Posts Tagged ‘brain science’

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

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

Monkey Economicus?

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

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

Jobs, Taxes and Crime: Keys to California’s Pot Vote

Jobs, Taxes and Crime: Keys to California’s Pot Vote
Getty Images Inside City Hall in Oakland, Calif., Jim Wilcox explained his plan for a commercial marijuana farm. “My idea was a Silicon Valley of cannabis,” he told the city council recently. “An office park for pot.” The council has approved the creation, licensing...
July 28th, 2010 | Drug Policy | Read More

A Brainwaving Computer

A Brainwaving Computer
Tan Le’s astonishing new computer interface reads its user’s brainwaves, making it possible to control virtual objects, and even physical electronics, with mere thoughts (and a little concentration). She demos the headset, and talks about its far-reaching applications. Tan Le is the head...
July 28th, 2010 | Science of the Mind | Read More

Genetically Modified Animals

Genetically Modified Animals
UNLESS you live in Europe, your last meal probably contained genetically modified ingredients – 80 per cent of soya grown worldwide is now genetically engineered, for instance. Yet while modified plants are rapidly taking over the planet’s farms, the same cannot be said for GM animals. There’s...
July 28th, 2010 | Science & Technology | Read More

Cooking, Fire and Human Evolution

Cooking, Fire and Human Evolution
Did Learning to Cook Push Our Ancestors Toward Modernity? // Intriguing evidence shows that cooking may have been the spark that set human evolution blazing toward higher intelligence and civilization. It has long been a fascinating puzzle to scientists: Why did our apelike ancestors come...
July 26th, 2010 | Evolution | Read More

Psychedelic Technologies

Psychedelic Technologies
Imagine… you are strolling along the Esplanade at Burning Man, and something catches your eye. Bands of lights are rapidly moving up and down a 30 foot high pyramid, from Red at the bottom, through Orange, Green, Turquoise, Indigo, Violet, and finally White light at the top. Nothing too unusual,...
July 26th, 2010 | Science & Technology | Read More

A Ladies’ Man and Shameless

A Ladies’ Man and Shameless
Das ewig weibliche zieht uns hinan. The eternally feminine leads us forward. – Goethe He who binds himself to a joy does the winged life destroy, But he who kisses the joy as it flies lives in Eternity’s sunrise. – William Blake Only connect. – E. M. Forster I‘m finally...
July 13th, 2010 | Social Insight | Read More

Why can’t we stop Believing?

Why can’t we stop Believing?
Michael Shermer says the human tendency to believe strange things — from alien abductions to dowsing rods — boils down to two of the brain’s most basic, hard-wired survival skills. He explains what they are, and how they get us into trouble. As founder and publisher of Skeptic Magazine,...
July 6th, 2010 | Science of the Mind | Read More
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