ScienceIQ.com

Sibling Rivalry: A Mars/Earth Comparison

Scientific understanding is often a matter of making the right comparisons. In terms of studying the Earth, one of the best comparative laboratories exists one planet over--on Mars. In many ways, the study of Mars provides Earth bound scientists with a control set as they look at the processes of climate change, geophysics, and the potential for ...

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MarsEarthComparison
Physics

Galileo Thermometers

Every substance has the property of 'mass', which is the basic physical presence of matter. Matter occupies space. A physical mass contained within a physical space produces the physical property of ... Continue reading

GalileoThermometers
Biology

What's The Difference Between A Sweet Potato And A Yam?

What's in a name? Although supermarkets offer both 'yams' and 'sweet potatoes,' in fact they are all sweet potatoes. True yams are rarely seen in the United States, and are actually quite different ... Continue reading

SweetPotatoYam
Biology

Botrytis: The Noble Rot

Gray mold is a common disease of small fruits (e.g. strawberries) and flowers (e.g. petunias) in warm, humid weather. It is caused by the fungus Botrytis cinerea, which produces huge numbers of ... Continue reading

BotrytisTheNobleRot
Geology

Finding Ice In The Rocks--Evidence Of Earth's Ice Ages

In the late 1700s, geologists began trying to determine how huge boulders of granite weighing several tons could have moved as much as 80 km (50 miles) from their origins in the Swiss Alps. Some ... Continue reading

EarthsIceAges

Our Brains: A Wasted Resource?

WastedBrainsHave you ever heard people say, 'Human beings use only 10 percent of their brains?' It implies that some gifted scientist has already been able to accurately calibrate the brain's maximum operational capability. But the brain's capacities are impossible to quantify, so any claim to have measured 10 percent of it is extremely suspicious science. In fact, new brain-imaging evidence convincingly dismisses all notions that only 10 percent of the human brain is used at any given time.

In PET (positron emission tomography) scans of nearly any human activity, including sleeping, the brain is highly active. During all cognitive tasks, most brain regions in a scan light up in vivid red and yellow indicating a significant amount of cortical activity taking place. In devastating cases of brain trauma from strokes, disease, and accidents, we often wish that 90 percent of the brain had been held in reserve to provide restored brain functioning. However, there is no single region of the brain that can sustain modest damage without an extensive loss of skills or mental capacity.

We have traced the '10% myth' back to early neuroanatomists, who identified approximately 10 percent of the brain's regionalized responsibilities. Unfortunately, others interpreted this to mean that only 10 percent of the human brain was composed of operative regions.