This week it’s anthropology, the brain, HIV/AIDS, and some integrative interactions. Enjoy!

Anthropology

Paul Mason, Passion for Research and Music Combined
Our own Paul writes in the Macquarie Globe about his interdisciplinary interests. Includes this photo if you want to get a look at the man!

The Evolving Mind, Gaps in the Brain and Jack of Many Trades
Plasticity meets the Swiss army knife metaphor: ‘Any blade currently manifest, endowed in us by “nature,” is one nurture has extended.” For more, see a follow-up post on the creative confines of nature.

Mark Liberman, David Brooks, Social Psychologist
Language Log takes down Brooks’ facile “collectivist mentality” op-ed

Mark Liberman, One Question, Two Answers, Three Interpretations
Language Log turns from Brooks to David Nisbett’s research on US/East Asian differences, as well as James Flynn’s work on the social rise in IQ test scores

Science Daily, New Evidence Debunks ‘Stupid’ Neanderthal Myth
Recreating stone tools—were Neanderthal tools simpler to make? Not to modern hands at least

NPR, The Science of Getting a ‘Yes’
Social psychology and persuasion

Wray Herbert, Brrr, It’s Lonely Out There
Metaphor, meaning and basic perceptions

Clive Thompson, Brave New World of Digital Intimacy
NY Times Magazine on social networking and our changing forms of intimacy. Mind Hacks discusses the article here.

Brains

Neuronism, Dendritic Plasticity and ‘Input Feature Storage’
Synaptic plasticity meets computational neuroscience

Benedict Carey, For the Brain, Remembering Is Like Reliving
A new study on how the brain recreates our memories

Not Exactly Rocket Science, Of Voles and Men: Exploring the Genetics of Commitment
Prairie voles, vasopressin, and the ability to love?

Neurological Correlates, Second-generation addiction, autistic spectrum, bipolar, schizophrenia, and obesity as artifacts of stress-induced epigenetics?
Epigenetics explains everything!? Stress meets genes…

Ivan Kenneally, The Prudence of Neuroscience
A reflection on Leslie Paul Thiele and his morality meets neuroscience in the new book The Heart of Judgment

Lindsey Tanner, Modest Brain Test Benefit Seen with Walking
Reports on a controlled study on the benefits of exercise for brain function in the elderly

HIV/AIDS

Harold Pollack, Casualties: Bush’s Shameful Record on AIDS in America
New Republic piece on the new face of AIDS in America. Pollack provides a shorter version here, which also gets readers’ comments

Shaila Dewan, 8 States Cut From System That Tracks Rate of H.I.V.
“Surveillance funding is starving at the C.D.C.,” Ms. Scofield said. “Their ability to say that they’re going to have ongoing reliable reports of incidence is somewhat questionable unless you have funding for that.”

Barbara Borst, Mother, Daughter Lead Kenyan Village in AIDS Recovery
Feeding families leads to AIDS prevention and treatment

Lawrence Altman, At Meeting on AIDS, Focus Shifts to Long Haul
After vaccines fail and drug treatments run into resistance, a call for increased prevention and building on gains made

Interactions

Philip Davis, The Shakespeared Brain
The EEG meets Shakespeare

Teledyn, The Shape of Music
Mathematics and music, description but not proscription

Neurocritic, Pain & Paintings: Beholding Beauty Reduces Pain Perception and Laser Evoked Potentials
Neuroesthetics applied to art and how beauty makes the world more bearable

Social Fiction, Primate Poetics
Big pdf covering primate research on language, and what that says about the nature of poetics (human or otherwise). One of the best case-by-case summaries of ape language research that I have seen.

The Situationist, Randomness, Luck, and other Situational Sources of Success and Failure
Discusses Leonard Mlodinow’s new book The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives

Live Science, Why Are ‘Mama’ and ‘Dada’ a Baby’s First Words?
Repetitive sounds, and parents themselves, work their effect – but how is that hard-wired rather than plastic?

Ionian Enchantment, Facebook for Academics
Check out the new site Academia