This is your brain, on god.

Newberg told NPR: 'For those individuals who want to go down the path of arguing that all of our religious and spiritual experiences are nothing more than biological phenomena, some of this data does support that kind of a conclusion.

'But the data also does not specifically eliminate the notion that there is a religious or spiritual or divine presence in the world.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1339517/God-brain-Scans-activity-religious-people-meditate.html

This is somewhat stupid.  But not seeing the original paper may be the problem.

What they are saying:

Those who meditate consciously and repeatedly have brains that activate more of the frontal lobes than someone who isn't doing so.

1.  Those who do so learned how to meditate, thereby more neurons are involved just for that reason.

2.  Since the article states the frontal lobe is for concentration etc., why not have someone playing a speed computer chess game be monitored and see if it isn't simply the level of concentration involved.

Says nothing about much actually, wonder how the righteous will interpret it. 

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FRISH

For those interested in origins...Polish Physicists model the Universe

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101216095014.htm

The article is high on fog factor, low on understandability.  (Space can be modeled as a fabric, with gravity causing the physical geometry (in three dimensions) and time is the result of applying values to particular points in space so that things can then happen!)

It is however a very important achievement to describe reality using math that doesn't violate cosmological observations.

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FRISH

A mother's voice preferentially activates language acquisition areas of their newborn infant's brain...

While the actuality is a "Duh!", it is fascinating to me on two counts.

First when analyzing brain activity, smaller functional components are being identified.

Second is the picture copied below.  The sacrifices we go through for science.  Informed consent?  Say what?

Language Learning areas of Baby's Brains are activated by their mother's voice.

For preemies, or sick babies, or for those whose mother's die in childbirth, one wonders if a tape loop of the mother's voice is enough to produce an equivalent effect.

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FRISH