Nobel Conference Blog
Nobel Conference 48 Profile of Maya Tolstoy
What does the bottom of the ocean really look like? Ask a child to draw the seafloor, and she’ll likely draw something that looks like the bottom of a swimming pool with seaweed growing in towers. The deep seafloor is intriguingly more complex than this, of course, and no one knows that better than Maya Tolstoy. [...]
Nobel Conference 48 Profile of Dr. David Gallo
Deep in the heart of North America, far from any salt-water shore, a scientific conference that focuses on the world’s oceans will be held at Gustavus Adolphus College. While the location might seem unlikely, that impression is superficial since the earth’s oceans have a massive influence on the well-being of all of humankind, regardless of [...]
Nobel Conference 48 Update
The oceans have long been a source of fascination, from the tales of Sinbad to the popular Blue Planet documentary. The marine world provides us with seafood and medicines, fertilizers and petroleum. And the oceans are associated with danger, from the exaggerated fiction of Jaws to poorly understood feedback on climate change. Nobel Conference 48 at Gustavus Adolphus College [...]
Phantom Vibration Syndrome
Read today’s NYTimes op-ed piece You Love Your iPhone. Literally on how our brain circuitry reveals that our addiction to our iPhones may really be true love. Please join us next week in learning more about what the brain sciences might be able to tell us about love, addiction and the potential benefits and consequences [...]
Neural iPhones, Telepathic Helmets and Thought Chips
Read a recent article in the NYTimes “The Cyborg in Us All” and come to Nobel 47 The Brain and Being Human to learn more about how human communication may be revolutionized when mind is melded to machine.
The Game of Love
Read what neuroscientist David Linden, author of The Compass of Pleasure, has to say about the neurobiology of love in his answers to the “Five Questions” series in the Washington Post. Come learn more about this topic from Dr Larry Young on Tuesday October 4 at the upcoming Nobel Conference 47, The Brain and Being [...]
When the Melody Takes a Detour, the Science Begins
A NYTimes article reports on a recent World Science Conference on Music and Spontaneity when a panel of neuroscientists and musicians discussed the “neurological processes underlying improvisation and what they tell us about human creativity and the structure of the brain”. One may wonder whether the scientific study of music a worthwhile endeavor? Or perhaps [...]
Neuromarketing: Music Sales
ScienceNow reports that when neuroeconomist Gregory Berns used functional magnetic resonance to image the brains of teenagers while they listened to songs, he found that the average activity elicited by a song in the reward centers of the brain was a better predictor of a song’s commercial success than the likability ratings for the song [...]
Brain Implants: Restoring Memories
The NYTimes reported that scientists at Wake Forest and USC implanted an electrode into the hippocampus of a rat that played memories “like a melody on a piano”, thus restoring a forgotten learning rule. On October 4 and 5, speakers invited to Nobel 47 The Brain and Being Human will discuss some of the exciting [...]
Bina Agarwal, 2010 Nobel speaker, interviewed in NEWSWEEK
During the recent round of climate change talks in Mexico, Bina Agarwal was interviewed about the significance of climate change for women, particularly in developing nations like India. Find it here: Bina-Newsweek-Interview[1]