Sex & Spatial Thinking
Gender differences in spatial reasoning abilities may be strongly influenced by culture.
Shrinking Brains
Our brains shrink by up to 15% over our lifetimes, but those of chimpanzees do not.
Podcast for 26 August 2011
FEAR, LIES & SHRINKING BRAINS - Why our brains shrink, but chimps' don't, why computers are better at spotting lies than we are, and an enzyme for fear. Also, medical electronics that resemble tattoos, and how organic chicken farms could be a boon to public health.
Aging Brains
Age-related working memory loss may be at least partly reversible.
Soccer Goalies
Soccer goalies tend to dive toward the right when their team is behind.
Beauty & Brains
One area of the brain becomes active when we experience beauty.
Tiny Chip Roundup
The tiniest camera in the world can record the firing of single neurons.
Happy Face Genetics
Differences in a gene influence how much time we spend looking at happy faces.
Podcast for 22 July 2011
THE BRAIN & SOCIETY: How the brain experiences beauty, what soccer reveals about the mind, and why lazing around in a hammock could benefit your memory. Also, how your cell phone could help you kick the habit.
Neurons from Skin
Two teams of scientists have converted skin cells directly into neurons.
Theta Waves
A type of spontaneous brain activity seems to create favorable conditions for remembering things.
Brain Folding Gene
A tiny fragment of a single gene makes or breaks the all-important folding of brain tissue.
Deaf Vision
The retinas of people who have been deaf from birth enhance their peripheral vision.
Neanderthal Hands
Evidence from ancient teeth suggests that most Neanderthals were right-handed, like us.
Barbie Effect
To study how we perceive our environment, scientists created the illusion of being either Barbie doll-sized or gigantic.
Blind Echolocation
Blind people who can echolocate use their brain's visual center to do so.
Brainy Noses
We may owe our large brains in part to the earliest mammals’ sense of smell.
Podcast for 10 June 2011 – Vision & The Brain
What reindeer can see that we can't. How some blind people are using echolocation to navigate the world. And, how the retinas of deaf people change their experience of the world. Also: better noses spelled bigger brains for ancient mammals, and: what the teeth of Neanderthals tell us about their hands.
Sleep-Deprived Brains
A brain chemical called adenosine plays a major role in symptoms of sleep deprivation.
Podcast for 27 May 2011
Why sleep deprivation clouds thinking, what the brainwaves of sleeping teenagers reveal, and how a video game helps sick kids strengthen their lungs. Also, why a team of epidemiological sleuths invaded school graduations across Maryland last year. And, new study reveals extreme gender bias in children’s books.
Sleep Roundup
New research sheds light on what’s going on in the brains of sleeping teenagers.
Erasing Memories
Scientists have extinguished, or at least greatly weakened, a long-term memory in a sea snail.
The Embarrassed Brain
Researchers have identified the region of the brain responsible for humiliation.