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.
Is the grass redder or greener on the other side?
A few days ago, a friend texted me, Is this for real? followed by a link to an article about a pair of sunglasses that “fix” color blindness. Well, before even clicking, I was certain that the EnChroma sunglasses were no fix or cure. Cures are rare, exceedingly so. We treat conditions, we don’t cure them. Indeed the sunglasses made by EnChroma will alter a […]
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! 