Feeling Down? Science Says Go Shopping (But Use Credit)
My latest piece for LAist just went up: Retail therapy: It’s the answer for almost any problem. Girlfriend broke up with you? Didn’t get that promotion?
Stories by Jason G. Goldman
Science Writing, Science Teaching
Being a great science teacher is not so different from being a great science writer. You have to convince your audience to pay attention to you, rather than to the myriad other potential sources of entertainment and engagement out there...
Editor’s Selections: Spinal Cords and Jellyfish Eyes
Here are my Research Blogging Editor’s Selections for this week. What can the spinal cord teach us about learning and memory? A lot, it seems.
Are Infants Born Prepared For Learning? The Case for Natural Pedagogy
What is learning? Most psychologists (indeed, most people in general) would agree that learning is the acquisition of new knowledge, or new behaviors, or new skills.
Editor’s Selections: Phobias, Dancing, and Retinas in Dishes
Here are my Research Blogging Editor’s Selections for this week. To start with, is there anything that might help with exposure therapy for specific phobias?
Perseverating on Perseverative Error: What Does The “A-not-B Error” Really Tell Us About Infant Cognition?
There’s a very well-known experiment in developmental psychology called the “A-not-B task.” The experiment goes something like this: you, the experimenter, are seated opposite a human infant...
Big Open Lab Announcements!
First, the first couple of reviews of the 2010 anthology are now out: by Dr. Alistair Dove at Deep Sea News and by Ariel Carpenter at USC News.
Editor’s Selections: Shoes, Gay Caveman, Schizophrenia, and Neurocitation
Here are my Research Blogging Editor’s Selections for this week: To start things off, Krystal D’Costa of Anthropology in Practice discusses the science of women’s shoes...
Open Lab Reviews #1: USC and DSN
The first two reviews (that I’m aware of) of this year’s edition of Open Lab have surfaced! First, USC ran a fantastic story on Open Lab and on my experiences with science blogging more generally...
Smithsonian Channel Women in Science Contest Winner
A couple weeks ago, I asked readers to offer up some science blogs written by women. I wrote: Throughout the month of March, The Smithsonian Channel aired all-new original programming, exploring the scientific contributions of five female scientists: Elisabeth Blackburn, JoGayle Howard, Nan Hauser, Elisabeth Kalko, and Gudrun Pflueger...
Baby Animals at the LA Zoo
I’ve been a bit remiss in posting much this week, mostly because I had to prep a guest lecture (from which I just returned, and it was awesome thankyouverymuch) on the Domestication of Social Cognition...
Editor’s Selections: Colin Firth, Beer, and Octopodes
Here are my Research Blogging Editor’s Selections for this week: Liberals Are Conflicted and Conservatives Are Afraid and Colin Firth is published in Current Biology.
Psychological Science on the Web
I’m working on putting together a resource sheet for various people (teachers, professors, graduate students, etc) that will help them find psychology-related resources on the web...
Video of the Week: Baby Giraffe!
This newest addition to the Cincinnati Zoo, a female giraffe, was born last Saturday, April 2, 2011. She’s the first giraffe born at at the Cincinnati Zoo in 26 years.
Sleepy or Empathetic: What Does Yawning Mean?
You know that old phrase, “monkey see, monkey do”? Well, there might be something to it, except that chimpanzees aren’t monkeys.
Editor’s Selections: Food and Morality, Food and Music, Pain, and Snooping
Here are my Research Blogging Editors Selections for this week: Is there a relationship between the taste of certain foods and moral decision-making?
From the Archives: Elephants Say Bee-Ware!
Given the recent elephant hunting scandal, I thought I’d repost this award-winning piece from the archives, on a very clever way to deter elephants from raiding human settlements.
Quick Response To The GoDaddy Elephant Debacle
I was reading Christie’s excellent post (and you should too) on GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons’ elephant killing incident (is it too early to be calling this #ElephantGate?) Although I don’t know quite enough about what is going on in Zimbabwe, I tend to err on the side of not intentionally killing elephants because – as [...]..
Smithsonian Channel Women in Science Contest
Throughout the month of March, The Smithsonian Channel aired all-new original programming, exploring the scientific contributions of five female scientists: Elisabeth Blackburn, JoGayle Howard, Nan Hauser, Elisabeth Kalko, and Gudrun Pflueger...
Reaching The Next Generation with Open Lab
Earlier this week, friend-of-the-blog and Open Lab 2010 finalist Stephen Curry tweeted this picture, with the caption “Reaching the next generation with #openlab” This is why I do what I do...
