June 30, 2006
Category: Neuroscience
So we now have a short list of some great but forgotten psychologists: Karen Horney: "Neurosis and Human Growth" Frederic Bartlett: "Remembering" Kurt Lewin William James: "Pragmatism" Alfred Adler Edward Tolman John Dewey George Mead Keep the suggestions coming!...
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Posted by Jonah Lehrer at 6:29 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Neuroscience
Why can't we supress laughter? I have no idea, but this video is hilarious. It's also a little cruel. I dare you not to laugh....
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Posted by Jonah Lehrer at 3:04 PM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I've really enjoyed Olivia Judson's columns on Times $elect. They've been funny, eloquent and haven't shied away from the biological nitty-gritty. In her last column, she ends with a meditation on three questions she wants evolutionary biologists to solve: The...
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Posted by Jonah Lehrer at 10:30 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Culture
From The Daily Telegraph: Scientists who carry out embryonic stem cell research and politicians who pass laws permitting the practice will be excommunicated, the Vatican said yesterday. "Destroying human embryos is equivalent to an abortion. It is the same thing,"...
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Posted by Jonah Lehrer at 10:17 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 29, 2006
It seems that supply and demand are compensating for the ineffectual policies of the Bush Adminstration. An Energy Information Adminstration press release announced the following: U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels increased by 0.1 percent in 2005, from...
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Posted by Jonah Lehrer at 5:05 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Culture
I've lived in New Hampshire for almost a year now, and I'm still not used to the constant presence of presidential hopefuls. Yesterday, Bill was here. Pataki was supposed to come, but the floods kept him in NY. In the...
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Posted by Jonah Lehrer at 11:10 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Neuroscience
Did you know that we can thrive with only half a brain? Weird. The New Yorker has a wonderful article documenting the lives of patients who live through these hemispherectomies. The strangest thing is that no one knows how they...
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Posted by Jonah Lehrer at 10:15 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Neuroscience
Over at Small Gray Matters, there is an excellent critique of my last post on fMRI. Here is the nut graf: While fMRI certainly has important technical limitations people should be aware of (low spatial and temporal resolution, high costs...
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Posted by Jonah Lehrer at 10:03 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 28, 2006
Category: Neuroscience
Mixing Memory's post on the undeserved obscurity of Franz Brentano got me thinking. What other great scientists of mind are modern neuroscientists neglecting? My own vote goes to William James. While his Principles of Psychology are often mandatory reading in...
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Posted by Jonah Lehrer at 4:21 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The blogosphere has begun debating the merits of fMRI. That's a good thing. The debate began with Paul Bloom's excellent editorial in Seed, in which he argued that "fMRI imagery has attained an undue influence, and we shouldn't be seduced."...
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Posted by Jonah Lehrer at 10:27 AM • 15 Comments • 3 TrackBacks