Drugs: the highs and lows

Natural or synthetic, legal or illegal, people have been taking drugs for thousands of years. High Society, a new exhibition at the Wellcome Collection, explores the culture of getting out of it By the end of planning her new exhibition, Caroline Fisher had come to an interesting conclusion. “It’s...

December 14th, 2010 | Arts | Read More

Acoustic Archaeology Yielding Mind-Tripping Tricks

Recently uncovered sound effects include a clapping echo that sounds like a jungle bird. THE GIST Acoustic archaeology is an emerging field that melds acoustical analysis and old-fashioned bone-hunting. Ancient people created fun house-like temples that featured scary sound effects. Some of the sites...

December 14th, 2010 | Spirituality | Read More

The Symphpony of Science

The Symphony of Science is a musical project headed by John Boswell, designed to deliver scientific knowledge and philosophy in musical form. What do you think? THE CASE FOR MARS THE POETRY OF REALITY WE ARE ALL CONNECTED

August 25th, 2010 | Science & Technology | Read More

Was the poisoning of a French town in 1951 an LSD trial?

On August 16th 1951 a number of people in the quiet southern French town of Pont St.Esprit began to fall ill. Stomach pains were soon followed by violent and often terrifying hallucinations. Local hospitals were soon overwhelmed and more than thirty people were taken to asylums in nearby towns. It was...

August 25th, 2010 | Social Insight | Read More

‘Tame’ bears guard Canadian marijuana farm

Police raiding a marijuana farm in western Canada were astonished to find black bears apparently guarding it. However initial alarm wore off when officers realised the 10 or so bears did not behave aggressively and were in fact docile and tame. Police believe dog food was used to attract the animals...

August 25th, 2010 | Drug Policy | Read More

‘I’m planning to retire to Mars’

Elon Musk, The SpaceX founder, is convinced that humanity’s survival rests on its ability to move to the red planet. He here speaks of how his company is making the leap to the stars an affordable dream The fresh-faced 39-year-old man, in a dark T-shirt and jeans, is talking about travelling to...

August 6th, 2010 | Science & Technology | Read More

An answer to the ‘Nature vs Nurture’ Debate?

Savage-Rumbaugh’s work with bonobo apes, which can understand spoken language and learn tasks by watching, forces the audience to rethink how much of what a species can do is determined by biology — and how much by cultural exposure.

August 6th, 2010 | Evolution | Read More

Monkey Economicus?

Laurie Santos looks for the roots of human irrationality by watching the way our primate relatives make decisions. A clever series of experiments in “monkeynomics” shows that some of the silly choices we make, monkeys make too. Laurie Santos studies primate psychology and monkeynomics —...

August 4th, 2010 | Social Insight | Read More

Drugs That Shape Men’s Minds

Aldous Huxley’s acclaimed essay about man’s inclination towards intoxication and the potential for good and evil that drugs represent In the course of history many more people have died for their drink and their dope than have died for their religion or their country. The craving for ethyl...

August 4th, 2010 | Drug Policy | Read More

Wiping Minds

It is quite common, in these neurocentric days, to find statements from those who eagerly anticipate the final abolition of minds, with no thought to the consequences. One recent example was from archaeologist Peter Watson in the New Scientist, (quoted in Beauregard & O’Leary, 2007); “The...

August 3rd, 2010 | Science of the Mind | Read More