Ecstasy - Now With Less Cognitive Impairment

Ecstasy - Now With Less Cognitive Impairment

The schedule 1 illicit drug known as ecstasy has been used by up to 12 million people in the United States  and millions more worldwide.  Past research has suggested that ecstasy users…
Ray Kurzweil Pushes Singularity Back To 2045

Ray Kurzweil Pushes Singularity Back To 2045

Last year I attended a singularity conference and Ray Kurzweil's avatar predicted it was 25 years away.   Well, it's been 25 years away for a long time.  It's a nice, safe number, close…
How The Brain Knows What The Nose Knows

How The Brain Knows What The Nose Knows

Mice have a healthy concept of fear and so they fear the scent of a predator.   While it seems obvious that brains quickly figure out with a sniff that a predator, like a cat, is nearby, the…
Can There Be A 'Universal' IQ Test?

Can There Be A 'Universal' IQ Test?

Measuring 'intelligence' is a much art as science.   Even using the word intelligence sends people down a philosophical rabbit hole, disagreeing about what the word means. So can there be a '…
Bad Diets Cause Depression?

Bad Diets Cause Depression?

Can olive oil prevent mental illness? A new study says the ingestion of trans-fats and saturated fats increases the risk of suffering depression and that olive oil protects against this mental…
Did Epilepsy Cause Chopin's Hallucinations?

Did Epilepsy Cause Chopin's Hallucinations?

Frédéric Chopin, composer of "The Last Waltz" and poet of the piano, suffered from tuberculosis and regularly hallucinated. Even for those in the Romantic Revolution, like Liszt, Schumann and Victor…
The Chaos Of Brain Signaling

The Chaos Of Brain Signaling

The dynamics behind signal transmission in the brain are extremely chaotic.  The brain codes information in the form of electrical pulses, known as spikes. Each of the brain's approximately 100…
Predict Your Video Game Aptitude Using MRI

Predict Your Video Game Aptitude Using MRI

Want to know if you can be the king of Donkey Kong?    A group of researchers say they can predict "with unprecedented accuracy" how well you will do on a complex task like a strategic…