jjablkowski's blog

Many years ago I was invited to meet a small group of young people—boys and girls, between 13 and 16 years of age—all with varying problems relating to cerebral palsy. They had monthly meetings with professionals like lawyers, bankers, engineers, artists, and doctors who explained the nature of their professional work and answered questions relating to their expertise. My task was to answer questions about sexual issues.

Brains are not naturally male or female, is the thesis put forward by neuroscientist Gina Rippon in a new book, The Gendered Brain: How Neuroscience Explodes the Myths of the Male and Female Brain. 

What is the role of the brain? The brain does what the mind is. And the brain does its work the same way in the human male and the human female.

Monday 5 August is BC Day, a civic holiday to celebrate achievements in our province and relax with friends and family members in our gardens or our lovely public places. I do not have a green thumb and hardly know the names of any flowers, but I delight in seeing any bud coming alive.

This came to mind when I noticed that this year we had more than our share of foxgloves in our garden, several more than a few metres tall, yet I cannot recall anyone planting them.

On Sunday we celebrated my wife’s 95th birthday. We had balloons, we wore funny hats, and we had a cake with many candles. We were noisy and laughed a lot; we kissed her and caressed her fresh haircut. She sat quietly in her wheelchair, one of the caregivers helping her to small bites of cake. She played with one balloon, which popped. She did not notice. She looked around, not recognizing any of us. What was on her mind? What happened to all the memories stored in her brain? We do not know; she has dementia.

The first records of fecal transplantation date back to 4th century China for gastrointestinal complaints. Fifteen centuries later, in the 1950s, bacteriologist Stanley Falkow, concerned about the side effects of antibiotics in surgical patients, converted half of his patients’ stools into pill form to be taken daily during their postsurgical recovery. Anecdotally, the treatment group had better outcomes than the nontreatment group, but the results were never published. Dr Falkow was dismissed from his post for engaging in what was then thought to be a repellant research project.