Regular readers know that I’ve been spending the better part of 2010 working on a Wired piece about addiction. Well, the feature is finally live, and now the full truth can be revealed—the article’s central narrative is about the history and science (or lack thereof) of Alcoholics Anonymous, which just celebrated its 75th anniversary. Here’s [...]
Entries Tagged as 'neuroscience'
The Bottle
June 24th, 2010 · 23 Comments
Tags:alcohol·Alcoholics Anonymous·alcoholism·neuroscience·Wired
Nothing Like the First Time
February 25th, 2010 · 1 Comment
In researching our forthcoming Wired piece on drug and alcohol abuse, we’ve found ourselves keenly interested in the tales that addicts tell about their first inebriatory experiences. One common thread we’ve found is a sense that the first drink or dose provided something that the person had always been searching for—the intoxicant made them whole, [...]
Twinkies for Peace
December 23rd, 2009 · 10 Comments
Staying on the food-taboo theme, we recommend this recent paper from the eternally irresistible Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine. The whole thing is worth a read, especially the authors’ various theories regarding why taboos exist. Our favorite nugget comes in the section dedicated to explaining why taboos may have formed to protect human health: Eating [...]
Bumps Make the Man
September 10th, 2009 · 4 Comments
Staying on yesterday’s Black Hawk theme, we found a major scientific curio related to the Sauk chief: an 1838 account of Black Hawk’s phrenological characteristics, published in the not-so-renowned American Phrenological Journal and Miscellany. We’re big lovers of old-time junk science, and this paper is chock full of such wrongheaded (though utterly sincere) treats. One [...]
Tags:Black Hawk·Native Americans·neuroscience·phrenology·pseudoscience
The Anteater Ritual
June 10th, 2009 · 3 Comments
Jonah Lehrer, one of our most brilliant Wired colleagues, just posted about the infectious nature of bad dancing. Checking out his hilarious video evidence, we couldn’t help but think of this fictional antecedent. Who knew you could learn so much ’bout neuroscience by watching terrible ’80s sex romps?
Tags:1980s·Can't Buy Me Love·movies·neuroscience·Patrick Dempsey·Wired
The One Thing You Can’t Fix
June 5th, 2009 · 5 Comments
We’ve been so wrapped up with parenting and screenplaying these last two weeks, we’ve had scant time to ponder the tragic demise of former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun. As longtime Microkhan readers know, suicide is one of our great topics of interest. And so we were struck by the means with which Roh chose [...]
Tags:neuroscience·Roo Moo-hyun·South Korea·suicide·The New Yorker
