GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

This is more neuroscience than it is geography, but it is incredibly relevant to geographers and spatial analysis.  These Norwegian neuroscientists are charting the brain to understand how we remember where we have been, where we are and how we navigate through space.  They are primarily mapping out the brains of rats, but much of what they’ve discovered appears to hold for all mammals.  There are certain cells that are only active when you are in certain places.  These cells interact as a network in a grid pattern,  forming a very regular hexagonal pattern (central place theory!?!).  These ‘place cells’ or ‘grid cells’ store information about distances and directions and are crucial to navigation.  Read more about it in this article or watch this 6-minute video. 

Tags: spatial, mental maps.

Earth systems are inherently dynamic; however a change to system such as climate change can upset the system dramatically. 

Tags: climate change, water, physical, geomorphology, landforms.

Even if only a small fraction of strays have figured out how to navigate the subway system, it represents another example of how animals have adapted to the urban ecosystem in a way that human did not intend.  The dogs get on the subway in the morning and go downtown searching for food and return to the suburbs to sleep.  This has been circulating on social media sites, and I find it endlessly fascinating.   

Tags: urban ecology, Russia, environment adapt, biogeography.

I wish I had seen this video from the Washington Post when I was preparing last week’s Geography of Chechnya post.

I have yet to read this book, but the title alone says that it could be an intriguing supplemental text for a unit on population.  For those that have read the book, please comment below. 

Tags: USA, declining population, population, demographics, models.

The disconnected portions of the this map tell us as much about the world we live in as the highly illuminated ones. Might this be a version of the “Black Marble” image that would reasonate more with today’s teenagers?  For the methods behind the creation of this map as well as a high resolution version of the map, see this post.

Tags: social media, map, visualization, cartography.

I love this visualization of New York City’s evolving skyline from 1876-2013.  The urban landscape of America’s prominent cities has changed dramatically. 

Tags: historical,urban, architecture, landscape, NYC.