations would likely increase, according to a new study by Stanford University atmospheric scientist Mark Z. Jacobson.

Climate model simulations for the 21st century indicate a robust increase in wind shear in the tropical Atlantic due to global warming, which may inhibit hurricane development and intensification. Historically, increased wind shear has been associated with reduced hurricane activity and intensity. This new finding is reported in a study by scientists at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami and NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) in Princeton, N.J.

Eur-eek!-a, they have found it!

Los Angeles: Just a short dispatch from the press room of the annual convention of the American Association for Cancer Research, which is celebrating its centennial this year. Considering the scale of the gathering--it fills the LA Convention Center--one would expect a basketball game to take place. But no. This is a convening of some of the most serious-minded people in the world, working on a disease that claims the lives of millions every year. It is, of course, an industry in itself--and that makes the trade show floor just as interesting ( and a bit less tedious) as the scientific workshops going on at the same time. And it is an industry largely built on the very tiny shoulders of our friend, mus musculus.