Podcast Listen in: The Spike March 19, 2021 Traversing neuroscience’s expansive terrain, The Spike follows a single electrical response to illuminate how our extraordinary brains work. Start listening to chapter 1. Read More
Essay What’s it like to be a spike?: What we’re learning in the Golden Age of neuroscience March 14, 2021 It began as an idle thought. I stood on a chill dimly-lit platform one early winter morning, waiting on my regular, no-doubt delayed train to emerge from the tunnel and pull up with a screech of brakes, ready to convey me through the snow-topped hills from the grey, snowy city where I live to the dark, damp city where I worked. Read More
Video The neuroscientific excitement of ordinary moments February 25, 2021 We see the last cookie in the box and think, can I take that? We reach a hand out. In the 2.1 seconds that this impulse travels through our brain, billions of neurons communicate with one another, sending blips of voltage through our sensory and motor regions. Neuroscientists call these blips “spikes.” Read More
Essay Celebrating women in STEM February 11, 2021 International Day of Women and Girls in Science marks an opportunity to celebrate the brilliant women whose ideas have graced our bookshelves and touched our minds. Read More
Essay Multitasking and the pandemic parent August 24, 2020 From my third floor attic office, I can hear my wife’s muffled voice through the door to the room just off the stairs. I can’t hear what she is saying, but from its now familiar cadence, I can tell that she is in a meeting. We used to post signs when we were in meetings, but we don’t bother anymore. Read More
Essay The smart move: we learn more by trusting than by not trusting February 05, 2020 We all know people who have suffered by trusting too much: scammed customers, jilted lovers, shunned friends. Indeed, most of us have been burned by misplaced trust. These personal and vicarious experiences lead us to believe that people are too trusting, often verging on gullibility. Read More
Essay What do you really know about gullibility? January 08, 2020 Not Born Yesterday explains how we decide who we can trust and what we should believe—and argues that we’re pretty good at making these decisions. Read More
Interview Will AI Become Conscious? A Conversation with Susan Schneider November 04, 2019 Consciousness is the felt quality of experience. When you see a wave cresting on a beach, smell the aroma of freshly baked bread, or feel the pain of stubbing your toe, you are having conscious experience. Read More
Video Artificial You: The book trailer October 25, 2019 Humans may not be Earth’s most intelligent beings for much longer: the world champions of chess, Go, and Jeopardy! are now all AIs. Given the rapid pace of progress in AI, many predict that it could advance to human-level intelligence within the next several decades. Read More
Essay ‘Cute’ around the world March 19, 2019 Cuteness has taken the planet by storm. Global sensations Hello Kitty and Pokémon, the works of artists Takashi Murakami and Jeff Koons, Heidi the cross-eyed opossum and E.T.—all reflect its gathering power. Read More
