Mind vs. Machine
In the race to build computers that can think like humans, the proving ground is the Turing Test-an annual battle between the world's most advanced artificial-intelligence programs and ordinary people. The objective? To find out whether a computer can act "more human" than a person. In his own quest to beat the machines, the author discovers that the march of technology isn't just changing how we ... posted on Feb 14 2011, 2,983 reads

7-Month-Old Babies Can 'Read Minds'
Babies as young as 7 months old may be able to take into account the thoughts and beliefs of other people, a younger age than previously demonstrated. 7-month-olds have little experience with conversation, which has long been thought to play a key role in acquiring this capacity. As a result, this study is thought to be significant in building new theories about how this capacity develops. In the ... posted on Feb 13 2011, 1,726 reads

How Meditation May Change the Brain
"Over the holidays, my husband went on a silent meditation retreat. He said the experience was so transformational that he has committed to meditating for two hours daily, one hour in the morning and one in the evening. He's running an experiment to determine whether and how meditation actually improves the quality of his life," one NY Times contributor writes. Scientists say that meditators like ... posted on Feb 11 2011, 5,678 reads

Stem Cell Transplant Helps Athletic Student See Again
Taylor Binns was nearly blind by the time he met Allan Slomovic this fall at Toronto Western Hospital. A rare, extremely painful disorder that damages stem cells in the cornea had blurred his vision. Sometimes it felt as if he was being stabbed in the eyes with a knife. But the fourth-year Queen's University student is celebrating the gift of sight thanks to his kid sister, Tori, and a new stem ce... posted on Jan 09 2011, 1,599 reads

Does Thinking Make it So?
In a world that prizes medical science and blames illness on factors such as genes, viruses, bacteria or poor diet, certain perplexing cases stand out. Consider Mr. Wright, a man whose tumors "melted like snowballs on a hot stove" when he was given an experimental drug that he believed would cure his cancer, but was later declared to be worthless by the American Medical Association. His case is ju... posted on Dec 23 2010, 5,464 reads

Can Meditation Increase Kindness?
When Richard Davidson told his advisers at Harvard that he planned to study the power of meditation in the 1970s, they winced. But Dr. Davidson would one day find a mentor with a different frame of mind: the Dalai Lama. The Tibetan spiritual leader recently announced plans to donate $50,000 to the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at Madison, a new research lab founded by Davidson that invest... posted on Dec 18 2010, 3,594 reads

Four Ways to Respond in an Argument
From your nervous system's point of view, there are a number of ways to respond to an argument. You can find yourself in one of the knee-jerk reactions such as fight, flight, or freeze. You can roar and bite, escape and hide, or freeze like deer in headlights. Or, you can take a breath, and get your nervous system to smile. Neuropsychologist Marsha Lucas reminds us that taking a moment to catch ou... posted on Dec 13 2010, 24,603 reads

The Empathy Experiment
According to a recent study today's college students are 40 percent less empathetic than graduates from two or three decades ago. A disconcerting finding that raises this question: Can empathy be taught? Denvy Bowman, President of Capital University, is launching a year-long project to find out. Working closely with six students who will undergo an "empathy immersion", Bowman will also study wheth... posted on Dec 12 2010, 2,376 reads

How a Wandering Mind Affects Your Mood
When researchers at Harvard University tracked the happiness level of iPhone users, they discovered that, for almost half of our waking hours, our minds are wandering. Using an iPhone app, participants rated their happiness on a scale of 0-100 and included what they were doing, and whether their mind was wandering beyond the task at hand. The results reveal that a wandering mind has a bigger influ... posted on Dec 03 2010, 8,920 reads

Exercise Helps Improve Memory
Memory loss is the single biggest fear for Americans over the age of 55. And it's understandable: over 4 million currently suffer from Alzheimer's disease, and those numbers are expected to quadruple by 2050, according to the Alzheimer's Foundation. That may be why memory-boosting products like Sudoku puzzles and ginko-infused soft drinks are lining storefronts. But beyond the marketing campaigns,... posted on Nov 19 2010, 3,875 reads