May 24, 2010

Life of Brain

52 minutes

We should award frequent travel miles to your brain. After all, it’s evolved a long way from the days of guiding brachiation from tree-to-tree to become the three pounds of web-surfing, Sudoku-playing powerhouse it is today. But a suite of technologies may expand human brains further still.

From smart pills to nano-wires: discover the potential – and peril – of neuro-engineering to repair and enhance our cognitive function.

Also, how our brains got so big in the first place: a defense of the modern diet.

Guests

Bill Leonard - department chairman and professor of Anthropology at Northwestern University

Michael Gazzaniga - neuroscientist and director of the University of California – Santa Barbara’s SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind. Author of

Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique

Ian Pearson - futurologist at Futurizon

Steven Rose - biologist and director of the Brain and Behavior Research Group at the Open University in London. Author of The Future of the Brain: The Promise and Perils of Tomorrow's Neuroscience

Ed Boyden - neuroscientist at MIT’s Media Lab and Department of Biological Engineering

Descripción en español

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By Big Picture Science

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