Brain Awareness Week

This week is Brain Awareness Week, which includes a series of events undertaken by personnel at the Douglas and elsewhere to educate the public about the brain, and in honor of the occasion I thought I’d try to bring a modicum of brain awareness to my articles by dispelling some of the more common or insidious myths about the brain and its workings.

- We only use 10% of our brains
This one is a classic. There have been a number of proposed origins for this myth, including the idea that only 1/10th of your neurons are in a firing state at any point. I always assumed that the reason behind...

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Posted on 16 Mar 2010
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Why blog? (‘Holiday’ edition)

[Note: I put together a second version of my first post, after someone let me know I’d written about popularizing science education close to a recent related ‘holiday’ without mentioning someone relevant. If you've read the first one and just want to skip to the edits, I’ve put them in italics.]

Why blog?

When I first mentioned writing for the Douglas Blogs, a few friends of mine asked me why. I’ve always believed the popularization of science for the benefit of the general public is one of the highest obligations of anyone who works in a scientific field. Although making complex concepts...

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Posted on 30 Dec 2009
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Why blog?

When I first mentioned writing for the Douglas Blogs, a few friends of mine asked me why, so I thought I’d explain in my first post. I’ve always believed the popularization of science for the benefit of the general public is one of the highest obligations of anyone who works in a scientific field. Although making complex concepts digestible by the public isn’t always easy, it’s absolutely essential to fully realizing the benefits of these discoveries. Here are seven reasons why I believe that educating the public about scientific research is important, with a particular focus on the fields...

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Posted on 15 Dec 2009
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