Crowd Psychology: What Comes After Boston for Mass Public Events?
Will the masses at NFL events do "the wave" only in the watchful sights of a police sharpshooter's high-powered rifle? Is tailgating before the game all but nostalgic history?
Talking back
A science blog, sans blague
STAFF BLOG
Create Your Own Phantom Hand
People who lose a limb often experience the sensation of still having the missing arm or leg. Phantom limbs, in fact, have spurred a whole line of independent research among neuroscientists.But it appears that all of us may be capable of these sensations, even if arms and legs remain intact...
Read This Zuckerberg: FB Didn't Become "Cool" by Censoring News of Science Research
I recently saw The Social Network . It's been out for years, but I usually wait until I can watch them in my living room for free.The take-home from that movie was that Facebook survived—it was the cool one—whereas other social media sites faltered because they didn't "get it." I know...
Blockheads No More: New Technology Creates the See-Through Brain
Karl Deisseroth is a pioneer in optogenetics, the technology that has taken neuroscience by storm by enabling the use of optical and genetic methods to precisely control the switching on and off of individual neurons and brain circuits.Deisseroth and his team at Stanford have now come up with an entirely new method to explore the brain that U.S...
New Study: Neuroscience Research Gets an "F" for Reliability
Brain studies are the current darling of the sciences, research capable of garnering tens or even hundreds of millions in new funding for ambitious new projects, the kind of money that was once reserved only for big physics projects.Except the house of neuroscience, which attracts tens of thousands of attendees each year to the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, may be built on a foundation of clay...
New Job for Brain Scientists: Pitching Mutual Funds
I was watching one of the March Madness games recently with my son Benjamin. He is the only one in the world I can do this with because I can ask him what the difference is between the shot clock in the NBA and the one in the NCAA without being asked to immediately produce a green card.During a commercial break, a familiar face popped onto the screen...
When It's Brains, It Pours ($$$$$): Obama's Big (Neuro) Science Project
It was an anti-climax: the President of the United States clocking in after The New York Times had already spilled the beans about his big brain program, a centerpiece of the administration's second-term, legacy-making efforts in the science arena...
Sleep Hits the Reset Button for Individual Neurons
A little shuteye refreshes.Right, but what does that really mean?Not talking here about leaping out of bed ready for a five-mile run upon awakening, but rather about what's happening at the level of individual brain cells deep inside your head.A new study by R...
Will "Call of Duty" Be Assigned for 10th Grade (Gaming) Homework?
Two prominent neuroscientists have published a commentary in the Feb. 28th Nature suggesting that video games might be crafted to improve brain function and enhance personal well-being...
Brain to Brain: Dawning of the Telepathic Rat Tweet
Miguel Nicolelis is a brilliant neuroscientist (and showman) who is constantly trying to explore how far technology that uses brain signals to control machines can be pushed.
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