This year it’s the 15th anniversary of the worldwide event to celebrate the brain. To paraphrase my dentist (who asks me every visit, “How is everything in your mouth?”), how is everything in your brain? To learn more, and maybe understand more, check out an BAW event this week–there are hundreds listed on the Dana [...]
Here are some of the things you can do during Brain Awareness Week, the global campaign to increase public awareness about the progress and benefits of brain research. The video is from a BAW tour for school groups at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, DC, in 2009. The photos are [...]
We are in final edits on a cute little video showing some of the fun stuff people do to celebrate Brain Awareness Week, which this year will be March 15–21. It’s my first foray into video-making since the early 1980s, and I am quite a bit rusty, so this will be an “unauthorized” version, but [...]
The brain of Henry Molaison, the most famous amnesic and perhaps the most-studied neurological patient in history, will go under the knife starting Wednesday morning. Mr. Molaison, who died in December 2008, donated his brain to science; as part of the Brain Observatory Project, his contribution will help thousands of researchers worldwide.
Brain Project scientists [...]
Just finished MARY BARTON, by Elizabeth Gaskell, first published in 1848 based on events in the 1837-42 in Manchester, England. I have the Norton Critical edition (2008), but before I peruse its learned criticism, here are a few thoughts.
Wow, what a difference from SHIRLEY. Though both Bronte and Gaskell use a chatty omniscient first-person narrator [...]
I just finished Charlotte Bronte’s SHIRLEY, which makes reference to mills, their owners and workers and strikers, in 1811-1812. I started it to learn about the history and thinking of that time, to use as reference for my new story, but ended up caught up in the story and the original yet universal characters. At [...]
Someday, socially engaging robots that provide an individualized curriculum for every student could transform the future of education, Terrence J. Sejnowski tells the Dana Foundation in an interview this week. Sejnowski founded Neural Computation, the top journal in neural networks and computational neuroscience, and has developed pioneering algorithms for decades.
In this Q&A, he talks about [...]
On Wednesday, the Romance Writers of America national conference opens its doors to the public from 5:30 to 7:30 pm for its annual “Readers for Life” mega-autographing session. Buy books! Get them signed by one of 500 romance-loving authors! The money goes to ProLiteracy Worldwide. It is free (except for the books you buy, of [...]
This year, the Romance Writers of America holds its national convention in my own back yard. In less than two weeks, July 15 through 18, the happy horde will land in Washington at the Wardman Marriott Park Hotel for workshops, parties, industry panels and the big awards ceremony. First, there’s a huge public booksigning event, [...]
Over at the Dana Foundation site, there’s a package of news and commentaries (with more coming) on “neuro-education,” the effects of arts training on the brain and the use of what we know about the brain to improve how we teach. Stories include:
NEWS: Attention May Link Arts and Intelligence
Arts education causes “profound changes” in [...]