Blogging on the Brain 5/18

Recent highlights from the best in brain blogging:

Who knew? These videos will tell you how the mind works (supposedly).

The origins of the old myth that we use only 10% of our "brain power".

A woman awakens from a coma with a reversed sense of directionality.

Restoring sight in the blind with lateral geniculate nucleus implants

"Do you, for some reason, fear the current and/or future increase of artificial intelligence?"

Questions about the utility of computational neuroscience

From Molecule to Mind: The Genetics of Brain Wiring

Dostoyevsky's case of epilepsy: "I gazed at him with fixed attention, sensing that he was about to say something unusual, that I would hear a revelation of some kind. Suddenly there came from his open mouth a weird, longdrawn-out and senseless sound, and he fell unconscious on the floor."

The gestural origins of language in chimps and bonobos? Also here

The shape of an ant colony

Dogs can learn through imitation of intent

What apes can tell us about the mind.

What is the value of play? A meerkat researcher describes the science of play.

The emergent character of bee society. More here.

What can fruit flies tell us about free will?

An entertaining article on why natural randomness follows a rule - known as Benford's law.

Toys that can read your EEG

Is it a good idea to encourage autistic kids to interact with a robot?

Can making a gam be a game? MIT's Media Lab makes programming fun for kids

Shortening the attentional blink with meditation (Also here)

Ceiling height affects how you think. Work outside!

Finally, a journal of null results.

Wait a minute to resuscitate me, please.

An entertaining review of Wolfram's New Kind of Science: A Rare Blend of Monster Raving Egomania and Utter Batshit Insanity

How to give an academic talk - some great pointers in here.

The story of the world's first computer - thousands of years old.

Blogroll Additions:
The Thought Experiment
Neurozone
Drug Monkey
Psybertron
Henry the Human Evolution News Relay

Have a nice weekend!

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Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) is arguably the greatest novelist of all time. He cast a long shadow over world literature, and subsequently influenced many great writers, from Hermann Hesse, Marcel Proust and Franz Kafka, to Ernest Hemingway, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Jack Kerouac. Dostoyevsky…
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The review on Wolfram's book was thoroughly amusing :-)

By Brian Thompson (not verified) on 18 May 2007 #permalink

I wish a lot of the speakers at the conferences I've attended had read those tips on how to give an academic talk. It's stunning how many brilliant people can't talk intelligently about their research.

Yeah, I'm sorry to say that I discovered the talk tips just *after* giving a talk to my department here. :)

Luckily I haven't yet bought ANKoS, although I *was* planning on it.

It's rainig outside today but happily this post gave me plenty to read to while away my lunch hour. Thanks!