|
I recently posted about my scanning of a 3,000 year old mummy, Neskhons (original post here). Now, by analyzing the data in several different ranges of electron density, I've found something unexpected: inside the mummy's torso are 4 small funerary amulets.
|
|
As a scientist, what moments do you enjoy the most?
There have been various times when I have looked at the results of an experiment, or seen the results of an analysis, and had this feeling that I'm standing on virgin snow, in a place where no one has stood in the history of humankind -- ever. Those moments are special.
What is your proudest professional achievement?
When I managed to convince the ethical review board to allow me to do a time-perception experiment which involved dropping people off a tower. I wanted to see whether time really does slow down in frightening situations. As the volunteers fell, I asked them to look at an LED watch on their wrists which alternately showed a number and its inverted image 20 times a second -- slightly faster than people would normally be able to perceive. The volunteers reported that the fall lasted 36 per cent longer than it actually did, on average, but they still couldn't read the number -- which they should have been able to if time were really stretching out like a slow-motion movie.
Any other outlandish experiments up your sleeve?
|
|
[This article appeared inThe Week magazine, Dec 26, 2011]
The mystery of expertise
There is a chasm between what the brain knows and what our minds can fathom
David Eagleman, PhD
CONSIDER THE SIMPLE act of changing lanes while driving a car. Try this: Close your eyes, grip an imaginary steering wheel, and go through the motions of a lane change. Imagine that you are driving in the left lane and you would like to move over to the right lane. Before reading on, actually try it.
It's a fairly easy task, right? I'm guessing that you held the steering wheel straight, then banked it over to the right for a moment, and then straightened it out again. No problem.
Like almost everyone else, you got it completely wrong...
|
|
This was a nice holiday surprise for me: I'm featured on the cover of Italy's Style magazine.
(Click on the cover to read the article)
Last month it was Brad Pitt, and the month before Mick Jagger. Good company!
 
|
|
Written by David Eagleman
|
|
Monday, 12 December 2011 08:57 |
Occasionally people ask me the age of the oldest person I've ever scanned. Nowadays I give them the answer to my best approximation: 3,000 years old. This is the age of Neskhons, an Egyptian mummy who I brought last week to our scanning facilities at Baylor College of Medicine.
Neskhons was recently acquired by a friend of mine with an outstanding art and antiquities collection. The mummy's head had been liberated from its bandages at an "unwrapping party" some 100 years ago, but the rest of his body remains tightly swaddled in his original linens. I immediately saw an opportunity that could not have been imagined upon his exhumation from Luxor in the 1800s: without disturbing anything, we could see inside the wrappings and build a full 3-dimensional reconstruction of his body.
|
|
|
Written by David Eagleman
|
After last Friday’s attacks in Oslo, Norway, everyone wants answers. How could such an act occur in a democracy of reasonable people? This is being debated from the angles of politics, religion, and sociology. I want to ask this from the point of view of neurobiology.
The brain is the most complex device we have ever discovered in the universe. Weighing three pounds and consisting of tens of billions of specialized cells woven in intricate patterns, it is the seat of our behavior, our beliefs, and our actions. If you were to injure your small toe in an accident, you’d be saddened, but your conscious experience would be no different. By contrast, if you were to damage an equivalently sized piece of brain tissue, this can change your personality entirely—thereby unmasking the veiled workings of the machinery beneath. Through centuries of observations of brains (and brain damage), it has become clear that our hopes, fears, ideas, desires, and behaviors are all rooted in this mysterious organ.
Like all brains in the animal kingdom, human brains are driven by reward and motivation systems that are steered by hunger, thirst, and sex. But in humans—and presumably uniquely so—political ideologies can also come to steer these systems. Humans can override other basic social instincts in deference to beliefs—whether religious, racial, or nationalistic. Take, for example, the concept of a hunger strike, which overrides basic food demands in favor of a larger purpose.
So how can we comprehend the events in Oslo? First, it is important to understand that brains are like fingerprints: they are not the same in everyone. Instead, along any dimension that we measure, we find that brains are quite different from person to person. Inner lives can be unrecognizable between one brain and the next.
|
I'm a sucker for time jokes.
|
|
 
I had the pleasure of being profiled by Burkhard Bilger in my favorite magazine, The New Yorker. Read the article online or read the pdf.
|
|
I recently spent an evening speaking at the Rubin Museum in NYC with punk rock legend, writer, and spoken word artist Henry Rollins. We discussed the origin, meaning, neuroscience, and bizarreness of dreams. He's high-IQ, engaged in learning, and as sincere as he is agressive in life. A terrific time!
Photos (c) Michael Palma, all rights reserved.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Page 1 of 3 |
|
|
|
Blog
