What do you get if you cross an unconventional economist with a talented journalist? If the economist if Steven D Levitt and the writer is Stephen J Dubner, then the result is a series of best-selling books and a hugely popular podcast. Along the way it will entertain and astonish a lot of people, make… Continue reading Teaching the garden to weed itself
Tag: Psychology
Other Worlds
A History of Delusions: The Glass King, a Substitute Husband and a Walking Corpse by Victoria Shepherd (2022, Oneworld Publications) Distorted Mirrors A book of famous case histories of delusional individuals, could so easily become a distasteful sideshow, like visiting a Hall of Mirrors, or paying your penny to gawp at the inmates in Bedlam.… Continue reading Other Worlds
Picture This
Welcome to my brain! It’s dark in here (apparently),
You know it makes sense
Rationality: what it is, why it seems scarce, why it matters by Steven Pinker (Allen Lane, 2021) A logical argument in favour of logic? Pinker often writes with such clarity and energy that ones can be swept up in the flow and not stand back to say “hand on a minute! It’s not as simple… Continue reading You know it makes sense
Faster Higher Stronger
Endure: Mind, Body and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance by Alex Hutchinson (Harper Collins 2018/2020) The four minute mile, the two hour marathon. These iconic times are two of the most famous mythical barriers in athletic performance. But are the limits that constrain what a human can do primarily physical, or are they… Continue reading Faster Higher Stronger
Lost & Found
Wayfinding: The Art and Science of How We Find and Lose Our Way by Michael Bond (Picador, 2020) We are wanderers. Twentieth Century GPS worshippers with hunter-gatherer brains. Neuroscience has identified specialised brain regions adapted for specific navigation skills. There are boundary cells, grid cells, head direction cells. How they are coordinated is the focus… Continue reading Lost & Found
Book Review – Neurodivergence, a view from within
Explaining Humans: What Science Can Teach Us about Life, Love and Relationships By Dr Camilla Pang Viking/Penguin Books, 2020 (239 pages) [This review was originally written for the BAE Systems (Maritime Services) Mental Health First Aiders newsletter] Camilla Pang has a PhD in biochemistry and works as a postdoctoral researcher in bioinformatics. She is very… Continue reading Book Review – Neurodivergence, a view from within