Tuesday morning I was delighted to chat with Maureen Cavanaugh on KPBS San Diego’s These Days. We covered a lot of the central themes in Unscientific America and I especially enjoyed hearing from callers!
The full interview is now available online here.
Thanks to the photographer in the audience at Politics & Prose in DC who sent these great photos from Tuesday evening!
Thanks to everyone for a warm welcome back to the District! Chis and I really enjoyed our lunch conversation with the bright and enthusiastic “New Voices” at Research!America. This group of motivated young scientists certainly keeps us optimistic about the future!
Our book talk at Politics and Prose was terrific! There were some excellent and thought-provoking questions that followed from a great audience and we had fun meeting everyone afterward. We were very honored to have Jonathan Moreno of the Center for American Progress and Mary Woolley of Research!America introduce us at the event–two individuals who already do so much to bridge the science-society divide and continue to inspire us. And special thanks to Zuska, Jason, Benjamin, Manil, Al, and so many other friends who joined us for the evening. I only wish we had more time to spend together and it meant a great deal to see you there!
Throughout the day, we also did several interviews that we’ll link as they become available. And with that, posting will be light as we continue traveling…
Bora already posted some photos from my talk last night at Quail Ridge Books & Music, but here are a couple more…
It’s a busy week at The Intersection. This morning I’m headed to the WUNC studio to chat with Frank Stasio on The State of Things about Unscientific America. Meanwhile, Chris will be speaking at Northwestern University in Illinois tonight. Tomorrow I’m at Quail Ridge Books and Music in Raleigh, North Carolina and Friday you can hear me on The Scott Dick Show.
Posting may be light, but we have lots coming…
Now that I’m finally back in Durham, I must express tremendous gratitude to the incredible group of researchers working at New York University’s Poeppel lab for all of their assistance, encouragement, humor, and fine hospitality during my stay as we spent all week scanning subjects brains for The Kissing Experiment.
I’d like to individually thank Katherine Yoshida who set up the trials for her many tireless hours working with photos. I’m appreciative to Tobias Overath for his patience in the MRI and Christine Boylan for her head curviture assessments. Also, I’m grateful to Jeff Walker for running each trial and Discover’s own Amos Zeeberg and Eliza Strickland for willing to be my guinea pigs and braving the MEG machine. Most importantly, very special thanks to Gregory Cogan for being a terrific host and David Poeppel (brief bio here) for allowing me to take over his lab for such a stimulating cognitive neuroscience experiment.
We’re already seeing some very interesting results which I’ll have plenty to say about here and in the book. For more on David’s research, you can check out his terrific blog called Talking Brains. The Poeppel lab is an incredible group and I already miss them and NYC! XX
It will be a light week blogging for me because the kissing experiment requires a good deal of time and attention to run. I’m extremely grateful to David Poeppel and the terrific people working in his lab for all of their support and enthusiasm on this project.
This morning I’m headed back to the Meyer building at NYU for day two of brain scanning volunteer subjects–liquid helium and all… So for now I’ll leave you with a few more photos from my test run yesterday in the MEG.
On the right I’m suited up in scrubs wondering what I’ve gotten myself into and how in the world I went from sea cucumber reproductive biology to kissing experimentation. A couple of additional images are below the fold and remember you can follow the research live on Twitter @TheKissingBook.
Why just run a brain experiment in the lab, when you can participate?
Here’s a peek at setting up the MEG in the Poeppel lab at NYU:
About to get my head examined:
Follow the research live all week on Twitter @TheKissingBook!
The Science of Kissing now has its own Twitter account*.
Earlier this month I asked readers to participate in a preliminary survey that helped me design The Kissing Experiment set to take place next week in New York City…
I hoped for a fairly large sample size, and would have been satisfied with 60 responses–needless to say, you can imagine my surprise when well over 1,000 of you came through! I not only received photo rankings, but questions, opinions, and commentary. Many, many people also requested follow up information about the full experiment when it takes place. Fair enough.
Since I’m extremely grateful to everyone who helped out, you’re all invited to tune in to the cognitive neuroscience experiment as it takes place. We won’t have the results for a long time, but you’ll be able to share in the lab experience:
Follow me live from New York City @TheKissingBook for updates, links, and progress. And stay tuned because the adventures in kissing begin on Monday!
* In case regular readers are wondering, yes Physioprof and I maintain our pact because these ‘tweets’ are only on topics related to the book.
Stopping by UC Berkeley–one of my all time favorite campuses–to post a quick note from Peet’s…
Thanks to everyone for so many emails with Silence Is The Enemy links, news, questions on kissing, book tour suggestions, and more. It will take a long time to filter through it all, but know Chris and I really appreciate hearing from you.
I’ll be on a red eye east overnight, so expect the blog to pick back up in full force soon!
