Neurophilosophy

Another recipe from Moorish by Greg and Lucy Malouf.

6 sets lamb’s brains, soaked in milk for 2 hours, or cold salted overnight
2 eggs
1 tablespoon water
100 g (3.5 fl. oz.) plain flour
60 ml (2 fl. oz.) olive oil
8 rashers streaky bacon
lemon wedges

Poaching liquid

1 lemon, quartered
1 cinnamon stick
4 cloves
Half an onion
1 litre (2 pints) cold water

Apple Butter

200 ml (7 fl. oz.) apple juice
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and grated
150 g (5 oz.) cold unsalted butter, finely diced
Salt and pepper

Crumbing mix

200 g (7 oz.) dried breadcrumbs
100 g (3.5 oz.) parmesan, grated
1 teaspoon Za’atar [the Arabic name for wild thyme, and the mix of spices containing it]
Half teaspoon sumac

Cooking instructions

Place the brains in a large saucepan with all the poaching ingredients. Bring to the boil, then skim and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, and allow the brains to cool in the liquid. When they are cold, remove them from the liquid and split each set in half.

To make the apple butter, tip the apple juice into a pan and bring it to the boil. Simmer until reduced to 50 ml (1.5 fl. oz.). On a low heat, add the grated apple to the syrup, and then tip in half the butter. Whisk until the butter melts into the syrup. As it melts, the syrup will thicken but don’t allow it to froth up or boil. Keep it over a slow and steady heat until all the butter has melted, then slowly add the rest of the butter, bit by bit, whisking all the time to incorporate. Season with salt and pepper, then strain through a sieve and keep warm until needed.

Preheat the grill (broiler) to its highest setting.

To make the crumbing mix, combine the breadcrumbs with the parmesan, za’atar and sumac.

In a shallow dish, lightly whisk the eggs and water to make an egg wash.

Now get a little assembly line ready with a shallow dish with the flour, a dish with egg wash, and another dish of the crumbing mix. First dip the brains into the flour, then into the egg wash and then into the breadcrumbs. Continue until all are crumbed.

Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the brains until golden brown.

Place the bacon on a baking tray and drizzle with a little of the apple butter. Grill (broil) until crisp and golden, turning once.

Serve 3 halves of brain per person, drizzle with a little apple butter and top with 2 pieces of bacon. Serve with lemon wedges on the side.

Serves 4.

Related:

• Tiny brain omelettes with mint and Gruyère

So you want to be a scientist my son? The salary is low, the chances of permanent employment are slim, and your success will be judged by how many Nature papers your name appears on.

Via Sequitur, the Science Idol Scientific Integrity Editorial Cartoon Contest:

We’re looking for your creative take on the issue of political interference in science. Submit one-panel or multi-panel print cartoons that address the misuse of science on a specific issue or in general…Whether you are a scientist, an artist, a college student or professor, or a high school student, your cartoons will help us restore scientific integrity to federal policy making.

…we are especially interested in cartoons that focus on the recent actions the White House has taken to centralize decision-making authority…We’d also like cartoons that examine possible solutions to this wide-spread problem, including steps the next president might take to restore scientific integrity.

The contest, which is organized by the Union of Concerned Scientists, is open only to American cartoonists. The closing date is May 22nd. At the top is one of last year’s entries, by Reva Sharp from Warren, PA.

On a related note, don’t forget about the Brain Essay Student Contest.

Alice, my girlfriend, is 27 years old today. That’s her in the photo, aged 16. Alice is a fantastic cook, and she loves cookery books, so as a gift, I bought her a book of contemporary Middle Eastern cuisine, called Moorish, by Greg and Lucy Malouf. As she flicked through the new addition to her gastronomical library (which is already rather extensive), Alice came across this recipe for tiny brain omelettes with mint and Gruyère.

• 6 lamb’s brains, soaked in milk for 2 hours, or cold salted water overnight
• 100 ml (3.5 fl. oz.) vegetable oil
• lemon wedges

Poaching liquid

• 1 lemon, quartered
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 4 cloves
• half an onion
• 1 litre (2 pints) cold water

Batter

• 2 large eggs
• 4 large egg yolks
• 6 spring onions (scallions) finely chopped
• 60 g (2 0z.) Gruyère, grated
• 30 g (1 oz.) parmesan, grated
• 1 teaspoon dried mint
• 2 tablespoons finely shredded fresh mint
• 1 teaspoon salt
• pepper to taste

Cooking instructions

Place the brains in a large saucepan with all the poaching ingredients. Bring to the boil, then skim and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the brains to cool in the liquid. When they are cold, remove them from the liquid and split each in half.

To make the batter, put the eggs and yolks into a mixing bowl and whisk lightly with the spring onions, both cheeses, fresh and dried mint and seasoning, just enough to bring everything together.

Slice the brains and add them to the batter.

Preheat the oven to 100 °C (212 °F) and put your serving dish in to warm.

Pour the oil into a frying pan and heat until moderately hot. Blob spoonfuls of the brain mixture into the hot oil, using an egg-ring as a mould if you have one. We used little cookie cutters which worked too, but you can just as well go for the free form look. Cook the brains 3-4 at a time, frying until set and golden on the underside. Then carefully turn them over and fry on the other side. Be gentle, they are delicate! Remove from the oil and drain on kitchen paper, then keep them warm in the oven until all are cooked. Serve with lemon wedges.

Serves 4 for breakfast, or as a starter.

Don’t ask me why. Your guess is as good as mine. Which side of the Great Firewall of China are you on? Test your site here.

(via Dr. X’s Free Associations)

Today’s issue of Science contains a paper by Exeter University physicist Peter Vukusic and his colleagues, describing how the fine structure of a beetle’s scales produces one of the purest, most brilliant whites found in nature.

Here’s the abstract:

The colored appearances of animals are controlled by pigmentation, highly periodic ultrastructure, or a combination of both. Whiteness, however, is less common and is generated by neither of these, because it requires scattering processes appropriate for all visible wavelengths. We report whiteness resulting from a three-dimensional photonic solid in the scales of Cyphochilus spp. beetles. Their scales are characterized by their exceptional whiteness, their perceived brightness, and their optical brilliance, but they are only 5 micrometers thick. This thickness is at least two orders of magnitude thinner than common synthetic systems designed for equivalent-quality whiteness.

Vukusic’s team believes the beetle, which is native to south-east Asia, evolved such brilliant whiteness to camouflage itself amongst the white fungi which are abundant in its habitat. The colour of an object or surface is determined by the wavelength of reflected light, and ordered structures tend to reflect light of a specific wavelength. White light, however, is a combination of visible light of different wavelengths.

Vukusic and his colleagues show that the beetle’s scales consist of completely random three-dimensional structures (shown in the scanning electron micrograph above), and therefore simultaneously scatter light of all wavelengths to produce the brilliant whiteness. They think industry will be interested in the findings, which could enable the whiteness of paper, plastics and paints to be greatly enhanced.

Ian McEwan writes about the scientific literary tradition in The Guardian.

Tell me what is a thought, and of what substance is it made?
Tell me what is a joy, and in what gardens do joys grow?
And in what rivers swim the sorrows? And upon what mountains
Wave shadows of discontent?

Tell me where dwell the thoughts, forgotten till thou call them forth?
Tell me where dwell the joys of old, and where the ancient loves,
And when will they renew again, and the night of oblivion past,
That I might traverse times and spaces far remote, and bring
Comforts into a present sorrow and a night of pain?
Where goest thou, O thought? To what remote land is thy flight?
If thou returnest to the present moment of affliction,
Wilt thou bring comforts on thy wings, and dews and honey and balm,
Or poison from the desert wilds, from the eyes of the envier?’

Visions of the Daughters of Albion, William Blake, 1793

Science today faces two problems. One of them is within science itself and the other concerns the relationship between the scientific community and the general public.

The problem within science is that of over-specialization. Most research scientists are highly specialized in a small area of the field which they are investigating. Let’s take embryology as an example. Groups of scientists researching a particular aspect of development will focus on that aspect and usually pay little attention to others, to the extent that they have their own terminology which other embryologists would not understand. We therefore have a Tower of Babel situation in which scientists in the same field are speaking different languages. In recent years, however, this problem has been acknowledged, and the number of scientists taking a multi-disciplinary approach to their research has started to increase slowly.

The other problem is that most scientists are hopeless at explaining their work to the general public. They have climbed so far up their ivory towers that they cannot find their way out. This has led to a distrust and even fear of science and scientists by the general public. This attitude towards science has been compounded in recent years by issues such as cloning and genetically modified foods. Another contributing factor is how science is reported in the media; newspapers, particularly the tabloids, tend to be either alarmist or sensationalist.

This problem can be solved in several ways. One is for more scientists to try and communicate their work effectively to the public, in order that society gains a better understanding of the scientific issues which affect our daily lives more and more. More good science writers from the scientific community and elsewhere would also be very useful for a better public understanding of science.

Changes in the way science is taught in schools would also remedy this lack of communication by scientists. Rather than only learning scientific theories and facts, schoolchildren should also be taught what might be called ’scientific literacy,’ that is, they should be given enough background information so that they leave school with an ability to make informed judgements about modern scientific issues, many of which have ethical implications without clearcut answers. The British government will be introducing yet more changes to the science curriculum, changes which will come into effect at the beginning of the next academic year. It remains to be seen whether these changes will address the issue of scientific literacy.

Science is one of the things that defines our culture. Scientific research is largely funded by the taxpayer. It is done ultimately for the benefits of society, yet society is cynical about science. The attitudes of society towards science can only change if the problems outlined here are addressed.