09 AUG 2014 by ideonexus
Invasive Blood-Seeking Fetuses in Mammals
In most mammals, the mother’s blood supply remains safely isolated from the foetus. It passes its nutrients to the foetus through a filter, which the mother controls. The mother is a despot: she provides only what she chooses, which makes her largely invulnerable to paternal manipulation during pregnancy.
In primates and mice, it’s a different story. Cells from the invading placenta digest their way through the endometrial surface, puncturing the mother’s arteries, swarming inside and ... 1 
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notes19 FEB 2014 by ideonexus
There are "Levels" to Understanding Mathematics
The way it was described to me when I was in high school was in terms of 'levels'.
Sometimes, in your mathematics career, you find that your slow progress, and careful accumulation of tools and ideas, has suddenly allowed you to do a bunch of new things that you couldn't possibly do before. Even though you were learning things that were useless by themselves, when they've all become second nature, a whole new world of possibility appears. You have "leveled up", if you will. Something clicks,...Folksonomies: mathematics levels
Folksonomies: mathematics levels
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notesAs you learn more and more, your comprehension grows and you see more of the big picture. Conversations with people at other levels change as you rise.
08 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
Scientists Emulate Babies
We think there are very strong similarities between some particular types of early learning—learning about objects and about the mind, in particular—and scientific theory change. In fact, we think they are not just similar but identical. We don't just think that the baby computers have the same general structure as the adult-scientist computers, in the way that perceptual learning and artistic learning and political learning may all have the same general structure. We think that children ...
1 We have even institutionalized an environment of infancy for scientists in academia, where they are allowed to explore freely in general research, understanding that the discoveries made there may hold great benefits for the human race. This meme also suggests that free inquiry is an important aspect of raising children and maintaining an environment of free inquiry for parents is important as well.
