Though not all at once. Two fine and unusual angles one consciousness, that most ephemeral thing without which not much seems to happen. First, Brandon Keim, at Aeon, asks Do cockroaches have a form of consciousness?: These days I don’t much like to think of those ant-massacring mornings, but I did after reading about Backyard Brains, […]
Continue reading →Someone just directed me to Maggie Koerth-Baker’s examination of a riveting example of the differences between a life lived and a life recalled — in this case, the life memorialized, fictively, in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s splendid Little House on the Prairie. Koerth-Baker, a Little House fan (like much of my household), writes of coming across a transcript […]
Continue reading →Q: Is that a real skull? A: Yes Q: Just how full of shit are they — like, completely? A: Completely. What kinds of questions do writers ask? Particularly when writing a book about science? The writer Charles Quoi asked that question of me and several other writers the other day for an article at […]
Continue reading →The fine writer Steve Silberman has posted a collective homage to good teachers at his blog NeuroTribes. The loveliest is his tribute to his husband Keith, who holds a PhD from Berkeley and teaches science in a high school. Lucky be his students. Steve asked several writers to answer the question, What’s the most important […]
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