Sherlock Holmes is famously quoted as having said:
“What the deuce is [ the solar system ] to me?” You say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work.”
… some have viewed that as a curiously unprogressive attitude, but now …
New research at University of Oregon affirms Holmes’ maxim by suggesting that the ability to filter out useless information helps memory.
Experiments by researchers at UO show that those subjects who excelled at blocking out extraneous data had the highest memory capacity, which in turn is strongly correlated with intelligence.
Less cluttered brains ‘aid memory’ - Daily Mail, 23rd November 2005
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Sherlock Holmes was right about so many things. And I never realized he said “What the deuce?” but I think that’s awesome!
I’ve always kind of felt the same way about the earth going around the sun, but was afraid to express this idea out loud.