Jerzy Vetulani: Difference between revisions

Jerzy Adam Vetulani (21 January 1936 – 6 April 2017) was a Polish neuroscientist and pharmacologist, one of the most frequently cited Polish scientists in the field of biomedicine after 1965.

• As a result of brain evolution, humans managed to develop much more efficient and less risky forms of gaining food than most other carnivorous and omnivorous terrestrial mammals. We do not need now, like our distant ancestors, to go through long periods on the verge of hunger and use all suitable occasions for immoderate consumption "in reserve." Today, in a civilized world, thanks to effective production, we have enough food, and we could consume it rationally, in quantities necessary for efficient functioning. But after our ancestors, we have a deeply ingrained habit of "gorging", especially if the food is attractive. Together with prosperity, the world has overcome an epidemic of obesity and overweight.
  • Vetulani, Jerzy (18 February 2013): Stary tata, tłusty syn. Vetulani.wordpress.com (in Polish).

• As I walk through my beloved Krakowski Park and pass by a group of young people from which I can smell beer, I give them a wide berth. But when I feel the weed, I go boldly through their group and sometimes chat. Yes, the abuse of marijuana causes trouble with memory, concentration, but it is a short-lived condition. I'm not talking about extreme cases, but there are few of them. Less than after alcohol. Oneself should sometimes detach from reality to deal with it somehow.
  • (7 April 2017): „Mama powiedziała mi: Obyś był dobry i szczęśliwy”. Co prof. Jerzy Vetulani mówił o swoim życiu, pasjach i nauce?. Wyborcza.pl (in Polish).

• Cannabis, just like morphine, has its usage in medicine. It's unpardonable that authorities forbid sick people access to this medicament and in majesty of law permit to sell cigarettes.
  • (2013): Znamy radę programową Polskiej Sieci Polityki Narkotykowej. Puls Medycyny (in Polish).

• Creativity is an integral part of our personality.
  • Vetulani, Jerzy (6 December 2009): W każdym z nas tkwi mr Hyde, interview. Nowa Trybuna Opolska (in Polish).

• "Designer drugs" are a word bag, just like "drugs", by the way. But after the word "drugs" is the word: "illegal". And after the "designer drugs" there is something much worse: lack of knowledge.
  • Vetulani, Jerzy (18 October 2010): Nawet czarownice wiedziały, co sprzedają, interview. Dziennik Polski (in Polish).

• Dolphins, unlike us, do not have manual skills, but their dances, jumps, are perhaps the equivalent of our ballet. Sounds, like music in the Orthodox Church – without musical instruments – are probably their songs, by which they are holding long discourses. It is a semantically organized signal system.
  • Vetulani, Jerzy (6 December 2009): W każdym z nas tkwi mr Hyde, interview. Nowa Trybuna Opolska (in Polish).

• Emotions have evolved so that we can make decisions quickly and without thinking in situations where there is no time for reasoning.
  • Woźniak, Olga; Vetulani, Jerzy (24 December 2011): Stań się dobrym. To się opłaca, interview. Gazeta Wyborcza (in Polish).

• Empathy and aggression – although seemingly very distant from each other – have a largely similar neurobiological background and are often intertwined. Besides, our entire legal system is based on the fact that excessive empathy activates centers of aggression.
  • „Mama powiedziała mi: Obyś był dobry i szczęśliwy”. Co prof. Jerzy Vetulani mówił o swoim życiu, pasjach i nauce?, wyborcza.pl, 7 kwietnia 2017

• Freud is completely unscientific. It's a cross between vision, poetry and deceit.
  • Vetulani, Jerzy (11 May 2012): Neurobiologia i religia, lecture. Copernicus Center for Interdisciplinary Studies (in Polish).

• From the point of view of the modern neurobiologist, the question whether the mind exists as an autonomous being or is simply a derivative of the coordinated action of the brain cells is unscientific and irrelevant. Regardless of the possibility of an independent existence of the soul, it has no chance to express itself without a functioning brain.
  • Vetulani, Jerzy (2008): Mózg i świadomość. Prace Komisji Filozofii Nauk Przyrodniczych PAU. 2/2008, pp. 37–62

• Great people that performed in "Piwnica pod Baranami" often hated each other.
  • Vetulani, Jerzy: Mózg trzeba ćwiczyć w każdym wieku, interview. Malopolska.docelu.eu (in Polish).

• I believe that the fight against substance addictions is very important and is a duty of the state and society, but this fight must be carried out in a deliberate way not to produce large amounts of splinters hurting a lot of people around while only chopping small trees.
  • Vetulai, Jerzy (20 February 2009): Wódka groźniejsza niż egzotyczne ziółka. Gazeta Wyborcza (in Polish).

• I have always known that I want to be a scholar. That it is a worthy thing for a man to work at the university and discover the secrets of nature. Scientific work was not a revelation, it was not a change in life direction – except my first dream to be a pearl diver. It was all from the nature, from home.
  • (2013): Macanie świata, interview. Focus (in Polish).

• I'd like to live in a society in which we could go to a cafe and smoke a joint, just as nowadays we eat cake, which may have negative influence on our health as well.
  • Borejza, Tomasz; Vetulani, Jerzy (3 December 2012): Gdybym miał plantację marihuany, interview. „Przekrój” (in Polish).

• It is reason, logic and rationality that machines, said to be soulless, have. In the deontological sense, in fact, morality is evolutionary atavism. It let us survive, that's why it was maintained. As parents were not empathetic, not guided by the good of others, children might have not survived, neglected and abandoned by the group, so morality was promoted in the genes.
  • Woźniak, Olga; Vetulani, Jerzy (24 December 2011): Stań się dobrym. To się opłaca, interview. Gazeta Wyborcza (in Polish).

• It is very clear in Poland that the non-restrictive anti-smoking campaign has been a huge success, and it seems that conclusions should be drawn from it.
  • Vetulai, Jerzy (20 February 2009): Wódka groźniejsza niż egzotyczne ziółka. Gazeta Wyborcza (in Polish).

• It's a great question about what is our mind. Undoubtedly a creation of our brain.
  • Woźniak, Olga; Vetulani, Jerzy (24 December 2011): Stań się dobrym. To się opłaca, interview. Gazeta Wyborcza (in Polish).

• Life is an ulcer on the body of universe.
  • Vetulani, Jerzy (2007): Starość okiem przyrodnika. Psychogeriatria polska, 4(3), pp. 109–138.

• Longevity in the sense of the maximum survival time of an individual has not changed much with the progress of civilization.
  • Golinowska, Stanisława; Grodzicki, Tomasz; Tobiasz-Adamczyk, Renata (2013): Starość i starzenie się – trudne wyzwanie przyszłości. Alma Mater, 154, p. 19 (in Polish).

• Morality allows killing in self-defense, in defense of your group, for example during the war. In addition, we have a smaller problem with taking away life when it is done in a non-personal way. That is why modern conflicts are so bloody – it is harder to break through the opponent's spear or to crush his head with a club yourself, than to launch a long-range rocket aimed at a multi-million metropolis.
  • Woźniak, Olga; Vetulani, Jerzy (24 December 2011): Stań się dobrym. To się opłaca, interview. Gazeta Wyborcza (in Polish).

• My father taught me that in scientific work even the most brilliant intelligence won't be useful if it won't be supported by a long, hard work.
  • Adam Vetulani. 1901–1976. Kraków: Polish Acadcemy of Learning, 2005, page 77.

• Religiosity has appeared in the course of evolution and is advantageous for human kind. And although it is believed that it is religion that teaches us what's right and what's wrong, I think religion evolved to substantiate our morality. Brain likes to justify our beheviors.
  • Olga Woźniak: Stań się dobrym. To się opłaca (interview), „Gazeta Wyborcza”, December 24, 2011.

• Sexual intercourse consumes time, requires much effort, absorbs a huge part of energy. But it gives such dose of pleasure, that all of these defects don't matter.
  • Mózg, seks i nagrody, „Charaktery” 2008, nr 1(5), pages 41–43.

• The biological goal of the existence of every organism becomes understandable when we realize that it acts as a protector of genes worn in it, which must ensure that they move into the child's body before the caregiver himself becomes old and can not function properly.
  • Jerzy Vetulani: Poszukiwanie dobrostanu, „Academia” nr 2, 2010, 4–7

• The expression of aggression is conditioned both biologically and culturally and it can be learned. On the other hand, proper upbringing can completely eliminate aggressive behavior, but it must be remembered that biological conditions remain present and aggression can easily be restored.
  • Źródło: Anna Wojnar, O mózgu interdyscyplinarnie, „Alma Mater” nr 134–135, kwiecień – maj 2011, s. 24, 25.

• The worst thing happens when ideologists are trying to analyse scientific researches.
  • Neurobiologia inteligencji, „Wiedza i Życie” 2008, nr 2, pages 14–19.

• There was a discussion in one of Polish TV stations. In that discusson, I told that mountaineering causes much more disasters than marijuana does. I do not know anyone who would die by marijuana, and some of my mountaineers friends paid off their passion in disability. But the presenter had a prepared punch line – she said that 85 percent of Poles are against the legalization of marijuana. I added then that in the eighteenth century, 96 percent of Poles were for smoking witches. Unfortunately, my punch line was cut out. And in this simple way, the media demonize the problem.
  • Nawet czarownice wiedziały, co sprzedają https://dziennikpolski24.pl/nawet-czarownice-wiedzialy-co-sprzedaja/ar/2867902 18 października 2010 Dziennik Polski

• To stimulate the brain or not to stimulate? Whether 'tis nobler to take the exam after the sleepless night, with the brain darkened, but not stimulated, or in the chemicals to seek help? To waste a year or to pay health for quick success? I will not advise you.
  • Jerzy Vetulani: Mózg: fascynacje, problemy, tajemnice, Homini, Kraków 2010, s. 221–229.

• We humans are already at this moment artificially reared, with the provision of basic life needs and without having to fight for it. We would even, as a species, be able to survive a long period of total glaciation of the Earth.
  • http://vetulani.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/wywiad-o-mozgu-czlowieka-i-jego-dalszej-ewolucji/ Źródło: Wywiad przeprowadzony przez Andrzeja Kobosa, O mózgu człowieka i jego dalszej ewolucji

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Jerzy Vetulani