A brief, “edutaining” first-person account on the Science of Lying, from our own Dr. John Ohab.

This Pentagon Channel report investigates whether neuroimaging techniques can be used to detect deception. Dr. Bhatt previously appeared as a guest on the weekly science and technology podcast, “Armed with Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military”.

The report also features my award-winning acting skills and demonstrates the razor-sharp wit and decision-making savvy required to answer personal questions under pressure.

Dr. Bhatt: Were you born in 1980?
John: Yes.

Virtually no hesitation.

Discover Magazine just posted videos from a panel discussion titled “Unlocking the Secrets of the Brain,” which I helped put together in November at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. (I’m a senior advisor at Discover.) The National Science Foundation and Discover partnered to present a series of six public discussions to investigate the challenges and opportunities of topics such as the Brain, the Cosmos (at Caltech last month), and Climate Change (just wrapped that up at the Exploratorium in San Francisco). Each discussion will be featured in the magazine and highlights will be presented online. Check out this first video and read more about the full discussion here. An intriguing, creepy moral question is posed in the video. 

See what the panelists of our first discussion have to say about the future of our brains– Rebecca Saxe, Dan Levitin, Mike Gazziniga, and Sam Wang. The feature article is in the March issue of Discover.

 Daniel J. Levitin, a rock musician and producer turned neuroscientist and  author of “The World in Six Songs” and “This is Your Brain on Music”  wants to know.

Do Christmas songs help put you in the holiday mood? If so, any song in particular?

 (“Oh Come, All Ye Faithful” by Bing Crosby does it for me.)

I met Dan when we worked together on a recent Discover Magazine panel discussion: Unlocking the Secrets of the Brain. I was fascinated by the music-brain connections Dan articulated so well. So were the Amazon book reviewers when they wrote this:

“Think of a song that resonates deep down in your being. Now imagine sitting down with someone who was there when the song was recorded and can tell you how that series of sounds was committed to tape, and who can also explain why that particular combination of rhythms, timbres and pitches has lodged in your memory, making your pulse race and your heart swell every time you hear it. Remarkably, Levitin does all this and more, interrogating the basic nature of hearing and of music making…”

To shake things up a bit, I turned the tables on Dan and asked him a few questions about his own musical preferences:

Science Cheerleader: Do YOU have a favorite Christmas song?

Levitin: I do! It’s Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee. I even like the Miley Cyrus version. I also like the version that jazz guitarist Tuck Andress does of “Winter Wonderland” 

Science Cheerleader: Why (from a psychological standpoint) do you think it’s your favorite? 
 
Levitin: Ah! Well the Brenda Lee track I like because it is SO rockabilly, and at the time I’m sure it caused many a grandmother to run for the smelling salts (my word! Those pompadour rock ‘n’ roll musicians have gone too far!). And of course rock is all about breaking rules and stretching borders. So there’s that, but also, it just really swings. And I love that tubey guitar solo.  Tuck is a great player and his reharmonizations of Winter Wonderland add some rich and vibrant complexity to the tune. 

The Wall Street Journal just published this article: “Do You Hear What I Hear?” Holiday music is inescapable. Daniel J. Levitin on the ancient drive to listen to familiar songs, the psychological effects of music and why ‘Little Drummer Boy’ is so annoying. Read the full article.

Check it out. You’ll never think of music the same way again.

Thanks, Jacquie, for this interesting news.

 Jacquie: “This football season brings us perhaps the utimate citizen science sacrifice: The NY Times reports 12 NFL players have donated thier brains (post-humously of course) to enable scientists to explore the long term effects of repetitive head injuries. (hint: not good) See full story. Not an original idea: in 1876 la Société d’autopsie mutuelle (The Mutual Autopsy Society of Paris) allowed members to donate thier bodies for study (by other society members) to advance science.”

And, from Wired,  here’s another example of passive participation in science–though incredibly whimpy when compared to donating brains to science! GPS-Equipped iPhone Could Enable New Citizen Science

More on this later but you heard it here, folks: near-future personal technologies will turn everyone into citizen scientists whether you want to or not. YES! My plan to take over the world is working [evil laugh].Here are my evil assistants strategizing the global take-over.