You may never have heard of the incredibly accomplished Alexa Irene Canady, who was both the first female neurosurgeon and the first African American neurosurgeon in the United States. In honor of Black History Month, I wanted to share the story of this pioneering and inspiring figure. Canady was born in 1950. Her mother worked…
Details
Harvard Scientists have developed new ways to look inside the brain, and the results are stunning.
Details
Are you learning English as a second language? Here’s a tip: you can boost your performance in English by supplementing your language training with auditory brain training. Learning English as a second language can be challenging, and even frustrating. It may feel like words fly by so quickly that following a conversation seems almost impossible. Fortunately,…
Details
Our brains are pretty amazing, but they can make a lot of mistakes that we are not even aware of. Sometimes these may have negative long-term consequences, but often they just mean a moment of misunderstanding or confusion. Here are 5 common mistakes your brain makes every day! We trust our memories, even though they…
Details
I am incredibly excited to announce that the scientists who ran the ACTIVE trial have reported that certain types of brain training—including one of the exercises in BrainHQ from Posit Science—can drive cognitive benefits that last 10 years. The study, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, is the first to show such…
Details
You’ve probably seen headlines about how “cheesecake is like cocaine for the brain” and may have noted the growing trend of carbohydrate- and sugar-free diets (like the Atkins or Paleo diets.) This is a great 5-minute TED-Ed video from neuroscientist Nicole Avena that wades through the hype to illustrate how sugar actually affects your brain,…
Details
A few days ago, I heard a terrific radio program featuring an interview with Daniel Tammet. Tammet is an autistic savant who is probably best-known for being able to recite pi to over 22,500 digits by memory. (Side note: it takes him more than 5 hours to perform this feat!) But what fascinated me most…
Details
I’m excited to announce that my brand new book Soft-Wired is now out and available in paperback or Kindle format. This book was a labor of love, and it took me many years and many iterations to say exactly what I wanted, how I wanted to say it. The result is a book that covers much of…
Details
Coffee: wonder drug or guilty pleasure? Scientists have been puzzling this out for some time now. In fact, coffee has been one of the world’s most popular beverages for hundreds of years. And although health professionals used to warn us about the ills of coffee and caffeine, it seems that current research has mostly turned…
Details
I always enjoy the fun, approachable, fast-paced science videos from ASAP Science. Here, the team presents a quick primer on the biology of aging. In just three minutes, you can learn why you can blame your father for a shorter life span, why some worms are virtually immortal, and what a telomere is. Enjoy! For…
Details