The real "gut courses" may not be the ones you think

Natalie Angier, of the Times, has a beautifully written little piece on the relationship between gut reactions and more formal math ability. It concludes with one scientist's reflections:

"What's interesting and surprising in our results is that the same system we spend years trying to acquire in school, and that we use to send a man to the moon, and that has inspired the likes of Plato, Einstein and Stephen Hawking, has something in common with what a rat is doing when it's out hunting for food," he said. "I find that deeply moving."

I think he means that rats can instantly size up which similarly-sized chunk of cheese is bigger even though they haven't taken pre-calc. Adds Angier: "Behind every great leap of our computational mind lies the pitter-patter of rats' feet, the little squeak of rodent kind."

Do take the accompanying online test, which can be completed in a couple of minutes (it tests gut reactions, after all!) I started strong, began to fade into Neanderthal territory, then rallied at the end. I stopped at 25 attempts, the minimum, lest my score plunge back down below the average.

Via Brian Beutler, who has returned to blogging two months after having been shot by young muggers in Washington. I don't know him, but: Welcome back. (Do check out his comments section, where math types, lawyers, and a college dropout passive-aggressively boast about their scores on the online test. You guys do realizing you're bragging, yes?)