The study of cognition and theory of mind is an emerging field of science that receives its inputs from psychology, neuroscience and behavioural biology. Children are known to develop a theory of mind around the age of three to four years, and many experiments have been conducted to test this development in young children, and test the apparent absence of theory of mind in toddlers. If you know that I know something, you are said to have cognition, while if you know that I do not know something, you would have a theory of mind. Sounds fuzzy? An illustration might help.

I am in a room with you and a child. I keep a ball in a box and then I ask you to leave the room. I then hide the ball in a cupboard and call you back.

Now, the child knows where the ball is, and knows that you know that the ball was in the box.

I ask the child where you would look for the ball. At this stage, a person with a theory of mind (any adult) would point at the box, because he knows that you don’t have knowledge of the new position of the ball.

However, the child will point towards the cupboard, where she knows the ball is. She is not able to comprehend that you don’t know that the ball has been shifted, and so you should look in the box.

My son Ujaan was then about a year old. We were in a restaurant with friends, and Ayan had gone out for a while. Ujaan wanted to go with his father, and so I was trying to keep him busy by asking him to do various things. When I had exhausted the stock of nursery rhymes which he was used to acting out, and then the list of animals he “showed”, I started asking him to show me his various body parts. Then the guys came back and the food was served, and we got busy with the fish. Ujaan was a bit agitated about something, and I realized that he was trying to take off a shoe. First I tried to say no, and then when I realized he was determined to have his own way, I took off both his shoes. Then he wanted his socks out too. Exasperated, we let him have his way once more, wondering what was wrong. Ayan shook the shoes to see if there was something inside. Our son held up a foot by both his hands, gave a beaming smile all round and said “pa” (meaning foot in Bangla)! I realized that I had asked him to show me his foot, and had forgotten about it when the food arrived. But Ujaan had not forgotten, and all this time, he was trying to show me his foot. But how could he show his feet when they were hidden inside socks and shoes? So obviously, those had to be taken off!

The mother gave the son a hug, and the experimenter in me marveled at the elegant demonstration of the absence of a theory of mind!

Patrick McCarthy, a pre-medical student, who previously referred to his general chemistry lab requirement as “the dumbest thing [he's] ever heard of,” has discovered the cure for cancer, Nature News reports.

McCarthy, 22, discovered a special class of polyphenolics during last Monday’s extraction of the compounds from apples, says John Strova, a sixth-year graduate teaching assistant.

“The students were required to complete an extraction of the antioxidants and complete a calibration curve to determine phenol activity,” Strova told the Associated Press. “Pat’s research results were mind-blowing. I didn’t even know this level of antioxidant activity was possible. But there’s an Excel chart to prove it.”

Remarkably, the soon-to-be legendary paper, “Make-Up Lab Report: Apple Charts,” was accepted late as McCarthy “had a bunch of stuff due that day,” according to a forwarded e-mail from lab instructor, Dr. Ted Bialt.

“When Pat showed up to class wearing full surgical scrubs, I knew he was a serious student. So, when he told me that he had two tests and a shadowing opportunity with a local surgeon, I took him at his word,” Bialt said. “I’m glad I did,” Bialt added, looking far into the distance. “I’m glad I did.”

“I’m still not sure how to put this on my resume,” said McCarthy, who recently updated his MDApplicants.com page. “I just hope I don’t get screwed because I’m not a URM [under-represented minority]. OK, honestly, I only got a 23 on the MCAT, but you’ve got to understand that I was sick and my grandmother died last year. AdComs love that sort of personal trauma stuff. I just wish I had a brother that died or something. So, yeah, curing cancer should go a long way, or whatever.”

McCarthy’s discovery has attracted international media attention from the scientific community, who hail the discovery as a watershed moment for the study of cancers, immune disorders, and age-related neurodegeneration. However, the discovery comes not without significant controversy.

In today’s edition of Science magazine, Jen Clark, McCarthy’s lab partner, published a critique entitled “Getting the Ethics Straight in Apple Lab Reports.” In her essay, Clark contends she completed the “grinding and filtering of the apple” while “[McCarthy] just explained the difference between long and short white coats to that dumb slutty girl, Christina, who’s just doing this until she gets to Orgo, then we’ll see who gets weeded out. Bitch.”

Despite competing offers from Harvard and McGill, McCarthy laughed off suggestions of a doctoral program. “But I want to help people,” McCarthy said with a shrug.

“Woman Claims Puppies Were Born To Cat; Says Neighborhood Mutt Impregnated Feline“-Reuters

Doggy: Before Ms. Pretty Kitty? I ran with a tough pack of stray dogs. I was always out chasing tail—usually my own.

Kitty: In my strict Siamese family, we were discouraged from dating outside the breed—never mind outside the species!

Doggy: When I first saw her, my heart went into heat—but she thought I was just in it for the chase.

Kitty: I was like, “Down boy! You’re barking up the wrong family tree.” I don’t want to be anybody’s weird fetish-I am not into “kitty porn.” I was raised to believe that dogs were only interested in humping legs and sniffing butt.

Doggy: To which I said, “Hey-don’t knock it ’til you try it!”

Kitty: He kept on hounding me! Just when I thought I’d heard every cat-call in the world, it took a dog-howl to get me feeling frisky.

Doggy: When we first started going out, we’d pretend fight just to keep our forbidden romance a secret. I’d growl, she’d hiss…then, when no one was looking, we’d lick.

Kitty: I suspected that his bark was worse than his bite, but his kiss…his kiss was even more devastating.

Doggy: I have a really long tongue…I’d bath her with it.

Kitty: My so-called friends weren’t happy about who I was dating. It was hard not to take it purr-sonally. They were so—and I hate this expression—catty! They said I liked it “ruff,” that I wanted it “doggy style…” And don’t get me started on what female dogs said to me-they were such bitches!

Doggy: My dogs called it puppy love, which was technically true. They said I was me pussy-cat whipped, which, again, I guess was true. I thought they were hypocrites-if there was no miscegenation, most of those mutts would’ve never been born!

Kitty: The discrimination we faced was so species-ist. The claws were really out for us. But I’d take one look into his puppy-dog eyes, and I knew it was all worth it. I wanted to spend each and every one of my nine lives with him.

Doggy: We talked about adopting kids, maybe one puppy and one kitten, but then this miracle pregnancy happened.

Kitty: Even my own veterinarian didn’t believe me when I told him that I hadn’t had sex with any other cats. DogCat faced even more skepticism than TomKat….

Doggy: Tabloid stories questioned my kids’ paternity, calling them “Four-legged Freaks,” “Crossbreed clones”…Yeah. I’ve seen the newspaper headlines, and I’ve pissed all over them…

Kitty: I didn’t mind that the litter was born with dog and cat features. I didn’t care what they were…dogs, cats, both, whatever! Just as long as they were healthy, with a fine coat of fur, four legs, and a firm tail.

Doggy: When I heard the little one say “BowMeow”-I was in tears. I’d never felt this way before- I thought it might’ve been allergies…I just though, “BowMeow”—that’s us…We’re the BowMeows.

Kitty: We had argued a little about the names before they were born. He wanted a family name like Fido or Rex…Ultimately we decided to give them names that reflected their mixed heritage. The shy one’s Kuppy, the scrappy one’s Pitten, and this troublemaker is Snoopfield!

Doggy: Sure, we’ve both had to make some lifestyle adjustments to accommodate our children’s uniqueness.

Kitty: The litter box sure is heavy!

Doggy: We want our kids to be “dat” and proud. We’ll raise them in both canine and feline traditions, and teach them that love is the most powerful force of nature there is…

Kitty: Although I don’t know what either one of us would do if one of them came home with a mouse!

Doggy: Sure, I worry about them getting stared at and made fun of, both at the dogrun and on the catwalk… Every father wants to protect his runts. But even though they’ll have their ups and downs, ultimately, they’ll land on their feet.

Kitty: They get that from my side of the family.

THE END

Cruises in Iran

Hummer coming through

Intelligent design in the school

Global Warming

My ideal microbe
has sharp teeth, fury and green.
It eats my homework.

It likes math homework the best,
but it will eat anything.

My ideal microbe
absolutely hates the sun,
drinks ocean water.

He smells like sour lemonade,
but he doesn’t like lemons.

Jonathan Chan and Carl Laurente
David Lloyd George Elementary

My perfect microbe
is a champion athlete:
she has gold medals.

She’s a male microbe magnet
and is the envy of germs.

My perfect microbe
has never disobeyed me.
She will come as I call.

She is always by my side
with elegance and delight.

Maddy Wiecke, Sarah Cook, and Marika Pollock
Lord Kitchener Elementary School

My ideal microbe
is black and truly friendly
and makes me money.

It produces all my food
and is my best bodyguard.

My ideal microbe:
it looks like a chicken
with a big, fat nose.

It has big beady eyes that
are green and really shiny.

Phillip Tan and Jonathan Eenkhoorn
William of Orange Christian School

My helpful microbe
helps me eat my vegetables
when I am too full.

Can give me my medicine
and makes me better again.

My philanthropist
microbe, helps clean the city
and donates to the funds.

Cures human beings’ cancer,
helps and cures other microbes.

Samantha and Jing Llorente
Trafalgar Elementary School

For those of you at this year’s Terry talks, you’ll obviously be aware of our little YouTube experiment. In any event, I present to you the fruit of that labour below.

If you weren’t at the conference, here is the gist: audience members were ask to participate by brainstorming, pitching, choosing, and then executing an activity amenable to recording via YouTube. This was done during the odd free 5 minutes here and there in the conference program. In total I think about 20 minutes in all was used to get the material for the video. (more…)