Quote of the day

We should pin a green card to any foreign student who comes here and gets a Ph.D.

Thomas Friedman, answering the question "Do you think America will lose its scientific and technological edge in the next 10 years?" in this week's TIME magazine.

Science: a language of hope and inspiration

Excellent op-ed by Brian Greene in the New York Times. Don't miss it!

Ramachandran

I've just updated my list of favorite books on the right-hand side of the page. I'm allowing it to grow 1-5 books at a time... The list is sorted alphabetically (by title) and does not reflect anything more than that: a list that might encourage some readers to look some of the books up, read them, and post their comments on this blog. 

One of the recently added books is “A brief tour of human consciousness”, by neuroscientist Vilayanur S. Ramachandran. The essence of that book is available (under the title ‘The Emerging Mind’) at the BBC - Radio 4 - Reith Lectures 2003 site. There you will find the audio streams and text transcripts for all 5 lectures, and many other great links. Highly recommended!

Rama (as many people call him) has just released a new book, "The Man with the Phantom Twin: Adventures in the Neuroscience of the Human Brain" (coming up soon in my reading list).

He also appeared in the excellent TED talks series back in October 2007 (see below).

Video: distinguished lecture by Dr. Ioannis N. Miaoulis (FAU, February 22, 2008)

A video recording of the distinguished lecture by Dr. Ioannis N. Miaoulis mentioned earlier is now available online.

Distinguished lectures

One of the greatest perks of being a professor at FAU is the opportunity that I get, every now and then, to attend distinguished lectures. In 2008 alone, I've had the privilege to attending Dr. Ioannis Miaoulis's talk (see my posting on that) and the great and ever-inspiring Jane Goodall.

Today, I'll attend a talk on "Meditation and Cognitive Neuroscience: A Neurophenomenological Approach", by Professor Evan Thompson, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy, University of Toronto.

Looking forward to it...

How a child becomes a scientist

This is another great book, filled with inspiring stories about science and life, edited by John Brockman (editor of the excellent Edge website).