Interesting articles

• Exploring Consciousness through the Study of Bees (Scientific American, January, 2009) "... there is no accepted theory of consciousness, no principled theory that would tell us which systems, organic or artificial, are conscious and why."


• How Google Is Making Us Smarter (Discover, January 15, 2009) "the mind appears to be adapted for reaching out from our heads and making the world, including our machines, an extension of itself."


• Is Technology Producing A Decline In Critical Thinking And Analysis? (ScienceDaily January 29, 2009) "'As students spend more time with visual media and less time with print, evaluation methods that include visual media will give a better picture of what they actually know...'"


• DVD teaches autistic kids what a smile means (Associated Press, January 15, 2009) "About a decade ago, Baron-Cohen suggested that autism — which is much less likely to afflict girls — might be an extreme version of the typical male brain. Men tend to understand the world via patterns and structure, whereas women are more inclined to understand emotions and sympathize with others."


• Mind Out Of Balance, Body Out Of Balance (ScienceDaily, January 27, 2009) "Many ... adults who suffer from anxiety disorders also have problems with balance. As increasing numbers of children are diagnosed with anxiety, Tel Aviv University researchers have discovered that the link between balance and anxiety can be assessed at an early age and that something can be done about it before it becomes a problem."


• Elevating Science, Elevating Democracy (The New York Times January 26, 2009) "Science is not a monument of received Truth but something that people do to look for truth. That endeavor, which has transformed the world in the last few centuries, does indeed teach values. Those values, among others, are honesty, doubt, respect for evidence, openness, accountability and tolerance and indeed hunger for opposing points of view. [...] The habit of questioning that you learn in physics is invaluable in the rest of society."