Highlighted in my ResearchBlogging.org column this week: At Geneaology of Religion, Cris Campbell has a nice summary of dissociative speech patterns—in layman’s terms, that’s to say he breaks down different ways of “speaking in tongues.” The Neuroskeptic discusses a small, self-selected study on “bi-gendered” individuals which highlights the ways social pressures can color our identities. At NeuroDojo, Zen Faulkes [...]

I used to be a crack shot at pitch (marbles) as a kid. I learned from my dad. We’d draw a circle with a piece of chalk, and “pitch” our taws at each other’s pieces, which is how the game gets its name in Trinidad. Our goal was to knock each other’s pieces out of [...]

In the series “A Modest Proposal,” my colleagues and I will propose inventions and projects that I think are eminently doable and would love made real. A number of games now exist that are trying to make the most of human brainpower to accomplish something important. Humans are still far better than computers at a [...]

My teenage son, Mac, shot me. Twice, on the same day. I felt pride. And pain. Together with about 60 other guys, Mac and I were playing an "Airsoft" war game in a wooded Army Reserve training camp in Tolland, a tiny town in western Massachusetts. Airsoft is like paintball, except that the gas- or [...]

The Knorr is a big ship as far as research vessels go – but there’s still no getting around the fact that you’re in a little metal box in the middle of the ocean with 49 other people for a month. Add to that the fact that most people are doing highly repetitive experiments all [...]

If you’re a fan of clever and fun, you must check out this video from Vi Hart, a self-proclaimed recreational "mathemusician". This video went viral a few weeks ago. In his New York Times profile of her, Kenneth Chang describes her goal to be the Web 2.0 version of the late Martin Gardner, famous for [...]

Most people, even those who pre-ordered the new Apple iPad, have yet to get their hands on one, but game developers have already put the wheels in motion to take advantage of the new platform. Say what you will about the iPad potentially turning the e-book reader market on its ear. Games are big business [...]

Longtime Scientific American columnist Martin Gardner turns 95 Wednesday, and a profile in Tuesday’s New York Times honors the mathematical proselytizer who, tireless as ever, marks the milestone himself with the publication of a new book. The new volume of essays, When You Were a Tadpole and I Was a Fish, is just the latest [...]