Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Studying in the Stacks - Back to school with neuroscience and literature


Studying in the stacks - heaven, right? Those of us going to school are now back in full swing (at least I am), but I was worrying that others of you not lucky enough to have purchased your new shoes and Pink Pearl, or have carried around a 10-pound book on neurons today might be a little jealous. So I've found a number of talks by scientists and artists on subjects such as the elements of language and beauty from the perspective of a novelist and a neuroscientist - that way you don't have to feel left out.

The Puppet Master - How the Brain Controls the Body - Dr. Daniel Wolpert
Royal Society Prize Lecture Video - The Royal Society Site has many other videos you can access as well

Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language - Steven Pinker
from Fundamentals of the brain and mind - MIT's neuroscience lecture series with many great talks on memory, brain architecture, and how cognition is controlled

How Does it Feel - Joseph LeDoux
on conscious and unconscious emotion from National Institutes of Health's library of videos on a wide variety of scientific topics

Beauty in Science and Literature - Ben Okri & Nancy Rothewell
The title says it all - a novelist and a neuroscientist discuss - I didn't actually see this one my self - so let me know how it is.


So sharpen those pencils and hit the books like the rest of us slobs!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

These look wonderful - I can't wait to listen/watch them tomorrow. Thanks for such great links!

Dewey said...

I'm sure these are all fascinating, but unless one of the talks will teach me how to keep my brain working alertly when I'm this tired, I'll have to postpone them til ... probably the weekend.

Ted said...

Dewey - They charge for that talk!

D & V - When you do get to them, enjoy. and let me know how that last one is.

Heather said...

Neuroscience and Literature - seemingly at complete opposite ends of the spectrum and yet so totally intertwined! I'd be interested to see a few of your reading lists!!

Heather
www.thelibraryladder.blogspot.com

Ted said...

Heather - indeed - they are totally intertwined where I'm concerned! How can we think of the mind of the human being without considering what it can create? My reading lists are now living as piles, teetering precariously, threatening to fall and crush me!