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Understanding science: what we cannot know
Understanding science: what we cannot know

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Acknowledgements

This week was written by Amanda Smith. The course is adapted from the book What We Cannot Know by Marcus du Sautoy.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] ), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence.

The material acknowledged below (and within the course) is Proprietary and used under licence (not subject to Creative Commons Licence). Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this free course:

Images

Figure 1:

(a) the human brain viewed from the side © The Open University;

(b) in a photograph from above © Unidentified;

(c) Left: a cut-away view through the middle of the brain © The Open University; Right: A post-mortem human brain sample with top layer removed: Dr. Terence Williams, University of Iowa.

Figure 5: Broca’s area (shown in red): Polygon data were generated by Database Center for Life Science (DBCLS) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.1/jp/deed.en

Figure 7: ‘Golgi stained’ brain tissue viewed under a microscope:

(a) The OU;

(b) Anna Kamitakahara and Richard Simerly, PhD, from The Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Figure 8: Neurons in ‘Golgi stained’ brain tissue (drawings by Santiago Ramón y Cajal):

(a) Santiago Ramón y Cajal / public domain: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Purkinje_cell_by_Cajal.png;

(b) Santiago Ramon y Cajal / public domain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cajal_cortex_drawings.png

Figure 10: An electron micrograph showing synapses. In Lodish et al., 4th edition

Figure 11:

(a): EEG headcap, used to apply electrodes to the surface of the head; Min Jing/Shutterstock;

(b): different types of brain wave activity measured using EEG: ScienceDirect Technological Basics of EEG Recording and Operation of Apparatus: Priyanka A. Abhang, Suresh C. Mehrotra, in Introduction to EEG- and Speech-Based Emotion Recognition, 2016 Figure 2.1. Brain wave samples with dominant frequencies belonging to beta, alpha, theta, and delta bands and gamma waves.

Figure 12:

(a) fMRI scanner, courtesy: Neuroimaging Core, Center for Integrative Neuroscience, University of Nevada, Reno;

(b) fMRI scan Dr Krish Singh

Figure 13: fMRI scans showing brain activity while tasks are imagined: Courtesy: Adrian M. Owen, OBE, PhD

Figure 14: TMS: Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research

Figure 15: The roundworm C. elegans: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CrawlingCelegans.gif https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

Figure 16: The roundworm connectome: from: Controlling the C. elegans neural network (1c) from authors of Nature article: Gang Yan, Petra E. Vértes, Emma K. Towlson, Yee Lian Chew, Denise S. Walker, William R. Schafer & Albert-László Barabási

Figure 17: Tracing neurons: courtesy: Dr. Juan Burrone and Prof. Venkatesh Murthy

Figure 18: Artificial neurons: https://www.bath.ac.uk/announcements/world-first-as-artificial-neurons-developed-to-cure-chronic-diseases / University of Bath

Figure 19: A ‘signature of consciousness’ – patterns of brain activity recorded as a response to conscious (left) and non-conscious (right) visual stimuli (Dehaene and Changeux, 2011) Dehaene, S. and Changeux, J.P. (2011) ‘Experimental and theoretical approaches to conscious processing’, Neuron, 70(2), pp. 200–227.

Audio/Video

Video 5: Neuron networks viktorov.pro/Shutterstock

Video 6: How neurons communicate: Creative Commons — Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International — CC BY-NC 4.0. https://www.brainfacts.org/core-concepts/how-neurons-communicate BrainFacts.org

Video 8: Brain wiring: courtesy: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH): https://www.nimh.nih.gov/

Video 9: The Rubber Hand Illusion, Horizon, BBC 2 © BBC

Video 11: Neural network simulation: Courtesy Denis Dmitriev: https://www.cybercontrols.org

Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

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