Culture & Religion — August 12, 2009

Ants on the Brain

Researchers are learning about the human brain from a system that is more similar to our gray matter than you may think: ant colonies. Just as neurons navigate through your head in a choreographed but mysterious dance, ants work together in a complex ways in order to make the colony far exceed any individual ant’s potential. Seed reports on how the research of computer scientist James Marshall and biologist Nigel Franks into ant colonies is leading to answers about the general principles of organization of the human brain.

Several experts on the mind have talked to Big Think, including Oliver Sacks, “Welcome to Your Brain” author Sam Wang, and Philosopher Daniel Dennett of Tufts University.

a computer generated image of a human brain.

Thinking

The great free will debate featuring Michio Kaku and Steven Pinker

Who — or what — really controls your mind?

Building destroyed by the Halifax Explosion. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

The Past

The largest accidental explosion of all time

More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

a collage of photos of a man with a hat and a book.

High Culture

6 great books with wildly unreliable narrators

Dive into the twisted truths and concealed realities told by literature’s most unreliable narrators.

a group of five matches on a pink background.

The Well

Signs you’re burned out — and how to bounce back

If you don’t feel better after the weekend, the “burnout paradox” could explain why.

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7 min

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with

Laurie Santos

Starts With A Bang

The trick to instantly identifying JWST images

If you can identify a foreground star, the spike patterns are a dead giveaway as to whether it’s a JWST image or any other observatory.

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