Deric Bownds

LATEST ARTICLES ( 2661 )

• The Power of Us

  A recent New York Times essay by Jon Mooallem, "Is life better when we're together?" is worth a read, and references work of Packer and Van Bavel described in... Read more

  Posted on 03 January 2022 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Rise and Fall of Rationality in Language

  Fascinating language analysis from Scheffer et al. that illustrates over the past decades a marked shift in public interest from the collective to the... Read more

  Posted on 31 December 2021 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Senolytic Therapies for Healthy Longevity

  An article on increasing longevity by getting rid of senescent cells (cells that have stopped dividing and generate products that accelerate aging) has been... Read more

  Posted on 29 December 2021 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• MindBlog Gets an Extreme Comment on Covid

  I've debated on whether it would be better to ignore (and not amplify by passing on) an extreme comment of a sort MindBlog almost never receives. Read more

  Posted on 27 December 2021 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• A Musical Offering.

  

  For this day that was central in my Protestant Christian Texas childhood: a performance by the Netherlands Bach Society of the Gloria in Excelsis Deo from Bach'... Read more

  Posted on 25 December 2021 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• What Happened to American Conservatism?

  I want to strongly recommed that you read David Brooks' article on conservatism in the January/February 2022 issue of The Atlantic. Read more

  Posted on 22 December 2021 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Point is to Stop - a Farewell to Self Help Coaching

  I want to pass on some points, paraphrase, and central clips from what is essentially a swan song offered by Mark Manson in his latest newsletter - a... Read more

  Posted on 20 December 2021 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Active Grandparent Hypothesis

  Lieberman et al. suggest that selection in humans for lifelong physical activity, including during postreproductive years to provision offspring, promoted... Read more

  Posted on 16 December 2021 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• New Articles on Exercise and the Brain

  Gretchen Reynolds has done two recent brief reviews: The Quiet Brain of the Athlete describes work showing that the brains of fit, young athletes dial down... Read more

  Posted on 14 December 2021 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Temporal Self-Compression

  Brietzke and Meyer (open source) provide behavioral and neural evidence that our past and future selves are compressed as they move away from the present:... Read more

  Posted on 10 December 2021 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Severity and Clinical Course of Depression Correlates with Altered Connectivity...

  Interesting work from Ray et al., Significance Research into neurobiology of depression primarily focuses on its complex psychological aspects. Read more

  Posted on 08 December 2021 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Science of Mind Reading

  

  James Somers offers a fascinating article in the Nov. 29 issue of The New Yorker, which I recommend that you read. It describes the development of the... Read more

  Posted on 06 December 2021 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• In Praise of Sheeple - Why We Shouldn't Always Think for Ourselves

  A friend pointed out this interesting article by Ian Leslie, which I recommend that you read. I pass on a few clips at the end of his exposition: ... Read more

  Posted on 03 December 2021 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• What is a DAO? Who Needs Humans?

  

  A DAO is a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation. My son pointed out this intriguing and also somewhat terrifying video to me. Read more

  Posted on 02 December 2021 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Science of Hugs?

  

  Schultz describes an entertaining bit of work pursuing the obvious done by Düren et.al. Guys hugging each other use their arms differently than women do, more... Read more

  Posted on 01 December 2021 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Cannabis Use During Pregnancy Correlates with Cortisol, Anxiety, Aggression,...

  Sobering results from Rompala et al.: Significance Cannabis use is becoming more prevalent, including during developmentally sensitive periods such as pregnancy. Read more

  Posted on 30 November 2021 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• An Artificial Neural Network That Responds to Written Words Like Our Brain's Wor...

  Interesting work from Dehaene and collaborators: Significance Learning to read results in the formation of a specialized region in the human ventral visual... Read more

  Posted on 29 November 2021 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Online Spread of False Information Depends on Cascade Size

  Juul and Ugander do an analysis of factors that influence the spread of false news, finding a central role for cascade size and suggesting that to limit the... Read more

  Posted on 26 November 2021 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Caution Around the Fountain of Youth.

  Lee et al. do a review "Antiaging diets: Separating fact from fiction" in Science Magazine. The link takes you to their summary, abstract, and a nice graphic. Read more

  Posted on 25 November 2021 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Volatile Hexadecanal Emitted by Babies Could Make Men More Docile and Women...

  

  Interesting observations from Mishor et al.: In terrestrial mammals, body volatiles can effectively trigger or block conspecific aggression. Read more

  Posted on 24 November 2021 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE