what's in a name?

At my qualifying exam yesterday (long oral exam you need to pass in order to become a PhD candidate), it became apparent that there is lots I don't yet know about the anatomy of the brain, although I know enough about my subfield that I passed my exam: yay!

This experience reminded me of the value of factual knowledge, in addition to technical skill.

Now, physicists often make disparaging comments about fields that require lots of factual knowledge. The famous nuclear physicist Ernest Rutherford for example once remarked that "all science is either physics or stamp collecting". In some sense, this is a valid criticism of the way biology was approached in the past: our goal as scientists is not simply to identify and name phenomena in the natural world, but rather to seek out elegant, simple explanations for why things are the way they are. For that reason, physicists value theories with simple premises and broad predictive power above all else.

However, at some point, knowledge of the names and properties of all the stamps out there can help to inform theories that simplify that list: maybe there are fundamental properties that are common to all stamps, or at least certain classes of stamps that would be missed if you just ignored all the "stampiness" in the world. And, in such a situation, an arrogant attitude of "if I can't derive it from first principles it must not be important" is no longer productive.

So far in my work, none of these fine details have been very important, which is probably why I haven't bothered to learn them yet. But, as I move forward, and attempt to make more and more realistic models, there will come a time when I will need to know these things.

So, that is my vow for the next 6 months, which I am putting in writing, so as to force myself to do it. I will learn the functional anatomy of the brain. In particular, I will be able to:

1) Identify, on a diagram of the brain, the major regions (medial temporal lobe, auditory cortex, etc.), and describe (at least briefly) our current knowledge of their functions
2) Describe the different types of cells present in primate cortex, along with how they are identified (ie: the differences in their appearances under a microscope), and what differs between their physiology, and how they are connected.