Monthly Archives: April 2011

Digital technologies and social networks will usher in the biggest shakeup medicine has ever seen

Yesterday, Eric Topol, who is director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute in La Jolla, CA,  spoke to members of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute about the transformative power of digital technology and social networks in medicine. He noted that the … Continue reading

Posted in Current History, Science and Medicine | Leave a comment

Alcohol helps the brain remember

I’m going to skip to what I found most remarkable about this news release from the Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research at The University of Texas at Austin: “People commonly think of dopamine as a happy transmitter, or a pleasure … Continue reading

Posted in Neuroscience and Psychology, Science and Medicine, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Some stats on ebooks and ereaders

I knew that Amazon was now selling more Kindle books than paper books, but I was interested to see that ebook sales overtook hardcover sales this year. E-book sales, January 2011: $69.9 million E-book sales, January 2010: $32.4 million Hardcover sales, January … Continue reading

Posted in Publishing and Journalism, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

How much would an exercise pill be worth?

I recently went to a talk at Stanford by Kenneth Walsh of the Boston University School of Medicine, in which he spoke about his research on the molecular basis of obesity-linked cardiovascular disease. He did some fascinating experiments in which … Continue reading

Posted in Diet and Exercise, Science and Medicine | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The myth of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards

I have been doing a lot of reading recently about what motivates us to do what we do, and I am amazed that there are so many different theories still in operation out there and that a lot of it … Continue reading

Posted in Brain Hacking, Neuroscience and Psychology | Leave a comment

The “Aha!” moment, memory, intelligence and humor

Interesting news from the Weizmann Institute about how “aha” moments, when we suddenly see how something makes sense, stick in the memory better than things we study to remember. That flash of insight is worth more than an hour of … Continue reading

Posted in Brain Hacking, Neuroscience and Psychology | Leave a comment