Instant Neuroscientist, Just Add Boot Camp

Have you always wanted to earn that degree in neuroscience, but never had the time? The University of Pennsylvania has just the thing: their 2012 Neuroscience Boot Camp. No, you won’t actually get a degree. The program lasts just nine days. But, you will get a crash course in cognitive and affective neuroscience, and you’ll [...]

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The Neuromarketing of Burgers

There’s hardly a shortage of places to buy hamburgers in the US, but the restaurant chain Five Guys has opened 300 stores in the last five years, and has contracts for many more. Locally, I’d been hearing about the fantastic hamburgers and fries at Five Guys for months, and finally ventured inside to see what [...]

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Training Your Brain to Multitask

It’s Monday, your inbox is full of unanswered emails, you desk is piled high with paper, and you’ve got a couple of important project deadlines looming. There’s one bright spot: although past research has indicated that people’s ability to multitask, i.e., perform several tasks at once, is very limited, a new study shows one can [...]

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Neuroscience and Magic

Magic tricks have entertained people for centuries, if not millenia. They startle and surprise the audience because the trick generally accomplishes something that appears to be impossible – a ball disappears when tossed in the air, a tiger materializes in an empty cage, and so on. Most magic tricks exploit limitations in human perception: when [...]

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