Mind Engineering

Why can't we tickle ourselves? Why do footballers who hug score more goals? Why does holding a hot coffee make us feel more positively about people? Touch is the sense that makes us human. It defines our experiences, shapes our sense of self and bonds us together. It is the first sense to start working in utero. If you are deprived of the sense of sight or hearing from birth, you will still be able to live a rich and fruitful life.

Today many of us live indoor lives, disconnected from the natural world as never before. And yet nature remains deeply ingrained in our language, culture and consciousness. So what happens, asks acclaimed journalist Lucy Jones, as we lose our bond with the natural world-might we also be losing part of ourselves? Delicately observed and rigorously researched, Losing Eden is an enthralling journey through this new research, exploring how and why connecting with the living world can so drastically affect our health.

In fifteenth-century Italy, Paolo Uccello recognizes the artistic talent of his young daughter, Antonia, and teaches her how to create a masterpiece. The girl composes a painting of her mother and inadvertently sparks an enduring mystery. In the present day, a copyist painter receives a commission from a wealthy Chinese businessman to duplicate a Paolo Uccello painting. Together, the painter and his teenage daughter visit China, and in doing so they begin their escape from a tragic family past.

Among all life on Earth, we alone experience rich moral emotions, follow complex rules governing how we treat one another, and engage in moral dialogue. But how did human morality evolve? And can humans become morally evolved? In A Better Ape, Victor Kumar and Richmond Campbell draw on the latest research in the biological and social sciences to explain the key role that morality has played in human evolution.

In this highly original book, Russell Blackford discusses the intersection of science fiction and humanity’s moral imagination. With the rise of science and technology in the 19th century, and our continually improving understanding of the cosmos, writers and thinkers soon began to imagine futures greatly different from the present. Science fiction was born out of the realization that future techno-scientific advances could dramatically change the world.

The climate crisis is wreaking havoc across the globe, raising sea levels, disrupting ancient weather patterns and decimating biodiversity worldwide. But new research shows that the warming climate is not just affecting the planet's physical systems - it is affecting us all individually too. In The Weight of Nature, the neuroscientist and journalist Clayton Page Aldern examines, for the first time, the seismic consequences of climate change on the human mind, brain and body.

No other life form on the planet has generated a brain like ours. How did a bundle of cells weighing just 1.2 kg give rise to conscious, self-aware beings capable of understanding time, language, mathematics and music, of exploring outer space and sequencing their own DNA? The answer to such questions is a seven-million-year saga. How the Mind Changed is the definitive audiobook on human brain evolution: a sweeping natural history.

Embark on a transformative journey that will unveil the extraordinary potential of your subconscious mind, empowering you to reverse the aging process, restore youthful vitality, and rejuvenate every cell in your body. Here we will explore the profound connection between your thoughts, beliefs, and the physical reality you experience. Humanity has long sought the elusive elixir of youth, and while such a literal fountain of youth may not exist, recent scientific advancements reveal that we possess an inner wellspring of rejuvenation—the power of our own subconscious minds.

Over his long career as witness to an extreme 20th century, National Book Award-winning psychiatrist, historian, and public intellectual Robert Jay Lifton has grappled with the profound effects of nuclear war, terrorism, and genocide. Now he shifts to climate change, which, Lifton writes, "presents us with what may be the most demanding and unique psychological task ever required of humankind" - what he describes as the task of mobilizing our imaginative resources toward climate sanity.

The author devoted more than 20 years to this book, proving a philosophical principle and making several critical comments on different theories regarding social problems we are now facing: what is the natural foundation of human subsistence or human phenomena? Why is the progression of civilization and its social development inevitably moving toward an endangering destination? And why are the mental attributes and knowledge system ultimately proved unhelpful or even appear negative?

In the drug world today, most of the "buzz" is centered around "legal highs" and various loopholes. Within this audiobook, I've highlighted many of the semi-legal psychoactive plants, fungi, fish, amphibians, reptiles, and insects in which these substances are derived and/or extracted/isolated from. I use the term "semi-legal" because laws vary by state, loopholes exist, and the host may be legal in situations where isolating the drug is not, hence "semi-legal".

In Florida, there exists a very special ecosystem where sub-tropical and north-temperate vegetation meet—Bulow Hammock. Saved by conservationists, it is one of the last stands of forest on the East Coast. This hardwood grove in Florida's open marshes and pine wood is now a State Park where complex life thrives. In the tradition of Peter Matthiessen and Stephen Jay Gould, David Rains Wallace links natural history with the imagination for an intensive study of this unique and beautiful ecosystem.

Leading neuroscience researchers are racing to unlock the secrets of the mind. On the cusp of decoding brain signals that govern motor skills, they are developing miraculous technologies to enable paraplegics and wounded soldiers to move prosthetic limbs, and the rest of us to manipulate computers and other objects through thought alone. These fiercely competitive scientists are vying for Defense Department and venture capital funding, prestige, and great wealth.

"Human Body Facts For Sharp Minds" is your go-to guide for mind-blowing and scientific facts that delve into the wonders of the digestive, respiratory, cardiac, circulatory systems, bones, and much more. From kids to teens, adults, and seniors, this book is designed to engage minds of all ages. Share the experience as a family and explore the fascinating details of our bodies together.

Peron is a freak among his people… Peron is a gleran. A sentient, insect creature part of a hive of countless fellows. But he isn’t meant to be sentient. Something has gone wrong, and has left Peron as the only gleran in his hive, maybe even the world, with free will. As Peron realises how different he is, he starts to realise his loneliness. But why should he be alone among millions? He shouldn’t, and he won’t let himself be the only sentient gleran. But the hive mind is strong. Perhaps too strong even for him. Find out how one of the Warpmancer Universe’s most interesting ...

In Best of the Brain, top neuroscientist Floyd E. Bloom has selected the most fascinating brain-related articles from Scientific American and Scientific American Mind since 1999. Bloom garnishes the impressive lineup with his own introduction. The articles are grouped in three sections: "Mind", "Matter", and "Tomorrow's Brain".

As China comes into its own as a world economic power, a new, huge consumer class is emerging, hungry for all things Western. In this land where 25 years ago most of the population had never tasted chocolate, five icons of Western business are now slugging it out in a battle royal to see which will become the Emperor of Chocolate in China.

Although Professor Stephen Westaby was born with the necessary coordination and manual dexterity, it was a head trauma sustained during university that gifted him the qualities of an exceptional heart surgeon: qualities that are frequently associated with psychopathy. His 35-year career has been characterised by fearlessness and ruthless ambition, leaving empathy at the hospital door as thousands of patients put their lives in his hands.

People behave in strange ways. We sometimes giggle when someone falls down, swear we've been to places we haven't, or continue believing in something despite scientific evidence to the contrary. For more than a decade, Scientific American MIND's long-running feature "Ask the Brains" has addressed questions from their readers on the quirks and quandaries of human behavior, psychology, and neurology. Here, in Ask the Brains, Part 1, they’ve compiled some of the best and most interesting inquiries about the human brain.

Si les animaux ne peuvent nous parler, les récentes recherches démontrent qu’ils ont tout de même une activité mentale intense. En fait, l’animal a des habiletés cognitives qui lui permettent de s’adapter et de s’ajuster à l’univers unique dans lequel il vit. Et c’est en tentant de comprendre l’intelligence propre à chaque espèce que nous pourrons arriver à vraiment aimer et respecter les animaux qui nous entourent.