How Your Brain is Like an Ant Colony
Ants are amazing. They can carry 50 times their body weight. Their total biomass worldwide equals the total biomass of humans. Fungus...
Procrastination, the McClellan Problem, and You
General George B. “Little Mac” McClellan was the Union force commander during the Civil War. Beloved by his men, and a stickler for...
The Strange Case of Phineas Gage, redux
In January of 2013, I wrote a post on one of neuroscience’s most famous cases. New details make it necessary to retell the story. It’s...
The Insula: Behind the Scenes of Your Brain's Attention Switchboard
Have you ever been in a meeting where no matter what, you can’t stay focused? You know it will be disastrous if you actually succumb to...
Zen and the Art of Riffing
Q: What did the Zen master say to the hotdog vendor? A: “Make me one with everything...” Central to the premise of this old joke is the...
Anarchists In Your Brain: The Neuron Story
The structure of the brain is often described as an immense tangle of electrochemical connectors called neurons. These neurons number...