Notes on language, memory and perception
"And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there's always soma to give you a holiday from the facts. And there's always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering.
Yesterday, Alan Schwarz, reporting for the Sunday edition of The New York Times , published an alarmist piece on Adderall abuse. The story chronicles the short life of Richard Fee, a popular young pre-med who, after dabbling in fast-acting stimulants in college, faked his way into an ADHD diagnosis and, within months of filling his first prescription, began heavily abusing the drug, leading to severe addiction and psychosis, and ultimately to his suicide, two years ago, at the age of twenty-four.
This semester, I am heading a science writing and social media seminar with six undergraduates at Indiana University. It's mostly an excuse to get some of the keenest young minds in psychology and cognitive science into my living room to discuss some of my favorite-ever popular science articles (and, let's be honest, to taste-test some delicious cakes I've been baking with the help of Vintage Cakes ).
We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive...." And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas.
“The influence, upon our thinking, of a comprehensive scientific theory, or of some other general point of view, goes much deeper than is admitted by those who would regard it as a convenient scheme for the ordering of facts only.
“Electricité, électronique, cybernétiqueet ensuite?Proposons Psychotronique, utilisation de la pensée et de la volonté.” (Toute La Radio, N° 192 du 12 janvier 1955.) Welcome to The Psychotronic Girl, a freshly-minted blog on the science and politics of language.
STAFFBehind the scenes at Scientific American
Read
STAFF
Read
Exploring the human condition.
Read
Insights into intelligence, creativity, personality, and well-being
Read
Everything you always wanted to know about raising science-literate kids
Read
Critical views of science in the news
Read
STAFF
Read
Explore the science behind the dog in your bed
Read
News and research about endangered species from around the world
Read
Science by and for kids ages 8-15
Read
Commentary invited by editors of Scientific American
Read
Climate science in a changing world
Read
Illusions, Delusions, and Everyday Deceptions
Read
Discussion and news about planets, exoplanets, and astrobiology
Read
Commentary invited by editors of Scientific American Mind
Read
New discoveries in animal behavior and cognition
Read
Opinion, arguments & analyses from guest experts and from the editors of Scientific American
Read
More than wires - exploring the connections between energy, environment, and our lives
Read
Mathematics: learning it, doing it, celebrating it.
Read
Adventures in the good science of rock-breaking.
Read
STAFFIllustrating science since 1845
Read
STAFFA science blog, sans blague
Read
Amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals - living and extinct
Read
A Blog About the Weird Wonderfulness of Life on Earth
Read
Exploring and celebrating diversity in science.
Read