Mind & Brain
Nonpolitical Tweets May Reveal Political Bias
Word selection among Twitter users who could be identified as likely members of one or the other political party showed specific usage patterns. Christopher Intagliata reports
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Mind & Brain
Using Technology to Break the Speed Barrier of Reading
New research suggests that one of humanity’s most important inventions can be improved
Mind & Brain
A Tribute to Oliver Sacks from Colleague and Friend Christof Koch
The famed neurologist–author found uniqueness in every patient and savored the miracle of existence, whether it be found in squirrel monkeys or people
Mind & Brain
Oliver Sacks, Who Depicted Brain-Disorder Sufferers' Humanity, Dies
The prolific author–neurologist gave the world empathetic insights into disorders of the brain while also inspiring films, plays, an opera and likely many careers in medicine and brain science...
Mind & Brain
Whistled Language Forces Brain to Modify Usual Processing
Both hemispheres are involved in the brains of people interpreting a whistled variant of Turkish, compared with a left hemisphere dominance when listeners hear the spoken language ...
Mind & Brain
The Interleaving Effect: Mixing It Up Boosts Learning
Studying related skills or concepts in parallel is a surprisingly effective way to train your brain
Mind & Brain
Bonobo Peeps May Be Necessary Language Precursors
Animal communication studies have shown only fixed vocalizations, such as alarm cries. But Bonobo chimps appear to have a call that has different meanings in different contexts ...
The Imagination Institute Awards Nearly $3M to Advance the Science of Imagination
We spend so much time on standardized testing and measuring learning ability that we don’t track how much we’re developing the key competencies that enable us to imagine what could be...
Mind & Brain
Mentors Matter: In Loving Memory of Nicholas J. Mackintosh (1935-2015)
Today would have been my mentor's 80th birthday. Happy Birthday Nick and thanks for showing me that mentors really do matter.
Mind & Brain
How Is Creativity Differentially Related to Schizophrenia and Autism?
Autism and schizophrenia are related to different forms of creativity
Mind & Brain
Baby Bats Babble through Childhood Like We Do
Fruit bats stand in for vocal-learning mammals in isolation tests to test language development
The Sciences
Rice and Beans: Shaping the Customer's Choice
As more cultural commodities enter the market, cultural distinctions will become muted to suit the appetites of a wider clientele
Learning to Make a Stone Age Axe Gives Clues to How the Brain Evolved
For many decades, scientists have tried to understand the past by doing as our forebears did. One important endeavor in what is called experimental archaeology involves moderns crafting Stone Age tools by chipping away at rocks...
Mind & Brain
Why Babies (and Perhaps All of Us) Care About Magic
As adults, we don't often experience radical violations of our expectations, particularly those that concern core principles of object behavior.
How to Help the Growing Female Prison Population
Orange Is the New Black, the popular Netflix show based on the memoir by Piper Kerman, brought female prisons into America's living room, highlighting several issues that are plaguing the correctional system...
The Sciences
Book Review: Scientific Babel
Books and recommendations from Scientific American
Neandertals Turned Eagle Talons into Jewelry 130,000 Years Ago
As longtime readers may have noticed, I have an abiding interest in Neandertals. To help me keep up with the latest scientific insights into these mysterious relatives of ours, I have a Google alert set for "Neandertal" (and the alternate spelling, "Neanderthal")...
Health
How Designers Can Improve Health Care For Everyone
The last place anyone expects to find a designer is in a hospital, clinic or operating room, but those are exactly the spaces where I embed myself.
Evolution
"Big Brain" Gene Allowed for Evolutionary Expansion of Human Neocortex
The newly identified gene is found in modern-day humans, Neandertals and Denisovans, but not in chimps
Mind & Brain
5 Common Myths about the Brain
Some widely held ideas about the way children learn can lead educators and parents to adopt faulty teaching principles
