Jonah Lehrer's Blog, page 22

The Runner

John Branch has an absolutely fascinating and beautifully told article in the Times today on Diane Van Deren, one of the premier ultra-runners in the world. Last year, she won the Yukon Arctic Ultra 300, which follows the treacherous trail of the Yukon sled dog race for hundreds of miles. (She was the first woman to ever complete the 430 mile version of the race.) This weekend she's participating in a race in Colorado that has a total elevation gain of 33,000 feet. But here's the neuroscientific

Schizophrenia and Smoking

Why are schizophrenics three to four times more likely to smoke cigarettes than the general population? Over at Brainblogger, Dirk Hanson has a fascinating summary of a few recent papers that tried to understand this saga of self-medication. Nicotine, it turns out, can significantly reduce the sensory symptoms associated with the mental illness. And given that we're unlikely to untangle the genetic causes of schizophrenia anytime soon - the most recent genetic analyses demonstrated just how stun

Trust

It is now abundantly clear that the global economy remains mired in a dismal slump. Consumer confidence is still hurting; the unemployment is still rising; home prices are still falling. Despite the best efforts of Congress and the Treasury Department, nobody knows where the bottom is, or when it will arrive.

Obviously, there are no easy solutions. But it's worth considering how we got here if only to better understand how we might get out. One way to look at the current mess is as a collective

Population Density

What led to the birth of human civilization? How did a naked ape manage to invent complex cultural forms such as language and art? One possibility is that something happened inside the mind, that a cortical switch was flipped and homo sapiens was suddenly able to paint on cave walls. But that doesn't seem to be the case, as UCL anthropologist Ruth Mace explains in a recent Science article:

Traits such as the creation of abstract art, improvements in stone and other tools, long-distance "trading

Self-Esteem

In the latest issue of In Character, UPenn psychologist Angela Duckworth criticizes the systematic attempt to improve self-esteem in children:

Q: Educators for some time now have put a premium on self-esteem. Schools strive to help kids develop self-esteem on the theory that other good things such as achievement will flow from increased self-esteem. Which is more important, self-discipline or self-esteem, for being successful as a student?

DUCKWORTH: Ah, how great to be asked this question! W

Sweet and Salty

I've got a thing for things that are sweet and salty. Caramels with sea salt. French fries with plenty of ketchup. Peanut butter and strawberry jelly. Melon with prosciutto. Is there anything better to eat on a hot summer day than a ripe cantaloupe dressed with some cured meat, thinly sliced? I think not.

But why do sweet and salty sing so well together? Why do we add a pinch of salt to chocolate cake, or not fully taste the sweetness of a tomato until it's been sprinkled with sodium chloride?

DiMaggio's Streak

It's been a hotly debated scientific question for decades: was Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak a genuine statistical outlier, or is it an expected statistical aberration, given the long history of major league baseball? I'd optimistically assumed, based on the work of Harvard physicist Ed Purcell (as cited by Stephen Jay Gould) that DiMaggio was the real deal. Here's Gould:

Purcell calculated that to make it likely (probability greater than 50 percent) that a run of even fifty games will

Oliver Sacks and NOVA

Just a quick reminder to watch the season premiere of NOVA tonight on PBS. It features Oliver Sacks and a few of the patients described in Musicophilia, including Tony Cicoria, an orthopedic surgeon who became obsessed with classical piano after being struck by lightning. I found the show quite compelling - NOVA was kind enough to send me a preview DVD - so be sure to tune in. For me, the most affecting story was that of Matt Giordano, who suffers from a severe case of Tourette's syndrome. Matt

Is Marriage Passe?

In the latest Atlantic, Sandra Tsing Loh argues (with her usual panache) that the institution of marriage is passé, and that it's time to cast off the antiquated concept of eternal monogomy:

Sure, it [marriage:] made sense to agrarian families before 1900, when to farm the land, one needed two spouses, grandparents, and a raft of children. But now that we have white-collar work and washing machines, and our life expectancy has shot from 47 to 77, isn't the idea of lifelong marriage obsolete?

Th

Yale

If anybody happens to be in New Haven this evening, I'll be speaking about Proust, art, science, wine and Descartes with the psychologist Paul Bloom. It will be fun and it's free. The event starts at 5:30 and is at the Yale Center for British Art.

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