What is the funny bone?

What is the funny bone?

Put a finger on the point of your elbow.

Feel inwards from there about half and inch or slightly more until you find another bony outcrop.

Got it? Good.

Tap with your finger in the valley between those landmarks as hard as you like.

If you enjoyed that sensation you’re very much in the minority! You just found your funny bone.

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The man who revolutionized our knowledge of the human body

The man who revolutionized our knowledge of the human body

"His name was Andreas Vesalius. He was born into a medical family in what is now Belgium. As a boy he showed a great interest in the dissection of animals, a predilection that disgusted his contemporaries. Yet he persevered, going on to study medicine at both Paris and Padua, then two of the great centers for anatomic research. When he graduated, he was immediately offered a teaching position. Unlike those who taught him, he insisted on performing the dissections himself and encouraged his students to do likewise."

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The ability to control dreams may help us unravel the mystery of consciousness

The ability to control dreams may help us unravel the mystery of consciousness

"We spend around six years of our lives dreaming – that’s 2,190 days or 52,560 hours. Although we can be aware of the perceptions and emotions we experience in our dreams, we are not conscious in the same way as when we’re awake. This explains why we can’t recognize that we’re in a dream and often mistake these bizarre narratives for reality."

"But some people – lucid dreamers – have the ability to experience awareness during their dreams by “re-awakening” some aspects of their waking consciousness. They can even take control and act with intention in the dream world (think Leonardo DiCaprio in the film Inception)."

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What is brain plasticity and why is it so important?

What is brain plasticity and why is it so important?

"Neuroplasticity – or brain plasticity – is the ability of the brain to modify its connections or re-wire itself. Without this ability, any brain, not just the human brain, would be unable to develop from infancy through to adulthood or recover from brain injury."

"What makes the brain special is that, unlike a computer, it processes sensory and motor signals in parallel. It has many neural pathways that can replicate another’s function so that small errors in development or temporary loss of function through damage can be easily corrected by rerouting signals along a different pathway."

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Why aren’t there any human doctors in Star Wars?

Why aren’t there any human doctors in Star Wars?

Though set “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,” it isn’t hard to see in the Star Wars films a vision of our own not so distant future. But Anthony Jones, a physician with a long background in health care technology development, sees the Star Wars vision of medicine’s future as sheer fantasy. Specifically, he is struck by the dearth of doctors – at least human ones. “In Star Wars,” he says, “there are no people practicing medicine. Caring for patients seems to have been taken over by machines.”

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