same diff?

Science is the search for beauty; art is the search for truth.

The (other) League of Zeugmatographers!

Prof. Paul Lauterbur (1929 – 2007) coined the term "zeugmatography" to describe the role played by applied field gradients in magnetic resonance imaging: they encode spatial position into signal frequency; they yoke (greek: ζεῦγμα or zeugma) frequency to position.

We would like to suggest an alternate meaning for zeugmatography.

A zeugma is a figure of speech, or rhetorical form, involving a yoking or coupling. My favorite zeugmas are syllepses, where one verb is applied to two nouns, but with different meanings, often concrete vs. abstract, as for instance in: "he lost his coat and his temper".

The form -tography is widely used to refer to writing or text. For example, "cryptography" does not refer to encoded images; it refers to encoded messages.

Accordingly, we would like to suggest that zeugmatography could also mean the writing of zeugmas, including syllepses. Thus, while I was typing "he lost his coat and his temper" back there, I was performing zeugmatography, or being a zeugmatographer.

What do you think, NeuroCooking friends? Would you like to join our League of Zeugmatographers? All you have to do is write a syllepsis!

If Philanthropic Foundations want to be Heard and Understood, they must Share Stories

My latest essay, on how foundations can cease being confounded by storytelling and start being heard, is now up at PhilanTopic, the Philanthropy News Digest blog.

will it go round in circles?

We've heard too many talks at scientific meetings with approximately this "logic":

If the moon were made of green cheese, it would be visible to the naked eyed.

See the moon!

Therefore, we have proved that the moon is made of green cheese.

[title refers to this]

"very worst idea in the history of..."

The 2010 annual meeting of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine will include a "very worst idea in the history of magnetic resonance" competition. Because members are allowed to nominate only their own work, our prediction is that the number of submissions received will be zero.

without being disagreeable

When we recently stepped off an elevator into a museum basement, a museum guard said "May I help you?"

Which was more courteous & effective than saying straight out what he meant, which was of course, "What are you doing here?"

Likewise, in scientific discourse, saying "that's not my understanding" is both more courteous and more effective than saying "you're wrong".

baker, farmer, computer, photographer

The word "computer" used to mean a person who computed. (Think of a clerk adding up numbers in a ledger).

So, "computer" was like "baker" or "farmer", until it changed to refer to a machine, rather than a person.

Now that Sony has introduced the new "IPT-DSI Party-Shot Personal Photographer", an "innovative camera dock that pans 360 degrees and tilts 24 degrees, automatically detects faces, adjusts composition [reportedly using the rule of thirds] and takes photos for you", we wonder whether a similar transformation will take hold of the word "photographer".

what's the difference?

As a guy with big magnets, I have, from time to time been asked, what is the difference between imaging and spectroscopy?

An image is a graphical representation of the spatial distribution of a substance or property.

Spectroscopy is the use of electromagnetic energy to study matter, generally using the frequency- or wavelength-dependence of the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and matter, to probe the composition or structure of the matter.

Often, these are two sides of the same coin: Many interactions between energy and matter are used for both imaging and spectroscopy; many imaging methods are spectrally specific.

Last night, I had the supreme pleasure of seeing Dreamgirls at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. My husband was a member of the crew that was videotaping the show for promotional purposes. Because I was getting a ride back home with him, I waited as the crew packed up at the end of the evening.

I was charmed by the conversation and patter that occurring among the theatre staff that remained after the audience left, and by the beauty and intimacy of the theatre. I thought, "Wow, these folk invite strangers into their home every evening."

Waiting patiently for the crew, I stood quietly in the back of the theatre, reading email on my phone. When I did look up, a staff member noticed, came over to me, and with a big smile, said, "Oh, you finally looked up!"

I replied that I was simply trying to stay out of the way. He then smiled even harder and offered, "Don't worry, girl; you're home here."

Just what I was thinking. The play, by the way, is terrific!

Prof. Mildred Cohn (1913 - 2009)

"our band could be your life / real names be proof "

-Minutemen, "History Lesson, part two"

Prof. Mildred Cohn (1913 - 2009) was my scientific grandmother, twice over.

We speak of the trainees of scientists as their scientific progeny. Mildred (please forgive the familiar tone) trained Prof. John. S. Leigh, Jr. (1939 - 2008), who was my graduate supervisor, and Dr. Alan C. McLaughlin, who was one of my post-graduate research supervisors. So, because I am the trainee of two of her trainees, Mildred was my grandparent, twice over.

"Non-invasive biochemistry" is a good description of what we can do today using magnetic resonance spectroscopy to study metabolism and metabolic control without cutting into people to take biopsy specimens. Much of what we take for granted in this field is based on Mildred's ground-breaking work. I, and many of my colleagues, were delighted to see that she merited an obituary in the New York Times.

Something that was not in that obituary is a story that I once heard Mildred tell about herself; her late husband, physicist Prof. Henry Primakoff (1914 - 1983); and our colleague and then Director of the Johnson Research Foundation, Prof. Britton Chance (I'm transcribing here from memory, so please take the quote marks loosely):

"There were three students who were close friends. One night they were talking, and they took up the question of what is the most important thing in life.

I said the most important thing in life was science: The opportunity to ask questions, and answer them, and discover new knowledge, and make possible improvements in people's lives.

Brit said that was very nice, and those were noble goals, but you couldn't actually achieve them unless you had money, and that was why the most important thing in life was money.

And the other friend? He laughed, and said that we were both wrong, and that the most important thing in life was sex.

So I married him."