More than 30 years ago, an Egyptian-born Dominican monk, Bruno Hussar, wanted to create a place where people could learn how to live together – so he founded a new village between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in Israel. This new … Continue reading
dichotomy - a division into two mutually exclusive or contradictory groups or entities. Two things can be true at the same time. In order to create harmony within our societies we need to first create harmony within ourselves. This is not … Continue reading
Broadly speaking, there are two distinct types of writing systems – logographic and alphabetic. A logographic system is one in which the basic units of the written language are symbols that represent words and syllables. Examples of logographic scripts are Egyptian … Continue reading
You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird… So let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing – that’s … Continue reading
Language and reading seem to us in our society to be interchangeable but while language exists all over the world since time immemorial, reading is a relatively new activity. The fact is that many people alive today, while fully endowed … Continue reading
Sleep and the Brain When you are alert, your brain generates Beta Waves. When you are awake and relaxed, these change to Alpha Waves. As you sleep, your brainwaves slow and deepen, becoming Theta and Delta Waves. Someone in a … Continue reading
Though the biggest part of our brains are composed of structural cells called glial cells and astrocytes, in between these are the cells we all associate with brain activity – namely, neurons. The average human brain is said to contain about … Continue reading
Music to Our Ears In his book, Musicophilia, neurologist Oliver Sachs says, Anatomists would be hard put to identify the brain of a visual artist, a writer, or a mathematician – but they could recognize the brain of a professional … Continue reading
Our ability to focus is invaluable. It helps us to understand, to problem solve, even to invent. However, like everything else, it has its downside. This focusing ability – known as the attentional spotlight – is one of the quirks … Continue reading
You see what you believe. In their book, Sleights of Mind - What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals about Our Everyday Deceptions, Dr. Susana Martinez-Conde and Dr. Stephen Macknik – both neuroscientists – investigate the manner in which quirks in our brain … Continue reading