LINKS - June 15th, 2022
Welcome to LINKS — my attempt to provide Rhapsody readers with five interesting stories that tell us something about what it means to be human. LINKS is published every Wednesday. Have a link you want to share? Drop it in the comments.
What is Black joy? See it through the eyes of these groundbreaking artists
By Rachel Jones, National Geographic
“Black joy concedes that, yes, we are a happy people. But don’t get it twisted. We are happy that we can function in a system that was designed to keep us obedient, invisible, and disenfranchised. Happy that we are strong, that we can fight, tooth and nail, be it for our communities, our rights, our health—and yes, for our country. Happy that we can move forward after witnessing one brutally televised police-related murder after another. Happy that we can bend a knee, but still be unbowed.”
How the Brain ‘Constructs’ the Outside World
By György Buzsáki, Scientific American
“The challenge for me and other neuroscientists involves the weighty question of what, exactly, is the mind. Ever since the time of Aristotle, thinkers have assumed that the soul or the mind is initially a blank slate, a tabula rasa on which experiences are painted. This view has influenced thinking in Christian and Persian philosophies, British empiricism and Marxist doctrine. In the past century it has also permeated psychology and cognitive science. This “outside-in” view portrays the mind as a tool for learning about the true nature of the world. The alternative view—one that has defined my research—asserts that the primary preoccupation of brain networks is to maintain their own internal dynamics and perpetually generate myriad nonsensical patterns of neural activity. When a seemingly random action offers a benefit to the organism's survival, the neuronal pattern leading to that action gains meaning. When an infant utters “te-te,” the parent happily offers the baby “Teddy,” so the sound “te-te” acquires the meaning of the Teddy bear. Recent progress in neuroscience has lent support to this framework.”
Where Did the Black Death Begin? DNA Detectives Find a Key Clue.
By Gina Kolata, New York Times
“Now, a group of researchers reports that it has found the answer in the pulp of teeth from people buried in the 14th century.
“Based on their analysis of the preserved genetic material, the researchers report that the Black Death arrived in 1338 or 1339 near Issyk-Kul, a lake in a mountainous area just west of China in what is now Kyrgyzstan. The plague first infected people in a small, nearby settlement of traders eight years before it devastated Eurasia, killing 60 percent of its victims.”
Growing Up with Juneteenth
By Annette Gordon-Reed, The New Yorker
“I don’t recall white Texans celebrating Juneteenth. Then again, I wouldn’t know; the holiday was part of the summer, and summer took kids in my home town out of the schools and back into our racially separated communities. For our part, Juneteenth meant drinking red soda water and eating barbecued goat, along with other traditional Southern dishes. I loved the red soda water part. I was not so much into eating goat. It was not just that I disliked the taste. Goat was not a usual part of the menu in my area, so, if goat was to be had, one had to be killed and prepared, which I watched a neighbor do on one occasion, to my horror. Whatever leanings I have toward vegetarianism grew out of watching a terrified animal as he was hung upside down, bleating, just before his throat was slit. But that ritual was easily avoided, and we kids, our mouths red, spent most of our time playing games, throwing firecrackers, and lighting sparklers until night fell.”
New Gaia data paint the most detailed picture yet of the Milky Way
“Though it may seem unchanging, the Milky Way is actually gorging on a steady diet of smaller galaxies —it’s even in the process of eating one right now. But for decades, predictions of when and how these cosmic mergers happen have been at odds with evidence from our galaxy, says Bertrand Goldman, an astrophysicist at the International Space University in Strasbourg, France, who is not involved in the Gaia data release. ‘That has been controversial for a long time,’ Goldman says, ‘but I think that Gaia will certainly shed light.’”