Quick dip: Robots, Nobelists, sand, fake studies, preschool, metasurveillance : Neuron Culture

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I write on science, medicine, nature, culture and other matters for the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Slate, National Geographic, Scientific American Mind, and other publications. (Find clips here.) Right now I'm writing my fourth book, The Orchid and the Dandelion, which explores the hypothesis that the genetic roots some of our worst problems and traits — depresison, hyperaggression, violence, antisocial behavior — can also give rise to resilience, cooperation, empathy, and contentment. The book expands on my December 2009 Atlantic article exploring these ideas. I've also written three books, including Reef Madness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the Meaning of Coral, which traces the strangest but most forgotten controversy in Darwin's career — an elemental dispute running some 75 years.

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Quick dip: Robots, Nobelists, sand, fake studies, preschool, metasurveillance

Posted on: April 15, 2009 9:50 AM, by David Dobbs

"You couldn't make this up: Cameras are being turned on the people paid to watch CCTV streams, to note which bits of surveillance footage they didn't see." via BoingBoing

The beauty of sand, close up -- a photo gallery at Discover.

Robots as recruitment to science. "If you stick a robot--I don't care if you're talking about grade school kids or high school students--if you put a robot in the middle of the room, there is something captivating about the technology." from Making Robots Personal - an interview with Tandy Trower of Microsoft Robotics. I find this particularly relevant as my 7-y.o. twiddles with his Lego robot.

Research review board approves fake study, gets popped for real.

Investing in the developing brain, from Jonah Lehrer. What does neuroscience suggest about the value (andbeset nature) of early childhood education?

And don't miss this interview with James Heckman, the University of Chicago economist whose work on early education Jonah cites. I recently meet Heckman at a conference, and -- having NO idea of his eminence (man won a Nobel prize) -- found him delightful company and wonderfully, intelligently, and almost boyishly enthusiastic and eager for new knowledge. Amid 10,000 researchers -- several thousand of them grad students and post-docs, seemingly -- no one was more clearly, happily, and ardently curious.

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