Notes From A Former ‘Guitar Zero’
Why it’s not too late to learn how to play a musical instrument.
Listening In On The Brain To Decode Speech
A study in PLoS Biology details how researchers decoded the brain’s electrical activity to reconstruct speech.
Study Tracks Alzheimer’s Progression In Mice
A new study looks at the role a corrupted protein plays in the development of Alzheimer’s disease.
Could A Lack Of Empathy Explain Cruelty?
Simon Baron-Cohen explains the consequences of decreased empathy.
Grabbing a Bite to Eat
In this activity, students will perform an experiment that replicates the dilemma that birds face in acquiring food from a confined area. Students will be given a variety of objects to use as “tools,” and will explore various ways of extracting the food item from an enclosed shoebox without directly using their hands. Students will compare and contrast which tools worked best, and use problem-solving skills to design and develop unique methods for extracting the food item from the shoebox.
Oliver Sacks and ‘The Mind’s Eye’
Neurologist Oliver Sacks talks with Ira about vision, the brain, and how the two can work together—or can work against each other.
Looking Inside the Human Brain
What’s really going on inside your head? We’ll talk with scientists using functional magnetic resonance imaging to study the workings of the human brain.