Category: Uncategorized

Two weeks ago, we had the privilege of visiting Le muse gourmand du chocolat. The gourmet chocolate museum provided insight into the 4000-year-old history of cocoa. I didn’t only enjoy the abundance of free samples scattered throughout the museum but also learning about the origins and evolution of chocolate. This museum was the home of decadent chocolate structures such as a 5-foot chocolate Eiffel tower which is shown in the picture. Not only did we get to learn about rich world of chocolate, but we also had the opportunity to make our own chocolate. We made little praline filled chocolate stars in the workshop and were able to take a bag home! Continue reading “The Rich History of Cocoa”

Our second weekend in the program, we went to a rugby match between Upstarts Castres and Montpellier at the Stade de France. This was a new experience for me, because I rarely go to many sporting events and it was my first time ever watching rugby. There were enthusiastic fans everywhere starting from the metro station all the way to the stadium. Our assignment was to choose a player and count how many times they potentially had a head impact. When the game started, I realized that this was much harder to count than I thought. When the players were hit, there would be so many players in that area at once, making it hard to actually see who was actually hit and who was not. It was also hard to keep track of the same player throughout the course of the game. In the end, everyone made their best guesses and we calculated a class average of around 12 hits throughout the game.

Figure 1. Janet, Coco, and I at the rugby match.

Continue reading “Rugby: More Harm Than Good?”

If you still wonder about where to go in the countryside of France, you should definitely visit the châteaux of the Loire Valley! Château is a French word for the country house of nobility. The Loire Valley is home to hundreds of châteaux, which were built between the 10^th and 20^th centuries. On a cloudy and chilly Friday, our whole class visited Château de Chenonceau, a beautiful château that spans the River Cher and located in the south of France. Surprisingly, despite its serenity, Château de Chenonceau was turned into a military hospital during WWI. At that time, 120 beds were set up in Catherine de Medici’s two great galleries and all the walls were whitened and the spaces were adapted to meet the hygiene standard. Moreover, the ground floor of the chateau was also equipped with one of the first x-ray machines in France. Speaking of war, it reminds me of thousands of soldiers who suffered from PTSD. It makes me wonder, how were the soldiers with PTSD diagnosed during WWI?

Military Hospital in Château de Chenonceau

Continue reading “From “shell shock” to PTSD”

Last Friday we took a trip to the Loire Valley, where we visited Château d’Amboise, a royal palace that was home to Louis XII, Charles the VIII and François I. Although 80% of the palace was destroyed by Napoleon after the French Revolution left the majority of the estate in ruins, we still got a full tour of the remaining castle with an enthusiastic tour guide who shared historical gossip. From forcing queens to join convents to posing for fake pictures with celebrity of the day Leonardo di Vinci to increase the king’s popularity, Château d’Amboise seemed to never have a dull moment.

Continue reading “Leonardo da Vinci’s Contribution to Neuroscience”

In my family, while neither of my parents have red hair, my brother and both my grandmothers on my mom and dad’s side do. It is interesting to think that I may be carrying a gene for this red hair, and could possibly pass it down, because ginger hair is somewhat of an oddity. It is commonly suggested that only around 1 to 2 percent of the world population (70 to 140 million people) have red hair (Barnes, 2013). On Wednesday, June 13^th, I learned even more about my family’s redhead heritage.

Continue reading “Red Hair Power”

A couple of weeks ago, Emily, Gabi and I went to a temporary exhibit at the Grand Palais called Artists and Robots. The first room of the exhibit showed a number of line-heavy art pieces, one of which was still being done by three small robots. Each robot had different movement patterns: one that spun repetitively in a small circle, one that raced straight across the paper and one that moved in random jagged movements. While these pieces were more mechanic, there were other robots drawing softer, realistic pieces of animals and people. There was even realist painting of a waterfall scene (see below). Not only were the robots able to mimic human-like artistic style, but they were also able to create pieces unique to their abilities. After the first room, displays went beyond basic robots. Computer-generated “movies” of moving numbers, code and words produced scenes of beautiful movement, giving me the same sense of reflectiveness that I would have looking at a human-made art piece.

Continue reading “Blog 4: Can Robots be Creative?”

In the USA and in most of the western hemisphere, appreciation for art is fading. However, in Paris, and in Europe in general, art is still greatly valued, so much that people, museums and careers all revolve around some form of art. As someone who has painted since she can remember, and has had art for all of her upbringing, coming to Europe has truly been refreshing. I have visited the Louvre, Grand Palais, Versailles, Musée de Art and Métiers, Musée de l’homme…you name it!

When the museum we want to visit is outside the scope of the class, me and my friends often struggle to agree on which museum to go to. We all have different preferences: some enjoy the very old historical art, some enjoy impressionism, and others enjoy more modern art such as Centre Pompidou. Although I like every forms of art, I find it interesting how I have different experiences with the distinct pieces. These observations became the clearest when I went to the Louvre with a group of friends. Here, we had trouble finding ourselves because in such a big museum, everyone wanted to go watch a different section. I wanted to go straight to the Mona Lisa, while my friend Gen wanted to visit a completely different wing.

Continue reading “A trip to the Louvre may not be the same for you and me”

Chateau de Chenonceau is one of the many chateaus located in the Loire Valley. The chateau spans the River Cher near a village called Chenonceau. In 1514-1522, the chateau initially was built upon the foundations of an old mill and later stretched the River  Cher. The Chateau belonged to many French families, beginning with the Marques family to the royal family and their mistresses. With each new inhabitant, more adjuncts, gardens, and bridges were added until it became the chateau that stands today. One notable owner was Diane de Poitiers, who built a bridge to attach the chateau to the opposite side of the river and designed the flower, vegetable, and fruit gardens. Another major contributor to Chateau de Chenonceau is Catherine de’ Medici who added more gardens to decorate the perimeter of the chateau as well as rooms within the chateau’s walls. Catherine had many grand parties there, including one with the first firework show ever. The chateau was reflective of not only the wealth that France’s elites possessed, but also the architectural magnificence and intellect that humans were capable of. We are able to think up and create these structures that outlive us in longevity and tower over us in size because of our brain’s ability of creativity.

Continue reading “Chateau de Chenonceau”

This week I had the amazing opportunity of visiting the Musee de Moulage! The museum houses a collection of different dermatological illnesses and diseases. As I walked across the museum, I was amazed by the intricate casts that delineated the different conditions doctors had come across during their career. While many of the casts were grotesque, I realized that they served an important role—educating future generations of dermatologists. The elaborate 3D sculptures of faces, limbs, bodies, and genitalia gave future doctors an ability to recognize rare, dangerous infections that patients might present with. While I was unfamiliar with most of the dermatological diseases presented in the museum one caught my eye: Syphilis.

Continue reading “Neurosyphilis and its precursors”

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”