Pick 'n' mix

Just some interesting science/art/culture links this week

One of the downsides of freelancing is that I’m sometimes very busy, and this is one of those weeks. So instead of a lengthy introduction I just have a list of interesting links for you to snack on. Enjoy!

Photo by Vinicius "amnx" Amano on Unsplash

Interesting links

• Can Art Help Save the Insect World? By Alix Strauss for the New Yorkt Times, about Levon Biss’s upcoming exhibit at the AMNH.

• Mary Elizabeth Williams interviews Matt Richtel for Salon about his new book on creativity.

• The neuroscience behind playful learning. By me for BOLD Blog.

• Why MIT Researchers Are Studying Oreos. By Sarah Kuta for Smithsonian Magazine

• Dean Burnett shares some neuroscience-approved productivity tips on BBC Science Focus.

• For Forbes.com I wrote about a study where volunteers watched a Black Mirror clip and shared their opinions about different types of AI. They preferred an AI that was just a voice over an uncanny robot.

• I also covered a study in which rats had to listen to the “Happy Birthday” song so many times, but they were then able to identify it even if the pitch or tempo changed. 

• In National Geographic, Dominic Bliss writes about how art shapes our understanding of plants – and reveals wonders photographs can miss.

• Ice age artists may have used firelight to animate carvings, by Brian Handwerk in Smithsonian Magazine