The physicist within (almost) all of us
Packing these Petoskey stones, fossilized coral, which have been polished by my cousin, into a small suitcase gave me the opportunity to live out the size-weight illusion.
We’re making a movie
More than seven years ago, I listened to a video from a student in my online course on the neurobiology of everyday life. I couldn’t believe my ears. I was certain that the speaker was mistaken, confused. What she spoke of was an impossibility. But I was the one who was mistaken. That fateful day was the first time I […]
Farewell to glasses
For about 6 months I have been cognizant that my vision has deteriorated. I also am aware that the deterioration is concentrated in my left eye. I have run through my ritual often: close my left eye and not much changes. Then close my right eye and everything is blurry, multiple images water colored on top of each other. With […]
What color is that dress after all? Answer: no color
A few days ago, the world was taken by storm by the is-it-a-gold-and-white-or-a-blue-and-black-dress controversy. There have been several explanations of this phenomenon from several different experts (see for example Wired and NYTimes). As far as I can tell these explanations center on two points: The close cropping of the image prevents a person from globally contextualizing the dress. Is the dress drenched in light […]
From Brian Williams to Vincent Van Gogh to Hellen Keller to you and me
Here are my two cents on Brian Williams and the malleability of memory. Let’s start by fully acknowledging the limitations of perception. Perception of the world outside is very different from the record produced by a camera or audio record. Perception of our innards is even farther from accurate: is that a knife in my stomach or gas? So the information coming in to the brain, information […]
Can you read this?
I am hoping that you play my game and try to read the text above. Go ahead and try before you read the answer below. How’d you do? I am betting that you did just fine. Maybe you had some problems with neocortex, or maybe not. Here is the un-substituted text: How did you read the scramble? Are you aware of how you […]
The brain is sooooo cool! 