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R. Douglas Fields, Ph.D.

Author of Why We Snap

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Recent Posts

  • Humans Mated with Neanderthals–They Still Are
  • 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?

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Recent Comments

  • Alain Carriles Valdés on Culprit in Cuban Sonic Attack Revealed!
  • 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?

California wildfires–What sort of person is compelled to commit arson?

November 13, 2018 by R. Douglas Fields Leave a Comment

Something more can be done in addition to environmental action to help prevent wildfires. 

First published in Psychology Today.

The inferno of tragic fires in California has destroyed thousands of homes, incinerated hundreds of thousands of acres, and killed many people this year.  In the latest, the entire town of Paradise was reduced to smoldering ash.  Highlighting the vulnerability of anyone and anything to the destructive power of wildfire, among the homes lost in this week’s California fires include those of celebrities, Miley Cyrus, Neil Young, and Gerard Butler.   The current blazes are still raging out of control, and it is too soon to know the causes and full extent of the destruction, but some of these California fires were ignited intentionally.  A 51-year old man has been charged with starting the Southern California Holy Fire.  A 32-year old man has been linked to 5 California fires.   What sort of person is compelled by pyromania to kill, terrorize, destroy lives and property, and devastate the beauty of nature with fire?

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Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: arson, California wildfires, climate change, crime, depression, Gerard Butler, insanity, mental health services, Miley Cyrus, Neil Young, pyromania, schizophrenia, trump

Italian Doctor to Perform Head Transplant on Donald Trump—Fake News?

May 2, 2017 by R. Douglas Fields Leave a Comment

Italian Neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero has made headlines around the world with his plans to perform the first ever head transplant on a human being.  Presidential advisors in the United States have suggested that President Donald Trump would be the ideal subject for the new procedure.  Late yesterday, White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, confirmed that plans are underway for Mr. Trump to undergo the procedure as soon as possible.  When pressed for a timeline, Mr. Spicer said, “Right after the Mexicans pay for the wall.”

 

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Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Canavero, fake news, Head transplant, journalism, Kim Jong-un, satire, science, Sean Spicer, trump

Scientific Research and Education in Cuba

January 19, 2017 by R. Douglas Fields Leave a Comment

WITH AMERICAN restrictions on travel lifting, interest in Cuba has skyrocketed, especially among scientists considering developing collaborations and student exchange programs with their Caribbean neighbors. But few researchers in the United States know how science and higher education are conducted in communist Cuba. Undark met with Dr. Mitchell Valdés-Sosa, director of the Cuban Neuroscience Center, in his office in Havana to learn how someone becomes a neuroscientist in Cuba, and to discuss what the future may hold for scientific collaborations between the two nations.

Mitchell Valdés-Sosa is the chief executive and co-founder of the Cuban Neuroscience Center (CNEURO), established in 1991.

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Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: cuba, cuban neuroscience center, education, embargo, neuroscience, trump, valdes-sosa

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