Surprising Science — March 22, 2012

Michael Gazzaniga: The Criminal Mind

Michael Gazzaniga is in charge of a MacArthur foundation project that explores using brain science to determine people’s legal culpability. Most of his work is against determinism — the popular idea (even among neuroscientists) that a) recent brain science shows that there is no free will and b) therefore people aren’t responsible for their actions.

Gazzaniga’s latest book is Who’s in Charge?: Free Will and the Science of the Brain.

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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