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Male and Female Brain Different
By Delos Smith UPJ Science Editor
NEW YORK- Science has turned up some reasons for believing the male and the female human brain are different, just as both men and women have long suspected in those moments when they're at loose ends with one another.
The turn-upper was a psychological scientist. Dr. H. Lansdell of the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md., who investigated brain behavior in 22 men and women before and after some of their brain tissue had been removed surgically.
This tissue was taken from one or the other of the temporal lobes of the cerebrum for the purpose of alleviating the type of epilepsy which centers there. One must keep in mind the cerebrum has two hemispheres and each hemisphere has a temporal lobe.
Lansdell investigated brain behavior by having the men and women look at 90 sets of abstract designs and pick out the one design in each set they liked best. In each set was one design less symmetrical but more complex than the others and this one is said to be the most artistic.
FOR THAT REASON it is a test of artistic aptitude. Lansdell assumed this aptitude comes from what the brain makes of what the eyes see. He also used a test which shows which of the two hemispheres of the cerebrum is "dominant" for this phase of brain behavior.
Now, you'd expect the male and female brain to respond identically
to the loss of the same amount of tissue from a temporal lobe of either the "dominant" hemisphere or its non-dominant mate. To Lansdell's surprise that was not the case.
When the tissue was taken from the non-dominant hemisphere of the male brain there was a drop in artistic aptitude but in the female brain the effect was just the opposite. When it was taken from the dominant hemisphere it was the male aptitude which increased while the female decreased.
Lansdell of course ruled out the possibility that something else was involved besides a basic difference in male and female brains. For instance, if the removal of brain tissue affected keenness of vision it should affect men and women alike.
HE ALSO tested the men and women before and after their surgery on their ability to recite the common proverbs without hesitation. The women were not changed in this regard by the loss of "dominant" brain tissue but the men couldn't do as well as they had.
To Lansdell all this "suggested" that in the female brain "some physiological mechanisms underlying artistic judgment and verbal ability may overlap," but in the male brain these mechanisms are in opposite hemispheres.
This explanation is supported by aptitude tests given to thousands of normal boys and girls, he said. These tests have shown that in girls, artistic interest and high competence with words go together, but they don't in boys.
Helicopter, Hamlet Fights Communism
By Phil Newsom UPI Foreign News Analyst
And in the last few months there has been evidence to support what otherwise might be undue optimism in a country 65 per cent controlled in whole, or in part by Communist Viet Cong guerillas.
SAIGON, South Vietnam — Gen Paul D. Harkins is a square-jawed sandy-haired four-star general who commands U.S. forces both in Thailand and South Vietnam. He takes the firm view that the Communists are not going to be allowed to take over either country.
WHAT GAINS there have been against the Viet Cong may be attributed to two factors—the helicopter which transports government troops and their American instructors swiftly, and the strategic Hamlet which it is hoped ultimately will cut Viet Cong lines of supply and communication and at the same time teach their inhabitants the basic values of true democracy.
Statistics may be misleading but a glance at a few of them illustrates the enormous task facing the government of President Ngo Dinh Diem and General Harkins.
In the past year, Viet Cong attacks, acts of sabotage or kidnappings have been occurring at the rate of about 500 per month.
IT IS ESTIMATED that Viet Cong kidnaps and kills at least six local government representatives each day.
One thousand school classrooms have been closed down.
Out of a total of 3,000 local health centers, more than 600 have been forced to close.
THE MALARIA eradication program has been hampered seriously by the kidnapping or killing of antimalaria teams.
Bridges and the coastal railway have been special Viet Cong targets. It is estimated that at least one bridge a day is damaged or destroyed.
In recent weeks, Viet Cong attacks forced the closing of two rubber plantations. one of them with a capacity of 1,000 tons annually.
VIETNAMESE GENERALLY lump events of the last year into one word. They called it the "terror" and they place its beginnings at the time of the communist conquest of
neighboring Southeast Laos. The fall of Southeast Laos opened up the so-called "Ho Chi Minh" trail over which it is estimated that at least four divisions of well-trained guerillas have infiltrated South Vietnam in the last year.
So effective have been Viet Cong tactics in the rich, rice-growing delta of the Mekong River that this year the government was forced to borrow 49,000 tons of rice from the United States.
A common Communist tactic in the Southeast Asia war has been an attempt to turn the enemy's rear into the Communist front. This has been accomplished effectively in the delta which is the farthermost point from recognized communist territory in North Vietnam.
WHEN THE Communists of Ho Chi Minh defeated the French at Dien Bien Phu and presumably withdrew to the north after the agreement at Geneva, they deliberately left behind strong Communist cells in the delta. The men thus left behind, married and learned the language and the customs, but never forgot their mission.
The University of Kansas department of architecture and architectural engineering has been awarded a $750 scholarship grant for each of three years by the Tile Council of America, Chairman George M. Beal announced today.
Among many villagers they are heroes of the resistance-first against the French and now against the Americans.
Dr. William E. McEwen, professor of chemistry at the University of Kansas, has been awarded a one-year renewal grant of $10,450 by the United States Public Health Service.
Beginning with the 1962-63 academic year, the grant will provide scholarship funds or student loan funds amounting to $500 and a grant of $250 to be used by the department in furthering its program of instruction in courses on building materials.
Architecture Grant to KU
The scholarship or loan funds will be awarded to third, fourth or fifth year students. Eligibility will be based on intention to enter professional practice of architecture, academic record, financial need and character.
McEwen Awarded USPHS Grant
His study is on the proof of structure and synthesis of chonemorphine, a complex alkaloid which has possible applications in the field of medicine.
He will continue directing the grant in his new position, announced last fall, as Commonwealth professor and head of the chemistry department at the University of Massachusetts.
The $250 allocation for each of the three years may be used by the department for the purchase of equipment, preparation of additional display space or display materials, working materials, books, visual aid projectors and screens, or for staff salary increments.
Summer Session Kansan
Some graduate students working on the project at KU are expected to continue research at Massachusetts, when Dr. McEwen joins the staff there in September.
House To Check On Discrimination
Zebus do not sit around for days thinking up zebu fillers.
WASHINGTON — (UPI) — The House Space Committee today ordered an investigation of alleged government discrimination against women in the nation's space exploration program.
The committee, meeting in executive session, named Rep. Victor L. Anfuso, D-N.Y., as chairman of a special nine-man, two-woman investigating subcommittee to look into complaints about male dominance in space.
Anfuso said a number of women feel they are being discriminated against by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
The New York Democrat said he was not prepared to make any judgments in the controversy until all the evidence was in.
In other actions:
- The Senate Space Committee received assurance from the Pentagon's Research chief that the defense department has no intention of moving in on programs which properly fall under the jurisdiction of NASA.
- The chairman of the House committee, Rep. George P. Miller, D-Calif., said the billions of dollars spent in the space race are not just an expression of "national ego" and the nation should have faith in a big payoff.
Gentleman zebus prefer blondes; but marry brunette zebus, except in the southern hemisphere.
Friday, June 15. 1962
Novel writing, short story, writing for young girls, poetry, and feature writing will be covered in the twelfth University of Kansas Writers' Conference June 26 to 29 on the campus in Lawrence. A guest lecturer, Peggy Greene of the Topeka Capital-Journal, will also speak the first evening of this writers' short course, on "The Columnist's Crises."
Writers' Conference To Be Held June 26-29
Marnie Ellingson of Omaha, short story writer for Ladies' Home Journal, McCall's and other women's magazines, will direct short fiction instruction; John Selby, novelist of New York and Sicily, longer fiction; Edsel Ford of Rogers, Ark. poetry.
I A lecture by Selby, "The Way It Really Is," a discussion of the literary life, will be open to the public without charge at 8 o'clock the evening of June 28 in the Forum Room of the Kansas Union on the campus. Other lectures will be held in the library of Gertrude Sellards Pearson dormitory and will be open to enrolled persons only.
Besides Mrs. Greene, two other leaders this year are from this area. Holly Wilson, a Topekan also, is author of several books for girls, as well as a Hopwood Prize novel written when she was a student at the University of Michigan. Bob Sanford, who has been a reporter and feature writer on the Kansas City Star and is now its art critic, will be non-fiction leader. In addition, the Conference director, Prof. Frances Grinstead, will double as a magazine writing leader.
16 Students Issue Letter
Sixteen students participating in the University of Kansas Junior Year in Costa Rica program have issued the first "Sunflower" newsletter of the year describing the student exchange program.
In its third year of publication, the "Sunflower" is a series of short comments by the students, three of whom are from universities other than KU. Two students from the University of California at Santa Barbara and one from the University of Wyoming went through KU orientation as well as the exchange program orientation in Washington, D.C.
Comments ranged from the Washington trip to settling down to family and academic life in Costa Rica.
The group spent the first part of its Costa Rican trip together, then separated to live with individual families. The students attend classes at the University of Costa Rica in San Jose under the KU exchange program which is partially supported by outside grants. The students will return to KU during the fall semester.
Miss Frances Grinstead, who is conference director for the 10th summer, may be addressed for a leaflet containing the program and information at 203 Flint Hall, University of Kansas, Lawrence.
IU Honors Dr. Lindley
Indiana University has named a major classroom building for Dr. Ernest H. Lindley, who for 19 years was chancellor of the University of Kansas.
Dr. Lindley was a member of the Indiana philosophy and psychology faculty from 1893 to 1917 and was department head 15 years of that period. He was president of the University of Idaho before coming to KU in 1920.
Dr. Lindley's name has been given to the science hall on Indiana's Bloomington campus.
During his chancellorship at Kansas there was great growth both in enrollment and in the physical plant. He guided KU through the depression years of the 1930s, until he requested relief from the chancellorship in 1939. He had planned to teach after a tour of the Far East, but he died aboard ship on the return voyage and was buried at sea.
The sudden removal of Dr. Lindley from office in late 1924 by a governor whose term was about to expire resulted in legislation establishing the nine-member Board of Regents, which was a major step in removing state schools from political domination.
Teaching Robots Produced
WASHINGTON - (UPI) - Some 90 self-instruction teaching devices are in production by about 65 companies, the Technological Development Project of the National Education Association announces.
About 630 programmed courses either fit into the machines or are produced in book form.
In this question, therefore, there is no medium between servitude and license; in order to enjoy the inestimable benefits that the liberty of the press ensures, it is necessary to submit to the inevitable evils it creates. —Alexis de Tocqueville
If you have a car and want riders, or if you're looking for a ride, put an ad in the Kansan classifieds,and get fast results!
SUMMER SESSION KANSAN
VI 3-2700—Ext. 376