Discover, April 24, 2011

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One day not long ago a 27-year-old woman was brought to the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, sleepy and confused. Fani Andelman, a neuropsychologist at the center, and colleagues gave the woman a battery of psychological tests to judge her state of mind. At first the woman seemed fine. She could see and speak clearly. She could understand the meaning of words and recall the faces of famous people. She could even solve logic puzzles, including a complex test that required her to plan several steps ahead. But her memory had holes. She could still remember recent events outside her own life, and she could tell Andelman details of her life up to 2004. Beyond that point, however, her autobiography was in tatters.

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The Wall Street Journal, April 23, 2011

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The bottom of a mine shaft doesn’t seem like the sort of place a naturalist should go to look for life. But scientists have found thriving communities of microbes living as deep as two miles underground. These organisms can’t rely on sunlight for their energy, so they survive instead on the radioactivity of the rocks in which they dwell. They exist in a world separate from our own, an ecological Hades.

The New York Times, April 4, 2011

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Discover, March 24, 2011

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Teenagers are a puzzle, and not just to their parents. When kids pass from childhood to adolescence their mortality rate doubles, despite the fact that teenagers are stronger and faster than children as well as more resistant to disease. Parents and scientists alike abound with explanations. It is tempting to put it down to plain stupidity: Teenagers have not yet learned how to make good choices. But that is simply not true. Psychologists have found that teenagers are about as adept as adults at recognizing the risks of dangerous behavior. Something else is at work.

Continue reading “The Trouble With Teens” →

The New York Times, March 14, 2011

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