Study Finds Neanderthals Had Capacity for Speech
Neanderthals, the closest species to humans, have only been extinct for something like 40,000 years. Which is to say, they shared the...
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The Chimpanzee Conga and the History of Human Dance
If you’ve ever watched a toddler bob up and down to their favorite song, the origins of dance might seem clear: moving to a rhythm...
Fire Studies Shed New Light
Fire: these days, starting one is as easy as flicking the switch on a gas stove. But if you’ve ever been on a camping trip, you know...
Edison's Errors: When Genius is 99 Percent Flop Sweat
When you think of inventors, the iconic example might be Thomas Edison, who brought us the electric lightbulb. In the process, he...
The Marx Brothers: Princes of Practice
When we think of legends of comedy, the Marx Brothers might come to mind. In the years leading up to World War II, they were the toast of...
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...
What Do Aretha Franklin, Paul Simon, and Lynyrd Skynyrd Have in Common?
When it comes to Carol Dweck’s concepts of mindset, northwestern Alabama might not be the first region that leaps into your mind. And yet...
The Secret Music That's Always Playing in Your Head
Listening to music is one of the most compelling human experiences. Music taps deeply into our sense of feeling, often highlighting and...
The Twain Brain, or, Why Smart People do Stupid Things
StartFragment “A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.” So said Mark Twain, printer, steamboat...
The Intersection: Where Bacon Meets Chocolate, and Creativity Meets Genius
Want to radically ramp up your creativity? In his new book The Medici Effect, Frans Johansson believes he can help you. If you're a fan...
Robbing a bank with your wristwatch
As you stand in the check-out line this holiday season, you may find yourself wondering why two minutes in a loud, crowded store can feel...
Transference Bias: A Tale of Bloody Wars, Baby Kings, and Bad Bosses
There was a time, and it was not so long ago, that conventional wisdom said if you were born into nobility, you possessed a set of...
Who Are You? The Science (or Lack Thereof) of Myers-Briggs
If you've been hired for a job in the last thirty years, chances are you've heard of Myers-Briggs. It's a personality diagnostic tool...
The Morality Lag: Smartphones and Dumb Feelings
Your smartphone has more computing power than the computer that took Neil Armstrong and crew to the moon. And this is only one of the...
Are You a Little Bit Neanderthal?
40,000 years ago, the story goes, there were two kinds of early humanoids roaming the land. There were the Homo Sapiens, our noble early...
Neural Chemistry, Immortality and the Stuff of Flower Pots
In 1974, local farmers in Xian, China, set out to dig a well. Instead, they discovered what many consider to be the eighth wonder of the...
General Custer, Bath Mats, and Moths
When General George Armstrong Custer made the ill-fated decision to charge his 700 troops into the heart of the Lakota Nation on June...
Cavemen and the Internet
The problem with you––and by you, I mean me––is that our brains are built on a 40,000 year old platform. Let's not forget, evolution is a...
Sourdough, Websites, and the Self: The Myth of the Driver's Seat
Our story this week begins around 1500 BC. It was roughly 3500 years ago that somehow––let’s be honest, probably through some kind of...