Connectivity

My exams begin on Friday, so things are going to be pretty quite around here until around mid-May. I will post various bits and pieces over the next couple of weeks, but in the meantime, here are some interesting links that I've found recently:

• In the New York Times Magazine, Gary Marcus discusses the possibility of memory chips - future generations of neural implants which use algorithms inspired by Google to augment the retrieval of information.
• The author of the above article is interviewed by Carl Zimmer on bloggingheadsTV. Marcus is a professor of psychology at NYU, and the author of a new book called Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind.
• Also in the NY Times, an article by Sandra Blakeslee about the increased artistic creativity seen in some patients with frontotemporal dementia, a neurodegenerative disorder which is often misdiagnosed as Alzheimer's Disease.
• In a recent edition of the Point of Enquiry podcast, biologist and evolutionary psychologist Marc Hauser discusses his theory that the human moral sense is innate, and is encoded in a morality module in the brain.
• The Economist has an article on the science of religion, which includes details of recent neuroimaging studies that seek to understand the brain activity underlying religious experiences.
• The New Scientist technology blog describes a portable solar-powered EEG device.
• At the Neuroanthropology blog, there's a list of anthropology and neuroscience podcasts, plus more on Brainbow, the powerful new genetic method for labelling neurons which I wrote about in October.
• The latest edition of Encephalon, at Cognitive Daily, includes many more good neuroscience and psychology blog posts. The one before that, which I forgot to link to, is at GNIF Brain Blogger.

Also:

• In The Guardian, prominent Arab writers discuss the state of Arab literature and recommend some of their favourite books.
• At Hubblesite, a gallery of 59 beautiful images of gallactic collisions, released to celebrate the 18th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope.
• British trip-hop band Portishead are back after 10 years. You can listen to their new album, Third, at Last.fm.

And finally, some new neuroscience blogs:

• Prof Zeki's Musings 
• The Neurotic
  
• Neurological Correlates