Jane Goodall: What separates us from the apes?

By Eric on Friday, December 25, 2009
Filled Under: Authors, TEDTalks

"Jane Goodall hasn't found the missing link, but she's come
 closer than nearly anyone else. The primatologist says the
 only real difference between humans and chimps is our
 sophisticated language. She urges us to start using it to
 change the world."

Susan Savage-Rumbaugh: Apes that write, start fires and play

By Eric on Friday, December 18, 2009
Filled Under: TEDTalks

"Savage-Rumbaugh's work with bonobo apes, which can
 understand spoken language and learn tasks by watching,
 forces the audience to rethink how much of what a species
 can do is determined by biology -- and how much by cultural
 exposure."

Jill Bolte Taylor: How it feels to have a stroke

By Eric on Friday, November 20, 2009
Filled Under: Authors, TEDTalks

"Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few
 brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she
 realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened
 -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one,
 speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and
 remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about
 how our brains define us and connect us to the world and
 to one another."

Christopher deCharms: Looking inside the brain in real time

By Eric on Friday, November 13, 2009
Filled Under: TEDTalks

"Neuroscientist and inventor Christopher deCharms demos an
 amazing new way to use fMRI to show brain activity while
 it is happening -- emotion, body movement, pain. (In other
 words, you can literally see how you feel.) The
 applications for real-time fMRIs start with chronic pain
 control and range into the realm of science fiction, but
 this technology is very real."