A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Brain Science on Planet Earth

This section of the Guide explains how the human species found on planet Earth attempt to study their own brains and behaviour, and what they have found so far. The answer seems to be that they use highly implausible methods and haven’t really worked anything out just yet. But careful inspection reveals that that is OK, because they weren’t actually all that interested in finding out the right answer in the first place.

C. Case Selection

This chapter describes case selection, which is a crucial component of designing social research. Its importance can hardly be overstated because the cases you choose affect the answers you get. However, how should researchers select their cases? A careful inspection of the research question, the study’s objective, should be the starting point. The research question typically anchors the study in a research area, specifies the universe of cases, and guides its engagement with theory. Ideally, case selection is solely driven by methodology; however, practicality and feasibility considerations frequently make adjustments to the design necessary. Such considerations concern, for instance, the costs of data collection. The chapter introduces a few commonly used case selection strategies as well as two hotly debated topics in the literature on case selection: selecting on the dependent variable and random case selection.

Infection-Genomics of COVID-19: Are Some Communities Resistant?

The 2019-Novel Coronavirus has currently gripped the world in terror, affecting 210 countries and territories as of April 17, 2020. Originating from Wuhan, Hubei province, China, the virus has spread so rapidly throughout the world and has already claimed 144,700 lives and is currently afflicting 2.17 million people. The US has over 677,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, followed by Spain, Italy, France, Germany, UK and China. On careful inspection of the COVID-19 statistics, a peculiar unsettling trend becomes apparent. Here, I will highlight this trend and propose the importance of infection-genomics (sankramikogenomics), in understanding the susceptibility to COVID-19 and the severity of disease progress.

Preliminary Stability and Resistance Analysis of the Cheops Boat

The Cheops Boat is the most complete, largest, and one of the oldest boats ever excavated, but it has received surprisingly little study by Naval Architects. The 43-m boat was constructed around 2500 BC and placed, disassembled, in a pit next to the Great Pyramid at Giza in Egypt. Since its discovery in 1954, there has been speculation about its original design, means of propulsion, and purpose. This article presents previously unpublished results of the first tank testing of a model of the Cheops Boat and some preliminary conclusions about the design, propulsion, and function of the original. It is shown that the stability characteristics of the boat make it suited for carrying lightweight cargo and people in the protected waters of the Nile. Towing tests have shown that the boat can be safely rowed in a variety of wind and current conditions. Windward sailing calculations have shown that, if fitted with sail, then boats such as the Cheops Boat perform well downwind, but sail no closer than a beam reach. During the 1954 clearing of debris from the Giza Plateau, it was noticed that the Great Pyramid's north and west enclosure walls were 23.6m from the base of pyramid, but the south wall was 5mcloser to the base. Careful inspection revealed that the south wall had been built in an asymmetrical location to conceal two boat pits beneath it. The two pits were end to end, one covered by 41 massive limestone blocks and the other by 40. When the eastern pit was opened, the remains of the disassembled boat were revealed. Figure 1 shows photographs of some of the pieces as they were removed from the pit. Remarkably, the 4500-year-old cedar had been so well preserved that it was possible to reassemble this boat like a kit. Even the rope was preserved, and looked like what could be bought today.

Out of sight: a lesson in drug errors

A 76-year-old man developed recurrent encephalopathy, visual disturbance, myoclonus, generalised seizures and atonic drop attacks on a background of a gastrectomy for adenocarcinoma and stable chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. He presented to three different hospitals and was admitted twice, with normal investigations. His symptoms transiently improved during each admission (and with starting levetiracetam) but recurred each time on hospital discharge. Subsequent careful inspection of his medication box identified that his community pharmacy had in error been dispensing baclofen 80 mg per day instead of his prescribed Buscopan 80 mg per day. This case highlights the importance of physically inspecting a patient’s medications and emphasises the spectrum of baclofen-related toxicity; it also highlights potential deficiencies in the pharmacy dispensary process and the need for multiple checks by patients and professionals.

The Numbers of Numbers: The Census Accounts in the Book of Numbers

The Book of Numbers receives its name from the two census accounts it includes, at the beginning and towards the end of the account of the wilderness wandering (chapters 1–2; 26). In this paper I examine the literary relationship between these two accounts, which contain several similar components as well as some significant differences. Upon a careful inspection, it emerges that the differing features of the census accounts are explained by the assumption that two different documents underlie both accounts, while the similarities between them suggest that the same editorial hand was responsible for the composition of both. The terms used as part of the editorial activity in both accounts can teach us that this activity took place in the Persian period. The redactional process revealed in the census accounts seems to be related also to a similar process in the story of the spies, especially in Num 14,29.35.

Eighteenth-century forms of quasicrystals

A careful inspection of the drawings and baked clay models created by the mineralogist Romé de L'Isle in the 18th century has revealed the existence of a number of intriguing forms with pentagonal symmetries. These forms cannot be classified in any of the 32 crystal classes. They can thus be considered the first crystallographic descriptions of polyhedral forms found in quasicrystals two centuries later. This paper presents a symmetry analysis of the fascinating drawings and clay models with pentagonal symmetries described in the bookCristallographiepublished in 1783 by Romé de L'Isle, as well as a comparison with quasicrystals recently synthesized. The paper also briefly discusses what could induce Romé de L'Isle to consider forms with pentagonal symmetries as plausible crystal forms.