Deric Bownds

LATEST ARTICLES ( 2628 )

• Two Very Different Worlds to Live In.

  On the same day that I read yet another depressing article in the New York Times - Thomas Edsall on the increasing polarization and demonization in our... Read more

  Posted on 02 March 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Pinker's "Enlightenment Now" - a Must Read Book

  I recommend Pinker's new book to all MindBlog readers as an refreshing antidote to the drumbeat of popular press articles bemoaning our world's potential... Read more

  Posted on 01 March 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Culture of Empathy

  While approving comments submitted on a MindBlog post, I always go back and read the post. (I have to vet comments, because most are designed to get clicks on... Read more

  Posted on 28 February 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Computerized Gaydar - a Threat to Privacy and Safety of Gay People

  My Oct. 13, 2017 post dealt with controversy over an article referenced as forthcoming that showed neural networks to be more accurate than humans at detecting... Read more

  Posted on 27 February 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Amygdala Structure and Defense of the Social System.

  Nam et al. examine the neuroanatomical substrates of preferences for maintaining existing social arrangements. Individual variation in preferences to maintain... Read more

  Posted on 26 February 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Our Microbiome Challenges Our Concept of Self.

  Rees et al. offer an interesting perspective on the significance of our microbiome. Their abstract: Today, the three classical biological explanations of the... Read more

  Posted on 23 February 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• When Our Eyes Move, Our Eardrums Move.

  Interesting stuff from Gruters et al.: Significance The peripheral hearing system contains several motor mechanisms that allow the brain to modify the auditory... Read more

  Posted on 22 February 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Human Cooperation in Dynamic Networks.

  Melamed et al. show that the emergence of cooperative networks of humans does not require knowledge of the reputations of participants, only the severing of tie... Read more

  Posted on 21 February 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Welcome to the Post Text Future (of the New Authoritarian State?)

  White males (and the republican party) seem to perceive that the most effective way to maintain their current prominence as they continue to become a minority o... Read more

  Posted on 20 February 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Ancient Origins of Walking on Land - the Walking Skate.

  

  From Jung et al., in the Feb. 8 issue of Cell, report finding that the circuits underlying vertebrate ambulation on dry land appear in a skate many millions of... Read more

  Posted on 19 February 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Computers No Better Than Humans at Predicting Who Should Go to Jail.

  I want to point to two pieces that offer a commentary on our trust in using algorithms to predict human behavior rather than old fashioned human judgement. In... Read more

  Posted on 16 February 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Afraid of A.I.? Be Very Afraid of Quantum Computing....

  Several recent articles point to a quiet revolution that is receiving relatively little notice - the development of quantum computers that may operate 100,000... Read more

  Posted on 15 February 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• A Valentine's Day Musical Offering - Respighi's Intermezzo Serenata

  

  A piano transcription by Respighi of the Intermezzo Serenata from his comic opera Re Enzo.  Making a recording of a piano piece I like motivates me to learn it ... Read more

  Posted on 14 February 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Mind Treats on the Web.

  This MindBlog is a miniscule drop in a large internet pond of excellent and interesting sites describing new mind research and ideas. I am aware of only a... Read more

  Posted on 13 February 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• “The Rich Are Different from You and Me..” - the Psychology of Inequality

  In the mythical exchange between F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, Hemingway responds “Yes, they have more money.” Who are ‘they’? Read more

  Posted on 12 February 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Our Body Tissues Crosstalk During Exercise.

  Gretchen Reynolds points to fascinating work showing that exercise causes cells to release tiny lipid coated hollow spheres (vesicles) containing protein... Read more

  Posted on 09 February 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Brain Correlates of Our Ability to Think Creatively

  I am passing on the significance statements (the links take you to the whole abstracts) from two fascinating pieces on the brain correlates of our ability to... Read more

  Posted on 07 February 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• MindBlog's 12th Anniversary. Blogs as Relics Or Rebirths?

  Today marks the 12th anniversary of MindBlog's start.  In yesterday's MindBlog post I passed on Andrew Sullivan's comments on the demise of blogs, noting... Read more

  Posted on 06 February 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Blogging Golden Age

  I want to pass on this piece of writing from a series of commentaries posted by Andrew Sullivan at New York Magazine. He suggests that the decline of blogging... Read more

  Posted on 05 February 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Mental Autonomy - Developing a ‘culture of Consciousness’.

  One of MindBlog's threads has been presentation and discussion of work on the default mode network of our brains that mediates our mind wandering. Read more

  Posted on 02 February 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE