What are humans truly capable of at their best? Gary Marcus looks at studies on human resilience, or what one psychologist calls, “ordinary magic”: http://nyr.kr/Z8jPEG

(Source: newyorker.com)

By shining lasers through optical fibres aimed at particular populations of neurons at specific times, a technique known as optogenetics, investigators can now effectively direct symphonies of light-induced neural activity inside the brain.

A Laser Light Show in the Brain! Gary Marcus on what optogenetics means for neuroscience: http://nyr.kr/WU7eqS

Photograph by Charles Mazel/Corbis.

(Source: http:http)

Gary Marcus explains why any investment in neuroscience, like Obama’s brain-mapping project, the focus of which is on developing new techniques for gathering unprecedented amounts of neurological data, needs theorists:

It is easier to collect massive amounts of data than to understand them… To make sure that the Brain Activity Map yields true insights, theorists need to be equal partners with data collectors, deeply involved from the outset.

Continue reading: http://nyr.kr/ZGyLL4

Cartoon by David Sipress. For more: http://nyr.kr/YWFWMF

    According to an article on the front page of this morning’s New York Times, the Obama Administration is planning to seek three billion dollars from Congress to map the human brain’s activity. Here, Gary Marcus looks at five of the most fundamental unsolved questions in neuroscience that this investment should address: http://nyr.kr/12YVXqL

(Source: newyorker.com)

John Cassidy on immigration reform: http://nyr.kr/14p5xSS

In 2003, [scientists Marie Dacke, Eric Warrant,] and others discovered that nocturnal dung beetles can navigate by the polarized light of the moon—the first animal shown to do so, although many probably can, Warrant said. ‘But we noticed that on many nights the moon didn’t come up until much later,’ he said. ‘Yet our beetles kept on rolling in straight lines—not quite as straight, but pretty straight.’ 

Other animals, including seals, some birds, and us, can navigate by individual stars, but dung beetles probably can’t; their eyes aren’t sensitive or well-resolved enough to detect points of light. More likely, the researchers thought, the beetles were cuing to the Milky Way…

Follow this link to continue reading Alan Burdick on the recent, important discovery about dung beetle navigation: http://nyr.kr/X5wSUP

(Source: newyorker.com)

Gary Marcus looks at “What Should We Be Worried About?”, a collection of essays by 150 top scientists and writers: “it may sound comforting to say that ‘the only thing we need to worry about is worry itself’ (as several contributors suggested), but anybody who has lived through Chernobyl or Fukushima knows otherwise… many of the essays are insightful, and bring attention to a wide range of challenges for which society is not yet adequately prepared…” http://nyr.kr/1084vun