I’ve just started reading the book Sway: The Irresistable Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman. They are two brothers who got into seemingly different fields of business and psychology, but found that there are really interesting ideas that tie the two together. I haven’t gotten that far in the book yetRead More
Swarming behavior of masses of living things
On May 18th, I went to a talk by Dr. Iain Couzin, hosted by the Secret Science Club at the Bell House in Brooklyn. Couzin’s lab at Princeton investigates collective animal behavior, some of which include fish schools, bird flocks, and locust swarms. This video shows predator and the prey swarms interacting. When the videoRead More
Happy first birthday to this blog, and FRESH the movie
It has been a just a few days past a year since I first posted on this blog. A lot has changed since then, the most significant of which is that I now have a great job! Since starting that job, this blog has been greatly neglected. So with that in mind, I will tryRead More
Defending wolves and worldviews
I like wolves. As a child, I loved the book “Julie of the Wolves” and as an adult I enjoyed the anime “Wolf’s Rain.” Wolves are some of the least understood of the predators that humans have pitted themselves against over the ages, others being sharks, bears, and large cats. One of the main reasonsRead More
Piezoelectricity in mini form and gecko tape
Here are some articles a friend sent to me recently (thanks Katie!). I posted earlier about piezoelectricity being used in dance clubs and subway turnstiles, but here is an article about a smaller version that could be used in cell phones. The second article is about gecko tape. Geckos have a really fascinating ability toRead More
TED Talk: Jamie Oliver’s wish to teach every kid about food
I watched this TED talk by Jamie Oliver last week and it was quite interesting. I was shocked to see the segment on the children in the classroom he visited in West Virginia. They could not identify vegetables. One child mistook tomatoes for potatoes! Jamie’s wish is to create a network of organizations and communityRead More