Some essential part of stories lies in their telling. Here is a story: Kant has the idea of the sublime, whereby the aesthetic is significantly determined by its ability to transcend (and hence terrify) our senses. For instance the magnitude of a mountain or a storm – both threaten our sense of self and perception by impressing upon us fact that there is always more, forcing us to teeter...
Editorial notes: In February 2013, Shai adds Evernote to his suite of repositories. This is an application designed specifically for note-taking, organising, task lists and archiving. This proves to be the ideal tool for him to better control his ever-growing research notes, stored primarily up to this point, in handwritten notebooks and documents stored in his Google drive. Between February 2013...
I’m on a plane with cocaine, And yes I’m all lit up again[I]. The mystery of cocaine. When not applying his exacting mind to the mysteries of tenuous circumstances, the fine detective of Baker Street would dispel the tedium that surrounded him with cocaine injections. Solving crimes and cruising coke channels describe an enviable lifestyle! Both activities would be expected to have...
A comparative review of a competitive NMDA receptor agonist and a film by award-winning Japanese filmmaker Mamoru Oshii First off: spoilers. If this was the future that word would be flashing right now[1]. Some background to set the scene: Ketamine[I]: it’s a drug best known as “that horse tranquillizer”, and although still employed in human pain management it is no longer employed routinely for...
Editorial notes: This Book Review was found as a ‘draft’ entry in Everything2. It was last updated on 03/05/2011. Away in the big city, people still sometimes glance up hopefully from the sidewalks, glimpsing a distant speck in the sky… but no: it’s only a bird, only a plane. Superman died ten years ago. This is an imaginary story. Aren’t they all? Whatever Happened...
Editorial notes: This Essay was found as a ‘draft’ entry in Everything2. It was last updated on 03/05/2011. To me, molecular biology is that part of biology that is concerned with the molecules that make up biological systems. It is concerned with those molecules’ lives, and the way they interact with each other. It manipulates molecules to test hypotheses. Although it may look...
Editorial notes: This Essay was found as a ‘draft’ entry in Everything2. It was last updated on 03/05/2011. I’ve always been sympathetic to science fiction, but never really ever loved any of its progeny. For example, I’ll always have fond feelings towards Star Trek: The Next Generation for its naive utopianism, but could never take its campy plots seriously. That said...
Editorial notes: This scientific analysis was found as a ‘draft’ entry in Everything2. It was last updated on 03/05/2011. In 2006 Harvard presented a short movie they’d contracted called The Inner Life of a Cell. This eight and a half minute production was a 3D animation of (ostensibly) what a cell could look like on an atomic level*. This forms the final chapter of my three...
Editorial notes: This Book Review was found as a ‘draft’ entry in Everything2 with the Summary section missing. It was last updated on 03/05/2011. C.S. Lewis is the British author best known for writing the Narnia series of books, but he also authored a number of books that discussed his religious beliefs, including this one – Mere Christianity. The book evolved out of a series...
Many drugs, and most drugs that are directed at cognitive processes (e.g. anti-depressants, hallucinogenics) target receptors. Receptors are proteins involved in the way cells in the body signal to each other. The following is a review of one particular type of receptor called the 5-HT2A receptor, and it’s role in mediating the effects of LSD. What is a receptor? Our body is made up of...
