5405. BEAVERS HAVE BEEN CRUSHED BY FALLING TREES

BEAVERS HAVE BEEN 

CRUSHED BY

FALLING TREES

Concepts of memory, like the death of the

beaver crushed by his own falling tree, what

are they and how do they stick? Ideas change.

Plato and Aristotle figured memory to be 

inscribed on wax tablets that could be easily

erased and used again. Fairly simple concept,

reflective of its time. We now like to think of it

as a camera or video-reorder mechanism of 

sorts, filming, storing re-cycling the vast troves

of data accumulated through life. In actuality now,

every memory we retains depends upon a chain of

chemical interactions connecting millions of neurons

to one another  -  never touching, these neurons 

communicate through tiny gaps, or synapses, that

surround each of them. Branching filaments  -  

called dendrites  -  receive chemical signals from

other nerve cells and send the information across

the synapse to the body of the next cell.  Typically,

the brain has billions of these connections.

I stand awed.

-

The beaver who didn't remember where not to stand

was killed by his own falling tree. It happens. 

I stand awed.