Mindfulness For Children: Mindful Seeing
I recorded a new guided meditation for children from my InnerKids class.
Click on the link below to listen to the audio recording:
Annaka Harris
NEWS
Guest Post: Life’s Beginning
An Excerpt From The Selfish Gene, By Richard Dawkins (40th Anniversary)
40 years later, this is still one of the best descriptions of evolution and natural selection of all time. Happy Birthday to “The Selfish Gene”! If you haven’t read it yet, you owe it to yourself to read it now:
…Chemists have tried to imitate the chemical conditions of the young earth. They have put these simple substances in a flask and supplied a source of energy such as ultraviolet light or electric sparks – artificial simulation of primordial lightning. After a few weeks of this, something interesting is usually found inside the flask… Continue Reading
Your Brain Is a Time Machine: The Neuroscience and Physics of Time
by Dean Buonomano
My latest editing project is now available for pre-order!
What is time? Why does time seem to speed up or slow down? Is our sense that time flows an illusion? Dean presents his own influential theory of how the brain tells time, and he illuminates such concepts as free will, consciousness, spacetime, and relativity from the perspective of a neuroscientist.
Video: Gravitational Waves Detected
A team of scientists announced on Thursday [February 11, 2016] that they had heard and recorded the sound of two black holes colliding a billion light-years away…
by Dennis Overbye, Jonathan Corum and Jason Drakeford
Click here to watch the 5 minute video
Spot the International Space Station!
I’m pretty late to this party, but I just found out you can easily see the ISS flying overhead. And it’s an incredible sight…
Click here to select your location and find out when the ISS will be flying over you
Waking Up To Five Planets
With the help of an astronomer, a photographer captured this time-lapse video early one morning in late January.
Click here to watch the NYT Science video
by Benjamin Norman, Stan Honda and Daniel Orentlicher
2015 TED Talk: Can We Create New Senses For Humans?
by David Eagleman
This thought-provoking talk is a pleasure to watch from beginning to end!
The I Wonder Read-Along Is Out!
I Wonder Read-Along Video
produced by Four Elephants Press, read by Annaka Harris
Click here to watch the trailer
The Cutest Meditation Instruction Ever
Adorable Animated Mice Explain Meditation in 2 Minutes,
by Dan Harris and Happify
Wait But Why
I highly recommend Tim Urban’s blog, Wait But Why, and his latest post on colonizing Mars is especially great. Tim jokes that he’s been “seriously dating astronomy” since he was three-years-old, and his excitement and passion are contagious!
Click here to read Tim Urban’s latest blog post,
How (and Why) SpaceX Will Colonize Mars
“I Wonder” Endorsement From Betsy Brown Braun
Betsy Brown Braun is a Child Development and Behavior Specialist. She is author of the best sellers Just Tell Me What to Say and You’re Not the Boss of Me.
“What a special book I Wonder is. The gentle text is like climbing into a warm bath, and the illustrations are just delicious—each is a complete work of art. I look forward to sharing I Wonder with my clients, as the message of the book is of critical importance.”—Betsy Brown Braun
Guest Post: Stardust
An excerpt from The Universe Within
by Neil Shubin
All the galaxies in the cosmos, like every creature on the planet, and every atom, molecule, and body on Earth are deeply connected. That connection begins at a single point 13.7 billion years ago…
Continue Reading
Guest Post: What Will I Say Next?
An excerpt from How Could Conscious Experiences Affect Brains?
by Max Velmans
…In speech, for example, the tongue may make as many as twelve adjustments of shape per second—adjustments which need to be precisely coordinated with other rapid, dynamic changes within the articulatory system. According to Lenneberg (1967), within one minute of discourse as many as ten to fifteen thousand neuromuscular events occur…
Continue Reading
The Power of Believing That You Can Improve
A TEDx Norrkoping Talk, by Carol Dweck
Dr. Dweck explains the power of responding to children with “Not Yet” when they’re having trouble understanding. If they are told “Not Yet”, they experience a problem as one they can solve given time and guidance, rather than something they have “failed”. Instead of setting children up for failure, low self-esteem, and cheating, we can help them become curious, interested in learning, and excited by a challenge!
2015 TED Talk: How Our Microbes Make Us Who We Are
by Rob Knight
This is a truly fascinating subject, and it reminds me of the research on parasites that affect behavior. If you’re interested in reading more, there was a great article in the New York Times by Natalie Angier in 2007: In Parasite Survival, Ploys to Get Help From a Host
My Plastic Alternative Recommendations
After reading the recent Mother Jones article “The Scary New Evidence on BPA-Free Plastics,” I started to take health concerns about plastic more seriously. Previously, I figured that the problem of BPA had been addressed, and that as long as products were free of this toxic ingredient, our sippy cups, bottles, and containers were safe. However, it turns out that even more hazardous chemicals are being used in the production of plastics, and when the same guys (literally) who tried to help protect the tobacco industry are now helping protect the plastics industry, we know we have a problem. I’ve spent some time looking for alternative products for our children, and I thought others might benefit from my research and trial and error.
Click here to view my product recommendations—everything from baby bottles to flatware!
A Tour of the Andromeda Galaxy
On January 5, NASA released an image of the Andromeda galaxy, our closest galactic neighbour, captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The full image is made up of 411 Hubble images, takes you through a 100 million stars and travels over more than 40,000 light years. The awe inspiring video below by @daveachuk zooms in on the photo. There are no words…
Sebastian Seung’s Quest to Map the Human Brain
by Gareth Cook
Using crowdsourcing and artificial intelligence, a Princeton neuroscientist is hoping to map the intricate wiring of the human brain. If he succeeds, could we live forever as data?
Guest Post: Your Inner Fish
An excerpt from Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5 Billion-Year
History of the Human Body
by Neil Shubin
… No matter how different the species look as adults, as tiny embryos they all go through the same stages of development. To fully appreciate the importance of this, we need to look again at our first three weeks after conception…
The Wonderful and Terrifying Implications of Computers That Can Learn:
A TED Talk by Jeremy Howard
Would you like to spend your New Year’s contemplating what the future holds? Start with this!
FOR YOUNG CHILDREN:
