A Special Place for Blog Lovers with a Touch of Science!

Robert Morris Sapolsky (born April 6, 1957) is an American neuroendocrinology researcher and author. He is currently a professor of biology, a professor of neurology and neurological sciences at Stanford University. In addition, he is a research associate at the National Museums of Kenya. He spent years studying baboons in Kenya, he is a great storyteller and we could even say, philosopher. There is no need to praise his achievements anymore because they are widely recognized.

In the short video below, he dares to discuss one quite ticklish and delicate topic – the nature of military conflicts with regard to the war in Ukraine. Of course, he speaks on the behalf of science, however, the information he discloses besides the scientific facts is a thorn in the flesh of all governments and institutions of power. There is nothing more to say here, just watch the video and decide for yourself.

Philip K. Dick is one of the most remarkable science fiction writers of the 20th century. For a period of 30 years, he produced 44 novels and more than 100 short stories. At the age of 33, he won the Hugo award for best science fiction, and later the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.

His fiction explored varied philosophical and social issues such as the nature of consciousness, the essence of reality, human nature, perception, and identity, and commonly featured characters struggling against elements such as illusory environments, drug abuse, monopolistic corporations, mass manipulation, authoritarian governments, and altered states of consciousness. His books inspired many famous movies like Blade Runner (1982), Total Recall (adapted twice: in 1990 and 2012), Minority Report (2002), A Scanner Darkly (2006), The Adjustment Bureau (2011), and Radio Free Albemuth (2010), Blade Runner 2049 (2017) and many more.

Enjoy his quotes below:

A study in Science Advances has revealed correlations among socioeconomics, genetics, environmental factors, and brain structure. Socioeconomic status is typically defined by characteristics such as an individual's income, education, and occupation, and is related to the quality of life and physical and mental health.

The findings provide a greater understanding of how socioeconomic, environmental, and genetic factors interact to influence human brain development and structure. The endeavor was funded by a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation.

An international team, including researchers at Penn State, analyzed a massive trove of data from the UK Biobank that contained the brain scans, genomic sequences, and socioeconomic information of nearly 24,000 participants.

— Heraclitus

2. "Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power."
— Seneca

3. "The unexamined life is not worth living."
— Socrates

4. "The life of money-making is one undertaken under compulsion, and wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else."
— Aristotle

Do you know which is the second most popular painting in the Louvre museum, second only to Mona Lina? If not, maybe you could guess the painter? Well, it's not Raphael, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, or Delacroix, neither is Titian, Dürer, or some modernist painter. It is a painter who was recognized posthumously and died at the early age of 32. It gets even more intriguing because the picture depicts a true story of a shipwreck, and was a scandalous piece of art at the time.