Damasio, Antonio R, The Feeling of What Happens : Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness , Harcourt Brace 1999 Jacket: 'In a radical departure from current views on consciousness, Damasio contends that explaining how we make mental images or attend to those images will not suffice to elucidate the mystery. A satisfactory hypothesis for the making of consciousness must explain how the sense of self comes to mind. Damasio suggests that the sense of self does not depend on memory or on reasoning or even less on language. [it] depends, he argues, on the brain's ability to portray the living organism in the act of relating to an object. That ability, in turn, is a consequence of the brain's involvement in the process of regulating life. The sense of self began as yet another device aimed an ensuring survival.' 
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Amina Khan, An amateur astronomer testing a new camera happens to catch a supernova as it's being born, 'SN 2016gkg was spotted in September 2016 by study coauthor Victor Buso, an amateur astronomer based out of Rosario, Argentina. Buso had been testing a new camera on his 16-inch telescope by aiming it at spiral galaxy NGC 613, which lies roughly 80 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor. After taking a series of short-exposure photographs, Buso took a look at his work — and noticed, at the end of one of the galaxy's spiral arms, a bright point in the later images that hadn't been there in the earlier ones.' back

Lois Beckett, My six years covering neo_Nazia: 'They're all vying for the affection of Russia', 'The Norwegian journalist Vegas Tenold started reporting on neo-Nazi and KKK rallies in 2011, six years before the violent clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, that made the resurgence of white supremacist groups into an international news story. Tenold’s new book, Everything You Love Will Burn: Inside the Rebirth of White Nationalism in America , excerpted here, chronicles the experience of those six years.' back

Melissa Davey, HPV infection rates plummet after vaccine, with China next frontier, 'Monday marks the 10-year anniversary of the vaccine being released in Australia, and research led by the Royal Woman’s hospital in Victoria and published to coincide with the anniversary has found that HPV infection rates have plummeted.' back

Valerie Strauss, Florida House votes to force schools to display 'In God We Trust' a day after refusing to consider gun control, 'If the Florida House of Representatives has its way, all public schools in the Sunshine State will soon be required to post the words “In God We Trust” — the state’s motto — on all campuses where students and staff can see them. . . . Yet the House refused, 71 to 37, to take up a bill this week to ban assault weapons, which had been supported by student survivors of the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, where a gunman killed 17 people. back