Author: Jeffrey Yang

Figure 1. Eiffel Tower from the first day hereIn the first four days I have been in Paris, I had seen the Eiffel Tower four times. Even as a person from the state of Texas who was born in Canada and spent much of his early life in China studying in Georgia (I guess I am a globetrotter) and has no idea of how a Parisian lives, I could see how Parisians got tired of the Eiffel Tower real quick. After these first four days, whenever a friend exclaimed that the Eiffel Tower was in sight, I found myself muttering “so what”. I was tired of the Eiffel, and could not see any reason why tourists found it so beautiful and a “must-see” attraction. Continue reading “The Eiffel and the Brain”

Howdy! Great to see you again, and today I am going to share with you none other than Amboise in the beautiful Loire Valley. We went on a class trip here last Friday, June 15th. The small town of Amboise may not have been at its most beautiful, as it was drizzling lightly with dark skies, but not much could compare with the amazing chateau that past kings have tried to get their hands on for years. We received a tour of the remains of the chateau, which is only a fraction of its size back in the day. I had wondered why the tour guide pretty much gave us an entire history of the chateau (nothing wrong with it, I was just wondering why), and it was because the chateau was literally so small had she only given us the backstory to every room we would have been done in less than 15 minutes. A very interesting fact about Amboise is that Leonardo da Vinci lived here in the latter stages of his life. King Francis I and da Vinci were great friends and Francis offered the  Clos Lucé manor to da Vinci, who accepted and lived his last three years here. The manor was in close proximity to the Chateau Amboise, and Leonardo da Vinci continued with his work until he died of a stroke in 1519. The painting below depicts Leonardo being held by Francis I, but there is speculation that this was false and ordered by Francis I to be painted as propaganda to increase his popularity. He is currently buried in Amboise. Continue reading “Ambois(e)ing Experience”

This past Monday, we visited the Musee du Chocolat, which was a chocolate museum. We were very stressed that day, because we had an important paper due the next day. Now you might be asking, if you were so stressed, why are the people having fun in the picture above? This chocolate making was so fun and such a stress buster! There was so much going on and since the chocolate we were making hardened with passing time we were rushing and it made for a great bonding moment. I think I can say for everyone involved that we didn’t really want it to end because there were so many laughs and great memories made. The molds were very sexy because they looked like a knock of of Patrick from Spongebob. We made praline filled chocolate surronded by dark chocolate. For some reason, staying in that air conditioned room made all of our worries melt away. It was an amazing experience and we made some delicious chocolate! On top of that, we got to go through the museum, which depicted a history of chocolate and how it was made. We also got to see the variations of cocoa beans as well the pollinators that fertilized them. I learned that chocolate didn’t become sweet until relatively recently, which made me extremely appreciative that I was born in this day and age, where chocolate is sweet and not bitter (if you can’t tell, I have more of a sweet tooth). We even got to taste chocolate from certain time periods! How cool! Continue reading “Cognitive Enhancement Via Chocolate?”

As a former football player and someone who enjoys many different sports, I would say I have a general appreciation for the difficulty and love for the game. We recently went to a rugby game, where we got to enjoy the competition for the national rugby championships of France. I must say for someone who wasn’t the most familiar with the rules, I had a lot of fun cheering for both teams as I had no allegiances. The hits in the game were the most exciting part second only to a team managing to score. The excitement from the crowd was palpable from the beginning of the game to the end every time there was a hit. There were at least 10 instances where a player who was hit was down on the field and took an extended period of time to get up, accompanied by trainers who likely provided a painkiller. As much as this was part of the sport and how much I was impressed by the hits and physical prowess of the players, I could not help but think- this must have short and long term effects on the brains of these players! I knew a little about chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and how it was a neurodegenerative disease that affected most of the players in the National Football League (NFL) in the United States, but I had wondered what effect this may have for rugby players, who played the sport without pads or helmets (Casson et al, 2014). Continue reading “Should Rugby Be Celebrated?”

Hey y’all! My name is Jeffrey Yang and I’m a rising junior studying Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology at Emory. I’m currently in Paris for the NBB study abroad program, and today we went cheese tasting! However, this isn’t just for pleasure, believe it or not!

I’ll first start off with the cheese tasting. We visited the Fromagerie, one of the traditional cheese makeries in Paris right in the heart of the old part of town. The shop was very small, very cute, and had a collection of about 150 different cheeses, which is apparently standard in many cheese shops around Paris. As special guests, we were invited to the basement to taste six different cheeses, starting with a very light goat cheese and ending with a very strong blue cheese. All of the cheeses are specialties that were conceived in France and whose origins come from all over France. We learned about how cheese was made, how it was maintained, and even learned the difference between taste and flavor! Each cheese that we tasted was unique and had its own master pairing of juice, but my absolute favorite was the comte, which is right in between a light and strong cheese (so I suppose you could call it moderate!). It was crunchy, extremely flavorful, and had an amazing aroma. I will most definitely be on the lookout for comte in cheese shops all over France now! Continue reading “Cheese Tasting and Neuroscience?”