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Brainfacts
Cool new website Brainfacts.org that is a compilation of all things neuroscience… basic info, research news, educator information, etc. I’m all for more centralized ways of getting information so I welcome the development of new things. They really should add a for students tab with a centralized hub of info regarding neuroscience graduate programs and direct comparisons between them (self-serving idea!) Researching grad schools is really exciting, but slightly daunting all at the same time. So many great schools doing amazing work… how do you go about narrowing down your choices? I feel that unlike undergrad, I have to understand and weigh the resources of the school, the structure of the…
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Replication
My best friend just shared this interesting article with me about a group starting The Reproducibility Project which aims to reproduce major findings in psychology. Currently they are looking at three prominent psych journals from 2008. I think there is a lot to be said regarding replication in science. At its principle, it is supposed to be the core of the scientific process. You should reproduce established work and build on it to further the field. However, it is unfortunate that replication studies are neither well funded nor well received in the field. It’s not often that you see replication studies published in Nature or Science. I wonder how the field would…
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Face blindness
60 minutes recently did an interesting piece on Prosopagnosia (face blindness) which I think gives a really interesting perspective on both the science of the condition and its emotional effects. It also has some interesting interviews with Nancy Kanwisher (MIT) and Oliver Sachs (who knew he’s prosopagnosic himself?) http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7402685n&tag=contentMain;contentAux (part 1) http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7402689n&tag=contentMain;contentAux (part 2) They are two short (~12 mins) clips. Definitely recommend checking them out!
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A good book
My friend Karthik sent me this article from the NY Times (attached below since you have to log in to NYTimes online to be able to access it.) I am a huge huge fan of fiction books and really enjoy reading vivid stories that come to life on the page. Speaking of which, I am SUPER excited to see the Hunger Games movie at midnight tomorrow! I have never really considered how reading fiction may affect our sensory systems, but this article seems pretty logical to me. The fMRI studies this article cites discuss something we all have experienced, though maybe on a much less “scientific” level. When I read…
