full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Carl Schoonover: How to look inside the brain


Unscramble the Blue Letters


And that's because if you take a biarn out of the skull and you cut a thin slice of it, put it under even a very powerful microscope, there's nothing there. It's gray, formless. There's no structure. It won't tell you anything.

And this all changed in the late 19th century. sednudly, new chemical sintas for brain tissue were developed and they gave us our first glimpses at brain wiring. The cpeuotmr was cracked open.

So what really lhenucad modern neuroscience was a stain called the Golgi stain. And it works in a very particular way. Instead of staining all of the clels inside of a tissue, it somehow only stains about one percent of them. It clears the forest, reveals the trees inside. If everything had been labeled, nothing would have been visible. So somehow it sowhs what's there.

Open Cloze


And that's because if you take a _____ out of the skull and you cut a thin slice of it, put it under even a very powerful microscope, there's nothing there. It's gray, formless. There's no structure. It won't tell you anything.

And this all changed in the late 19th century. ________, new chemical ______ for brain tissue were developed and they gave us our first glimpses at brain wiring. The ________ was cracked open.

So what really ________ modern neuroscience was a stain called the Golgi stain. And it works in a very particular way. Instead of staining all of the _____ inside of a tissue, it somehow only stains about one percent of them. It clears the forest, reveals the trees inside. If everything had been labeled, nothing would have been visible. So somehow it _____ what's there.

Solution


  1. stains
  2. computer
  3. cells
  4. shows
  5. launched
  6. brain
  7. suddenly

Original Text


And that's because if you take a brain out of the skull and you cut a thin slice of it, put it under even a very powerful microscope, there's nothing there. It's gray, formless. There's no structure. It won't tell you anything.

And this all changed in the late 19th century. Suddenly, new chemical stains for brain tissue were developed and they gave us our first glimpses at brain wiring. The computer was cracked open.

So what really launched modern neuroscience was a stain called the Golgi stain. And it works in a very particular way. Instead of staining all of the cells inside of a tissue, it somehow only stains about one percent of them. It clears the forest, reveals the trees inside. If everything had been labeled, nothing would have been visible. So somehow it shows what's there.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
green fluorescent 5
fluorescent protein 3
recognize specific 3
glow green 2
immune system 2
coat protein 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
green fluorescent protein 3


Important Words


  1. brain
  2. called
  3. cells
  4. century
  5. changed
  6. chemical
  7. clears
  8. computer
  9. cracked
  10. cut
  11. developed
  12. forest
  13. formless
  14. gave
  15. glimpses
  16. golgi
  17. gray
  18. labeled
  19. late
  20. launched
  21. microscope
  22. modern
  23. neuroscience
  24. open
  25. percent
  26. powerful
  27. put
  28. reveals
  29. shows
  30. skull
  31. slice
  32. stain
  33. staining
  34. stains
  35. structure
  36. suddenly
  37. thin
  38. tissue
  39. trees
  40. visible
  41. wiring
  42. works