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R. Douglas Fields, Ph.D.

Author of Why We Snap

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Recent Posts

  • Switching Off Anger with an Electrode
  • How Scientific American Magazine Helps Shape the English Language
  • Gamma Waves in the Brain–Fumes or Fundamental?
  • California wildfires–What sort of person is compelled to commit arson?
  • A Gunman’s Regret

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Recent Comments

  • cup on Wireless Brain Implant Allows “Locked-In” Woman to Communicate
  • Eman Abdellatif, Ph.D. Architecture on When Music Makes You Cry
  • Ben on Brainwaves in people addicted to internet gaming are different
  • Ron Arruda on Blaming Fentanyl for the Nation’s Opiate Crisis?
  • Davis on New Hypothesis for Acupuncture: Interview with Prof. Geoffrey Burnstock

Heisenberg Uncertainty and the Baltimore Riots

May 2, 2015 by R. Douglas Fields

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Yesterday I encountered a colleague outside the elevator. He was profoundly troubled, as are many, anguished by the violence in Baltimore this week. The looting, burning, and scores of injured from angry youths hurling bricks at police were sparked by the violent death of a black man, Freddie Gray, in police custody.

“I was there yesterday,” I told my concerned colleague.

“What? Where?”

“I went to the CVS Drugstore that was looted and burned,” I replied.

In disbelief he asked, “What was it like?”

“I was too late. All of the DVR’s and other good stuff were already gone,” I said.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Baltimore riots, crowd psychology, Freddie gray, Heisenberg uncertainty, police brutality, prejudice, racism, violence

Neuroscience of ‘Under the Skin,’ Starring Scarlett Johansson

January 14, 2015 by R. Douglas Fields

UnderSkin (2)In the eerie science fiction film, Under the Skin, starring Scarlett Johansson as an alien vixen clothed in human skin, roaming the earth in search of single men for nefarious purposes, a turning point comes when she offers a hooded man on a dark road a ride in her vehicle. When the man takes off his hood we see his shockingly disfigured face. It is not make up. The disfigurement is caused by a genetic condition, neurofibromatosis, affecting actor Adam Pearson. Pearson’s brother has the same disorder, but no disfigurement. Instead he suffers memory problems. The film is a head scratcher–in the best possible way–but neurofibromatosis is not. Let’s have a look.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Adam Pearson, Elephant Man, genetics, glia, learning disability, neurofibromatosis, prejudice, Scarlett Johansson, tumor

Copyright © 2019 R. Douglas Fields, Ph.D.