Jonah Lehrer
Jonah Lehrer is an editor at large for Seed Magazine. His first book, Proust Was A Neuroscientist, will be published by Houghton-Mifflin in 2007.
cortex
Posts by this author
November 15, 2006
3 lbs, the new neurosurgery show on CBS, premiered last night. My initial reaction: good, but no Grey's Anatomy. The show is derivative to the point of banality - if you're a fan of medical dramas, you can literally predict what the next scene will be - but sometimes repetition can still be…
November 14, 2006
John Tierney, the libertarian replacement for William Safire, is quitting his op-ed post in order to become a science columnist and blogger. For those of you without Times $elect:
This is my last column on the Op-Ed page. I've enjoyed the past couple of years in Washington, but one election cycle…
November 14, 2006
According to Oxford University Press, the official overseer of the English language, the word of the year is "carbon neutral".
The rise of carbon neutral reflects the growing importance of the green movement in the United States.
Erin McKean, editor in chief of the New Oxford American Dictionary 2e…
November 14, 2006
It's the latest Starbucks advertising campaign: they are handing out free subway passes and movie tickets in the hope that all the niceness and holiday cheer will be contagious:
Starting today Starbucks is surprising its customers with free gifts. The catch is Starbucks wants consumers to pass on…
November 13, 2006
From Newsweek:
Rove's miscalculations began well before election night. The polls and pundits pointed to a Democratic sweep, but Rove dismissed them all. In public, he predicted outright victory, flashing the V sign to reporters flying on Air Force One. He wasn't just trying to psych out the media…
November 13, 2006
There are so many depressing studies on energy policy that I thought it was worth highlighting an optimistic one. The Rand Corp. just produced an analysis which predicts that alternative energy sources (like wind, solar and ethanol) could furnish as much as 25% of the U.S.'s conventional energy by…
November 13, 2006
When Republicans talk about their plans for health-care, they are talking about people like me. My insurance plan has an extremely high deductible ($5000) which discourages me from excess "consumption" of health care resources. (This is known as the "moral hazard" effect, which economists use to…
November 10, 2006
This is why you don't cheat. From the WSJ:
Gerrymandering was supposed to cement Republican control of the House of Representatives, offering incumbents a wall of re-election protection even as public opinion turned sharply against them. Instead, the party's strategy of recrafting district…
November 10, 2006
Scientists have constructed the world's first artificial gut:
Constructed from sophisticated plastics and metals able to withstand the corrosive acids and enzymes found in the human gut, the device may ultimately help in the development of super-nutrients, such as obesity-fighting foods that could…
November 10, 2006
Ogi Ogas is a Ph.D candidate in neuroscience at Boston University. He was also a contestant on Who Wants to Be A Millionare, where he used his knowledge of neuroscience to win a cool $500,000. Learn about how he did it.
If you're a true game show fanatic, then you might be interested in learning…
November 10, 2006
As loyal readers of this blog know by now (I'm talking about you, Mom), I've got a soft spot for gas taxes. In fact, I'm pretty convinced that America needs a higher gas tax, phased in over several years (so the working poor can adjust their driving habits). Over the past few weeks, I've noted that…
November 9, 2006
GM has already killed off one electric car - the EV1 was a product tragically ahead of its time - but the company is now committed to building an improved version:
The new car, to be unveiled as a prototype early next year, would use an onboard internal-combustion engine as a generator to produce…
November 9, 2006
I know too much schadenfreude isn't good for you, but I just couldn't resist posting this little excerpt of Rovian braggadocio from NPR last week:
SIEGEL: We're in the home stretch, though, and many would consider you on the optimistic end of realism about -
ROVE: Not that you would be exhibiting a…
November 9, 2006
Adaptation is a well known principle of psychology, and yet political strategists have always ignored it. Simply put, sensory adaptation is why you don't notice your underpants: your mind has adapted to their presence. It's a way taking certain constants for granted, and focusing instead on the…
November 8, 2006
Here's an odd factoid:
If Virginia and Montana go Democratic, the prediction markets called every race correctly.
It's also worth noting that Tradesports currently gives George Allen a 4 percent chance of retaining his Senate seat.
November 8, 2006
I'm skeptical of these sorts of psychological models - an important part of the terrorist strategy is to not have a coherent strategy - but it's certainly a noble effort:
Imagine that we had a mathematical formula that could be applied to Israel's enemies to predict their course of action?
Prof.…
November 8, 2006
Abraham Lincoln summarizes the election:
"You may deceive all the people part of the time, and part of the people all the time, but not all the people all the time."
That, right there, is the genius of the democracy.
November 7, 2006
I'd never heard of this disorder before. It's like the awful flipside of fatal familial insomnia:
Every four months or so, Spencer Spearin climbs into bed and sleeps for days or longer.
"I might not be with you for a couple weeks," Spearin said. "I missed my birthday. I missed my graduation. I can'…
November 7, 2006
This is great news. As an animal lover, I can certainly see how the Humane Society has tremendous political potential. From the WSJ:
For the first time in its 50-year history, the Humane Society is trying to elect candidates to Congress who support its animal-welfare agenda. After a series of…
November 7, 2006
Barry Schwartz, a professor of psychology at Swarthmore, has an op-ed in today's Times on the psychology of voters. I'm a big fan of Schwartz - The Paradox of Choice is a fantastic book, and will explain why those expensive jeans you're wearing are less satisfying than your old pair of Levis - but…
November 6, 2006
Over at the National Review, David Klinghoffer tries to argue that the Haggard affair "confirms some truths of the worldview he defended." (If so, it's hard to imagine what an evangelical preacher would have to do to not confirm the truths he preaches. Murder? Rape? Incest? Apparently, buying meth…
November 6, 2006
...Has officially been released. It weighs in at a hefty 8.6 billion pixels.
[Hat Tip: Katherine]
November 6, 2006
Democracy depends upon the wisdom of crowds. However, it's no secret that most people aren't particularly well informed about the issues. Furthermore, the less facts people know, the more vulnerable they are to being misled by negative political ads and grotesque push polls.
So is it a good thing…
November 6, 2006
According to a new study in the Journal of Marketing, foods that we think are healthy taste worse. In one experiment, subjects were offered a mango lassi, an Indian yogurt drink that has the consistency of a milkshake. Subjects that were told the lassi was "unhealthy" liked the drink significantly…
November 3, 2006
When the going gets tough, what do the tough do? Blame somebody else. There is something deeply disturbing about the inability of anybody in power to take responsibility for their mistakes. Over at Vanity Fair, many of the neoconservative architects behind the Iraq War - the same naive folks who…
November 3, 2006
I was lucky enough to grow up just a short walk from the Griffith Observatory, the planetarium/museum that overlooks the sprawling Los Angeles Basin. (It is perhaps best known as a movie location in "Rebel Without A Cause".) For the last few years, the Observatory has undergone an extensive and…
November 3, 2006
This depressing study from Science has gotten a lot of press, which is a good thing. The data really speaks for itself:
So what do we do? The scientists note that increased regulation has actually been effective, which is surprising since many environmentalists assume that fisherman don't actually…
November 3, 2006
Is that he tells the truth by accident. His joke was a Freudian slip with important policy implications. Alex Tabarrok explains:
John Kerry this week has been abjectly apologizing for his statements on Iraq and education. According to Kerry he intended to critique President Bush:
"Do you know…
November 2, 2006
Maureen Dowd has a cute profile/interview of the Comedy Central duo in the new Rolling Stone:
I thought Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert might be a little nervous to meet with me. I was the real news commentator, after all, and they were the mock. They threw spitballs at presidents; I interviewed…
November 2, 2006
From the LA Times:
Paul Theodore Del Vacchio, now 41, is a gambler. In Riverside County Superior Court, a psychologist testifies that Del Vacchio fed his impulse-control disorder with online wagering, not caring about the win or loss, just the high of the bet.
This is why he stole half a million…