the-star-stuff:

Neil deGrasse Tyson is behind the only major technical change in theTitanic re-release

It took James Cameron 60 weeks to prepare Titanic for its rerelease, but apart from remastering the original at 4k resolution and converting it to stereoscopic 3D, nothing about the movie has really changed.

Well, almost nothing.

According to Cameron: “Neil deGrasse Tyson sent me quite a snarky email saying that, at that time of year [April 15, at 4:20 am], in that position in the Atlantic in 1912, when Rose is lying on the piece of driftwood and staring up at the stars, that is not the star field she would have seen.”

“And with my reputation as a perfectionist, I should have known that and I should have put the right star field in. So I said ‘All right, send me the right stars for that exact time and I’ll put it in the movie.’”

So Tyson did just that, and Cameron re-shot the scene. According to the Telegraph , it is the only major technical change in the film’s re-release.

(via fronsai)

neuroimages:

Diffusion spectrum MRI image of the human brain showing three dimensional grid structure of white matter tracts. From Wedeen, et al (2012).   

(via fronsai)

medicalschool:

Using Neuroscience to Learn How To Build a Better Leader

In past sixty years, advances in neuroscience have led to remarkable progress in the fight against disorders of the brain, from Alzheimer’s Disease to traumatic brain injury to addictions.

Could the scientific discoveries of recent decades about how the brain works also be used to improve the functioning of healthy individuals?   A team of researchers at the W. P. Carey School of Business information systems Professor Pierre Balthazard is trying to do just that. The investigators are using the tools of neuroscience, including brain imaging and neurofeedback, to identify leadership qualities in individuals and to discover ways to enhance those abilities.   “We are looking at the positive psychology aspect of neuroscience,” said Pierre Balthazard, associate professor in the Department of Information Systems. ”This is similar to what the clinicians and therapists have been doing but in a different direction. We take the God-given talent of an individual, and we actually tweak it or optimize it for certain functions.” 

(Source: )