Category Archives: Science

The need for sleep

Western culture – the US in particular – is pervaded by the notion of achievement through hard work. This has many benefits, but like everything, it comes at a steep cost. One of the things that is typically shortchanged in … Continue reading

Posted in Neuroscience, Science | 14 Comments

Charlemagne was a Neuroscientist

The exploits of Charlemagne are fairly well documented and widely known. He was both the King of the Franks and the founding emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (technically, the Carolingian Empire). In this capacity, he is renowned for a wide … Continue reading

Posted in Neuroscience, Pet peeve, Science, Social commentary | 2 Comments

The treasure hunters

Just outside of the big city is a giant and seemingly inexhaustible heap of trash. It might be hard to believe, but there are actual people living on this pile. Every day, year after year, they make their living sifting … Continue reading

Posted in Science | 2 Comments

Evidence based medicine – IVF success rates and age

In recent years, “evidence based medicine” has become a popular buzzword in the medical community. More than anything, this just highlights the fact that most of medicine is precisely not sufficiently based on evidence, in sharp contrast to – for … Continue reading

Posted in Science, Strategy, Technology | Leave a comment

Science and the Zodiac – a brief introduction to an epistemological placebo

It is somewhat of a cheap shot for a scientist to come down harshly on astrology. As a matter of fact, it is probably the lowest hanging fruit there is. Nevertheless, the undying popularity of astrology in general and horoscopes … Continue reading

Posted in Psychology, Science | 8 Comments

Eponyms are stifling scientific progress.

An eponym is something that is named after a particular person. I would like to put forward a radical assertion: The habit of naming an idea or principle in honor of its purported discoverer or developer is holding Science back. Therefore, eponyms have … Continue reading

Posted in Pet peeve, Science | 3 Comments

In eigener Sache: The attractor structure of logarithmic iterations in the complex plane

I decided to post my explorations in empirical mathematics on arXiv. This was done in the same spirit as the work that led to the Eagleman prize back in 2006. At some point, I will have to prettify the plots … Continue reading

Posted in In eigener Sache, Matlab, Science | 1 Comment

Is reality retrocausal?

Science is concerned with systematically probing the fundamental nature of reality, determining what is and what is not the case. In other words, science is about figuring out what is going on and about understanding how the world works (with … Continue reading

Posted in Journal club, Psychology, Science | 3 Comments