The Science & Entertainment Exchange blogs

Tour Recap: The Exchange Brings Entertainers to the FBI

host — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:44:01 +0000

“You have to talk to your kids.” Always solid advice for any parent, however when this “word to the wise” comes from a cyber crime investigator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who specializes in breaking up online child pornography rings, this simple statement can resonate in ways far greater than face value.

On February 1, The Science & Entertainment Exchange teamed up with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) to bring a group of writers, producers, directors, and entertainment executives into the FBI’s cyber forensics unit in Orange County. FBI presenters included Cyber and Computer Forensics Program Assistant Special Agent in Charge Gina L. Osborn, Sexual Assault and Felony Enforcement (SAFE) Team Supervisory Special Agent Michael Osborn, Orange County Regional Computer Forensics Lab (OCRCFL) Director Jason Weiss, and Public Affairs Special Agent Alonzo Hill.

Presentations gave an overview of the FBI’s Cyber Program and highlighted recent investigations relating to computer intrusions, crimes against children on the Internet, and intellectual property crime. Participants received rare insights into the relationship between Investigators and Computer Forensics Examiners, what the web knows about you, and how cyber investigations have improved the effectiveness of law enforcement.

Each presentation topic engrossed the audience and illuminated just how vulnerable many people can be to identity theft and online blackmail. In particular, case studies involving the exploitation of children struck a chord with the entertainers on the tour, many of whom have kids at home. A truly stunning revelation came from the idea that a record exists of virtually everything you do online, and that criminals with increasingly lower levels of technical knowhow can exploit the web activity of young people – who tend to share many more private details on the Internet than do their parents. During a lively question and answer period, entertainers peppered FBI agents with all sorts of queries about how cyber felons operate and think – did you know that it is possible for a hacker to take over your computer from anywhere in the world and record you and your children 24 hours a day on your webcam without your knowledge?

After the presentations, agents led the group on a tour of the recently opened OCRCFL. The OCRCFL is a state-of-the-art, one stop, full-service forensics laboratory and training center devoted entirely to the examination of digital evidence in support of federal, state, and local investigations. Entertainers were able to ask questions of the many employees who make the center work. Attendee and Screen Gems executive John Graham summed it all up, saying that, “the tour answered several specific questions we had about cybercrime and sparked creative conversations that will absolutely improve the characters we’ve been developing. This was a very productive trip for us.”

All told, the afternoon’s interaction helped a group of entertainers understand the real world of cybercrime and how law enforcement officers work tirelessly to protect our data. They learned how forensic techniques and computer science blend together to combat crime. Look out for more private Exchange tours in the future. A big thanks from The Exchange to Mark Wind and Chris Lawson at CAA for co-organizing the afternoon!

Free downloadable resource from the National Academies: Proceedings of a Workshop on Deterring Cyberattacks: Informing Strategies and Developing Options for U.S. Policy

Photo credit: Special thanks to Chris Lawson.

Surprising Sloan Split Decision at Sundance

host — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:16:47 +0000

Park City, Utah – Filmgoers perhaps unaccustomed to the mercury in the teens and, if you are a Los Angelino, to good quality public transit, made the annual trek to Wasatch County for the 2012 Sundance Film Festival from January 20th to 29th. Among the program highlights is the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Prize for a feature film that focuses on science or technology as a theme or depicts a scientist, engineer, or mathematician as a major character. Past winners have included Sleep Dealer, House of Sand, Obselidia, and Another Earth. This year, in an unprecedented split decision, the judges opted for two winners – and both films were chosen for very different reasons.

Valley of Saints tells a lyrical tale of two brother-like friends competing for the love of a woman set amid chaotic political instability in Kashmir. The film elegantly portrays a science student studying the human folly that has led to the slow destruction of a lake on which an entire culture depends. The student, a wealthy woman and an outsider, grows to care deeply about one of the friends as he helps her with her research. The entirely grounded nature of the storyline and the scientist’s character help to move the audience as a complex issue around the lake unfolds: human overuse has led to the deterioration of the water quality. The film’s smart depiction of a science student engaging with a problem of such enormous magnitude perfectly fits with Sloan’s goal of encouraging grounded explorations of the drama surrounding science’s role in solving big problems in society.

Robot & Frank, perhaps simpler in its politics, nonetheless equally paints an untraditional and touching tale of two characters who are affected deeply by science – one of which happens to be a robot. The film opens in the near future with an aging cat burglar suffering from dementia named (unsurprisingly) Frank, played delicately by Frank Langella, whose son presents him with a robot to act as a caregiver. The machine and the elderly man, after a period of being at odds, develop a surprising relationship that culminates around a conflict with affluent young locals who Frank feels are a bunch of “maroons.” The film’s exploration of humanity’s interaction with and attachment to devices made in its own image, and that may perhaps one day surpass real people as the caregivers of choice, leaves the audience with much food for thought about the future into which we all may one day retire.

Without directly knowing the debate that may have occurred as this year’s Sloan panel of judges considered these two films, clearly both movies proved thought provoking and approached the Sloan Prize from very different directions. Valley of Saints may be more true to the problems that scientists face every day in their research; however, Robot & Frank playfully questions the future and uses its science to prod the viewer into thinking about the delicate balance between our physical need for machines to reduce labor and our increasing emotional dependence on those same gadgets. Both films used science (or science fiction) as a tool to evoke emotion in their stories and to express critical ideas.

In the end, the decision to split the prize represents exactly the spirit of the award’s purpose and the broad spectrum of Sloan’s mission. Congratulations to both films, to the Sloan judges who made what must have been a challenging decision (Tracy Day, Helen Fisher, Bob Full, Gwyn Lurie, and Alex River) and to Doron Weber from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for shepherding the Prize each year as a part of the Sundance Film Festival. We hope that all of The Exchange’s readership will have a chance to see both movies in the coming year. Please let us know what you think of their exploration of scientific themes and ideas!

Image credit: Valley of Saints and Robot & Frank

Cancer-Fighting Stem Cells

host — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:27:01 +0000

If you want to be immortal (in real life or in television and film), you need more than anti-aging cells – you need cells that fight common diseases. It is a fact echoed in In Time, a film where the characters never age past 25 years old. One of the characters mentions that only an accident could take his life – cancer, heart disease, and other illnesses do not exist in In Time’s (very youthful) world. But how could people be engineered not to age and resist cancer? Maybe the characters in the film are benefitting from some recent news at UCLA, where researchers engineered stem cells that find and attack melanoma.

Previously, stem cells (T-cells) were engineered to fight cancer but the effect wore off after a while. New engineered T-cells needed to be introduced to keep the fight going. But according to Dimitrios Vatakis, the first author of the study, that is not the case with UCLA’s engineered T-cells:

“The nice thing about this approach is a few engineered stem cells can turn into an army of T-cells that will respond to the presence of this melanoma antigen. These cells can exist in the periphery of the blood, and if they detect the melanoma antigen, they can replicate to fight the cancer.”

The researchers experimented with the engineered T-cells by placing them in melanoma tumors within nine mice. The results: in four of the mice, the tumor was eliminated, and in the remaining five mice, the tumors were decreased in size.

This “engineered immunity” has far-reaching potential to be applied to other types of cancers, which, hopefully, is the start of a cancer-free future.

Jenn Creighton is a science junkie with a writing backbone. She tweets about cool science at @gurlcode.

Science on Tap: Time Travel

host — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:53:11 +0000

“You think that the past is fixed and the future is up for grabs, but as far as the laws of physics are concerned they are equally real,” said Caltech’s Sean Carroll with a mischievous grin that seemed to suggest that he could actually see every brain in the room processing his words, accelerating to keep up.

On January 11, The Science & Entertainment Exchange held the second installment of its ongoing series Science on Tap at the Formosa Café in West Hollywood. The latest topic: From Eternity to Here: Time Travel for Beginners. Professor Sean Carroll wowed as the night’s one and only speaker in an interactive banter over beer on the nature of time, spaghettification (as a technical term), and why time travel is absolutely possible – in fact we do it every day … slowly forward.

Questions ranged from why the universe started organized and gets messy with the passage of time, otherwise known as entropy, to why Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure actually more accurately depicts time travel than Back to the Future – because Bill and Ted could not make changes to the past, but were able to make use of the past in their future to help themselves in the present. Sean Carroll, beer in hand, did nothing short of explain the universe itself, boiling complex theories of time and space into understandable nuggets for all to learn. At the end of the evening, entertainers gathered blown minds off the floor and went home with much to ponder as they returned to work on their next time travel science-fiction show or film.

Stay tuned, Science on Tap will continue, thanks to the great success of the format’s first two events with Professor Carroll, as well as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Randii Wessen and Bob Anderson.

Environmentalism for Kids: The Lorax Hits Theaters in March 2012

host — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:16:38 +0000

On March 3, 2012, Dr. Seuss’s famed book The Lorax will come to the big screen. The trailer, released a couple weeks ago, gives a glimpse into the expanded adaptation. The film version of The Lorax follows Ted, a young boy on a mission to find a living tree for the girl he likes. It is a journey that leads him to the Once-ler (and some trouble with Thneedville’s villainous owner). The trailer opens up Thneedville to show residents pumping plastic bushes and driving large one-wheeled SUVs, not to mention the barren treeless landscape outside the town’s walls.

The film does not seem to negate any of The Lorax’s original themes on environmentalism, which means it could be a great film to introduce the concept to children. The book is already accompanied by lesson plans and class projects in environmentalism, so maybe the film will be another component in teaching kids about caring for Earth. The trailer does not give us any clue about the film’s science (such as how trees convert carbon dioxide in oxygen) but maybe The Lorax will have a few science nuggets for kids as well.

Time Flies: The Psychology of Time

host — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 17:56:05 +0000

It’s almost time for another year to roll around, and with the New Year right around the corner, this is a great time to talk about time. Maybe 2011 went by in a flash for you or maybe it dragged on slowly – but have you ever stopped to wonder why time can feel as though it’s sped up or slowed down?

You might think time is absolute. After all, we measure it like it is, counting it down in decades, years, months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds. But five seconds can feel like a lifetime to one person, and hours can feel like minutes to another person. Studies suggest time illusions, such as seconds feeling like minutes, are related to mental processing. Say you’re assembling a bicycle, and the directions are a mess. You can’t figure out where Part A snaps into Part F (and why is that one piece shaped like a question mark – that makes no sense). During this task, you’re stopping to think quite often and that’s why it feels as though it’s taking forever – there was an increase in mental processing and time “slowed.” But even if it took you the same amount of time, and the directions were clear and you didn’t think as often, you’d feel like the task was fairly quick – there was a decrease in mental process and time “sped up.”

That second scenario, the one where time flew by, is known as flow. It’s a state studied extensively by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. He’s found that flow differs for people in terms of the task that induces it (so, maybe assembling a bicycle isn’t your flow but playing video games is, and so on). People, his research found, enjoy being in flow and report that time changes in the flow (for some it speeds up, for some it slows down). It’s also a state that crosses cultures, which is an odd fact when you consider how perception of time differs across the world and even between individuals.

Psychologist Robert Levine studied the perception of time in different countries, and another psychologist Philip Zimbardo studied individual perception of time. These two perceptions relate, as explained in the video below, to affect actions, choices, politics, personalities, and more. Time, it seems, has a lot to do with how we perceive the world and act in the world. So, before counting down to midnight, you might want to take some time to get to know time.

Image credit: ToniVC

The Exchange December Update: Look What We've Been Up To!

host — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 17:45:57 +0000

Don't miss our updates! Sign up to receive The Exchange's newsletters by entering your e-mail address in the sign up form, located on the top right of the website!

The season of giving is upon us, and in the spirit of the holidays we would like to thank our volunteer consultants who give their knowledge and time to The Exchange. As screenwriter Samantha Corbin-Miller put it:

The Exchange has proven to be an invaluable resource for me as a writer. I am constantly blown away by their ability to find knowledgeable, engaging medical professionals who are willing to take time out from their life-saving work to help make my scripts more authentic and accurate.

- Samantha Corbin-Miller, Writer/Producer

We would also like to thank everyone who uses our service and continues to support the program through word-of-mouth. We love hearing how our consultants have made a difference in your projects. As screenwriter Tom Schulman recently told us:

I had an absolutely fabulous consultation with Ricardo last week. He spent an entire afternoon with me, shared the fascinating details of his amazing research, and provided me with a breakthrough idea on my project. He's a great guy, it was an inspiring day, and I want to thank you so much for making it happen.

- Tom Schulman, Screenwriter

In November, The Exchange also celebrated three years of bringing the science and entertainment communities together - marked by more than 385 consults logged into the database! We celebrated this milestone by posting some special interviews with the key people who made The Exchange possible: Ralph J. Cicerone, Janet Zucker, Jerry Zucker, and Sean Gesell. We also heard from screenwriter Jane Espenson about her love of science fiction and learned what questions physicist Sean M. Carroll is most frequently asked during consults. To help you meet your recommended allowance of daily science reading, check out the articles on genetically-engineered neurons that light up, how an online game solved a protein mystery essential to AIDS research, the reality of tractor beams, and the science behind aging.

As the end of the year (quickly!) approaches, we are actively raising money to support our 2012 operations. As a nonprofit, we are supported by grants, private donations, and some National Academy of Sciences endowment funds. If you would like to support The Exchange by making a tax-deductible contribution, please go to our online secure gift-giving form, and select the "The Science & Entertainment Exchange" box. Thank you so much for your support - we truly appreciate it!

As always, you can stay connected with The Exchange's weekly updates by subscribing to our RSS feed or engage with us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Vimeo.

GIRLS' ADVENTURES IN SCIENCE

Science can take you on all sorts of adventures. If you want to make a character fly across the room or jump out of a burning building, use physics. If you want to create a new world, use computer science. To journey to the center of the earth, do not forget your geology. To solve a murder in 60 minutes or less, learn forensic science. Science provides inspiration and explanation for many in the entertainment industry. On October 29, The Exchange presented Science in Hollywood at Girltopia, a gathering of 10,000 Girl Scouts at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Scientist-turned-film director Valerie Weiss, Jet Propulsion Lab education specialist Laura Tenenbaum, and forensic anthropologist Diane France shared behind-the-scenes information on how science is used in Hollywood - from planning stunts, to creating accurate scenes, to inspiring stories. Each audience member left with a biography from the Women's Adventures in Science series, which highlights a number of working scientists in a variety of fields.

SCIENCE ON TAP

"What exactly is an astrobiologist and how does this field even exist when we do not know for sure if other planets have biology?" It was an honest question posed by a member of the entertainment community over a beer to two experts from Jet Propulsion Lab. Welcome to The Exchange's newest event series designed to bring scientists together with Hollywood professionals - Science on Tap.

Our first topic: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life. Thanks so much to the speakers who helped launch Science on Tap's maiden voyage, Randii Wessen and Bob Anderson from NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab.

Unlike a panel session, salon, or tour, Science on Tap events are meant to be more open and the talks less structured during the course of a small-scale evening created for close interaction and comfortable discourse in a local Los Angeles watering hole. Wessen and Anderson spent two hours sharing their favorite career stories and reflecting on what amazes them about their work with a room full of writers, film executives, and producers who engaged in an open-ended conversation.

Overwhelmingly positive feedback from the evening confirmed that you should be on the lookout for more Science on Tap in 2012. We are always interested in knowing what topics are of most interest to Hollywood, so please feel free to drop us a line and let us know what you would like to learn more about ... in a bar. In other words: What would you ask a scientist over a beer?

COVERT AFFAIRS WRITERS' WORKSHOP

Geospatial Intelligence (GeoInt) is one of the fastest growing mission spaces in the intelligence community. Using massive digital databases, real-time information, and state-of-the-art analytical tools, GeoInt teams are tackling the most difficult problems facing national security organizations. GeoInt also extends beyond the traditional defense missions into other areas of national security - for example, how to evacuate a U.S. military base from national disaster, how to track terrorist activity, or how to understand health issues. From desktop computers to mobile war fighters, GeoInt is the key. In early December, the Covert Affairs writers' room spent the day at Esri - the people who pioneered the science of geographic information systems - learning about this cutting-edge technology, hearing the stories behind it, and getting up-close-and-personal to see how GeoInt teams ferret out secret nuclear enrichment facilities in Iran, help local captains fend off Somali piracy attack patterns, and use the power of social networks to discover real-time patterns that tell us what is happening around the globe.

As Chris Ord and Matt Corman (co-creators of Covert Affairs) shared after the workshop:

Thank you John and Esri for a fantastic day. It was above and beyond what we and our writers could have asked for. Everyone came in to work today jazzed and excited about everything we learned yesterday. Thanks to the NAS so much for organizing. We look forward to continuing our relationship and finding new areas to explore in the future!

THE EXCHANGE ON THE ROAD: BAY AREA SCIENCE FESTIVAL

Some of television's most popular medical, crime, science, and science-fiction shows routinely ask for a helping hand to portray science and technology realistically. On November 4, Hollywood came to the Bay Area Science Festival. Jamie Paglia (executive producer, Eureka ), Seth Shostak (senior astronomer, SETI), Tony DeRose (senior scientist, Pixar), and Kevin Grazier (investigational scientist at the Jet Propulsion Lab and science advisor for Eureka, Battlestar Galactica, and other shows) engaged the audience with stories of how science genuinely inspires the narrative process and how the entertainment industry is increasingly using scientists to get it right.

CELEBRATING OUR PAST - PLANNING OUR FUTURE

The Exchange just celebrated its third anniversary in November. Since our launch three years ago, we have facilitated more than 385 consults between the entertainment industry and top scientists, engineers, and health professionals. We host salons, panel discussions, and screenings to bring entertainment industry professionals and scientists together - because at the end of the day, it is as much about the "cultural exchange" as about the consultations. We are grateful to the members of the entertainment community who reach out to us with their questions - each one is an adventure! And a special thanks to our volunteer science consultants who are critical to our success. We truly cannot do it without you!

As we look toward our future, we are gathering ideas on where we should go from here. We brought together a small group of entertainment industry leaders, top scientists, and some of our funders earlier this month to share their thoughts on our progress to date and to brainstorm ideas for the future. Ralph Cicerone, president of the National Academy of Sciences, and Janet and Jerry Zucker, vice chairs of The Exchange, challenged the participants to roll up their sleeves, think outside the box, and consider future activities for The Exchange. The group rose to the challenge, and exceeded our expectations. We are actively sorting through all the ideas, and look forward to where they will take us!

WEBSITE HIGHLIGHTS

Anniversary Interviews

To commemorate the third anniversary of The Exchange we featured interviews with the people who made the program possible:

Janet Zucker explained why she feels an immense debt to science and shared her initial thoughts on The Exchange.
Jerry Zucker told us why he finds science fascinating and offered some words of wisdom to aspiring filmmakers and scientists.
Ralph J. Cicerone spoke about his first memory of science and his hopes for The Exchange's future.
Sean Gesell shared what he learned from interacting with scientists, as well as his thoughts on Hollywood's interest in science.

Hugo Gets Inspiration from Some Old-School Engineering
Martin Scorsese's 3-D holiday adventure Hugo offers moviegoers a glimpse into some engineering history with the help of an automaton.

Mister Terrific: Scientist Turns Superhero
Comic book writer, Eric Wallace, shares some scoop on the science of Mister Terrific and how this brilliant, billionaire scientist differs from other superheroes.

In Time and Immortality: Is It Only a Matter of Time?
Andrew Niccol's latest film In Time explores an ageless society. Find out what scientists know about the science of aging, and what scientific breakthroughs could lead to a longer life.

COURTROOM DRAMA EXPLAINED

The Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, Third Edition, is a great resource for scientific and technical evidence in the courtroom. The manual overviews key scientific topics behind legal evidence such as DNA identification, toxicology, epidemiology, and neuroscience in lay terms. It also provides examples of scientific and technical evidence in legal cases. Download the PDF version of the manual for free at nap.edu.

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

We would like to acknowledge the continuing support provided to The Exchange by various individuals and organizations. Of course, our special thanks to Janet and Jerry Zucker, vice-chairs of the advisory board for The Exchange, and our partners in this program. They have been instrumental in guiding the progress of the program since its launch in 2008. Our thanks also go to:

National Academy of Sciences
Cures Now: Lucy Fisher, Douglas Wick, Janet Zucker, and Jerry Zucker
The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
The California Endowment
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Research Corporation for Science Advancement
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Gail Blout and The Elkan Blout Fund of the National Academy of Sciences
Research Corporation for Scientific Advancement
Robert and Anne James
Esri / Jack and Laura Dangermond
Davis Masten and Christopher Ireland
Jill H. Kramer
IEEE-USA
Nancy Conrad
Presidents' Circle Communications Initiative of the National Academies

CONTACT US

The Exchange is based in Los Angeles and has our offices on the campus of UCLA at the California NanoSystems Institute. Please contact us at 310-983-1056 if you would like to become a volunteer consultant or have a project that needs our help. Marty (mperreault@nas.edu) and Rick (rloverd@nas.edu) look forward to hearing from you! In the meantime, follow us on @SciEntEx or visit our Facebook page (do not forget to "like" us) for the latest news from The Exchange!

ABOUT US

The Exchange, a program of the National Academy of Sciences, connects entertainment industry professionals with top scientists from across the country to create a synergy between accurate science and engaging entertainment. Chartered by Congress in 1863 under an Act signed by Abraham Lincoln to provide crucial scientific advice to the nation, the National Academy of Sciences, a private, nonprofit institution, is uniquely positioned to draw on the expertise of thousands of men and women who have distinguished themselves in their respective fields in science.

SUPPORT US

The Science & Entertainment Exchange is a program of the National Academy of Sciences, a private, nonprofit, nongovernmental institution. The Exchange is supported by grants, private donations, and National Academy of Sciences endowment funds. If you would like to support The Exchange by making a tax-deductible contribution, go to our online secure gift giving form. Thank you so much for your support - we truly appreciate it!

Creative Science

host — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 19:13:32 +0000

Imagine you’ve been working on a problem for days, maybe even weeks, but you can’t seem to figure it out. Your brain is working over solutions constantly but you feel stumped. So, you take a break. You walk down the street to the nearest coffee shop but as you’re walking home, sipping your drink and watching cars drive by, the solution rushes into your brain. That’s it!

Spontaneously Creative

In the above scenario, you aren’t thinking of the problem. You’re thinking of the coffee in your hand, the cars driving by, or the directions back to your house. That problem, that horribly frustrating problem, is solved almost out of thin air. What you’ve experienced is known as spontaneous and cognitive creativity. Your basal ganglia, a part of the brain involved in unconscious functions, took over your conscious brain’s efforts to solve the problem. Even while you were walking to the coffee shop and consciously paying attention to other stimuli (the coffee, the cars), your basal ganglia was working through the problem until it arriving at a solution. That’s the spontaneous part; the cognitive part is need for prior knowledge. You can’t have a spontaneous solution to a biology problem, for example, if you know nothing about biology.

This type of creativity brings up an interesting framework for understanding why scientists and engineers experience a different type of creativity from those in the entertainment industry. It’s not that the old myth of analytical, non-creative scientists and engineers is true – it’s just a different way of being creative (and we’ve got the science to back up that claim!).

Four Ways to Be Creative

Neuropsychologist Arne Dietrich studies the neuroscience of creativity, among other topics like consciousness. His research segments creativity into four types: deliberate and cognitive, deliberate and emotional, spontaneous and cognitive, and spontaneous and emotional. The type most associated with scientists and engineers is deliberate and cognitive, which equates to sustained focus in an area, such as a neuroscientist studying the brain.

Deliberate and cognitive creativity come from the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain located behind your forehead. It is the area responsible for focused attention and forming connections between information stored in the brain. You can see how this might relate to a scientist or engineer: deliberate focus, cognitive knowledge of a subject area, and the ability to form connections between information.

On the other hand, artists, musicians, writers, and other traditional creative careers are associated with spontaneous and emotional creativity. This type of creativity stems from the amygdala, the part of the brain that processes basic emotions. In between are spontaneous and cognitive creativity (explained above) and deliberate and emotional creativity, which is akin to working through emotional thoughts or issues. But if you work in one mode of creativity, it does not preclude you from the other types of creativity. A scientist might study research through deliberate and cognitive creativity, but experience spontaneous and emotional creativity while engaged in other creative endeavors. (In fact, we know quite a few scientists and engineers who are also artists or musicians.)

Or, when a problem can’t be solved by deliberate and cognitive creativity, the brain can use spontaneous and cognitive creativity to find a solution. The Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper found this out during the episode "The Einstein Approximation." Everyone’s favorite fictional theoretical physicist found himself stumped on a problem, and nearly drove himself mad by trying to solve it with deliberate and cognitive creativity. But a short stint as a waiter at The Cheesecake Factory, where he was able to focus on other tasks, freed his basal ganglia to work toward a solution.

Sheldon also discovered another way to solve a problem in the episode: sleep. When you can’t think of a solution, studies have shown REM sleep will help you figure it out!

Homepage image credit: opensourceway

Top image credit: qpemfacilitators.wordpress.com

Holiday Gift Guide for Science-Lovers

host — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 20:23:08 +0000

It’s that time of year again, and if you’re scratching your head without a clue as to what to get that science-loving person on your list, have no fear! The Exchange has rounded up some gift ideas perfect for that chemistry student, physics professor, or your favorite science consultant (hint, hint). This year, The Exchange staff will be rocking “Stand Back, I’m Going to Try Science” t-shirts, trimming our office space with Petri dish ornaments and sipping hot cocoa out of a caffeine molecule mug. From mathematicians to physicists, we’ve got a gift idea for everyone. Plus, if you're in the Washington, DC area, you can stop by the National Academies bookstore for an Einstein finger puppet or virus necktie! Let us know which science-themed gift you’d love to get this holiday season in the comments!

Stand Back, I'm Going to Try Science t-shirt by CrazyDogTshirts
Maths Lover - Abacus Necklace with movable beads by blingDIY
Physics Cufflinks - between the power and the weight by whitetruffle
Neuron ornament by Anamatology
Petri Dish Ornaments by artologica
Prozac Chemistry Coffee Mug - Black and Blue with Coffee Molecule by LLTownleyCeramic
Caffeine Chemical Structure Pin by PollyLin
Circle/Maths/Pi/Equations Bowl by WestArtAndGlass
Vessel Pendant by nervoussystem
Vintage science glassware by klinker
Knitting in Biology 101 in an actual dissection tray by aKNITtomy

Memories: It’s All in Your Head

host — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 05:00:00 +0000

Forgetting is as simple as walking through a doorway – that is the finding of a new study that experimented with memories and ways to walk through a home. Researchers asked participants to complete a simple task (exchanging one object for another) in either the same room or by walking through a doorway to another room. The result: people asked to complete the task in the other room were two to three times more likely to forget what they were supposed to do. “Entering or exiting through a doorway serves as an ‘event boundary’ in the mind, which separates episodes of activity and files them away,” said lead researcher Gabriel Radvansky, a psychologist at the University of Notre Dame. “Recalling the decision or activity that was made in a different room is difficult because it has been compartmentalized.”

As the doorway study suggests, memories can be fleeting. One moment, you are walking into the kitchen to grab a coffee mug. The next, you are standing in the kitchen, wondering why you walked into the room. But even if you recall a memory, there is no guarantee it is accurate. “Human memory is not like a computer where information is stored and retrieved in an identical fashion,” said Mary Spiers, neuropsychologist at Drexel University. “Our memories are more constructive and changeable.” In fact, Spiers told us when we recall a memory over and over again, it could change the original memory.

Making Memories

To understand why memories are fragile and changeable, you need to know how they are stored in the brain. It is a common misconception that memories are stored as single units, like a file in a computer. “Memories do not exist as packaged, isolated things stored somewhere in the brain,” explained Ricardo Gil da Costa, a neuroscientist at the Salk Institute. Instead, he told us, a memory is “represented by a neural network that includes multiple brain areas.” For example, a memory of a cat would be distributed among multiple areas of the brain. The visual of a cat is processed in the visual cortex, while the sound of a cat’s meow is processed in the auditory cortex, and the emotional feelings are processed in the limbic cortex, etc.

The processed information is then sent to the hippocampus, a part of the brain belonging to the limbic system, where it is consolidated into memory. Normally, memories are stored in the areas of the brain where they were processed (so, the visual of cat is stored in the visual cortex and so on). But consolidation can be a lengthy process. “Consolidation depends on neuronal changes,” explained Spiers, “and this may take hours, days, weeks, or months.”

The Man Without a Hippocampus

During this consolidation, memories can be lost or damaged by neurological injury. Or, in the case of Henry Molaison, famously known as H.M., memories can be lost by the removal of the hippocampus. In an attempt to lessen debilitating seizures, doctors removed two-thirds of Molaison’s hippocampus. It did alleviate Molaison’s seizures but the surgery had another curious side affect: he could not form new memories. Molaison could remember everything 1 to 2 years before the surgery but afterward, his memories were short term.

His condition might remind you of Dory from Finding Nemo, the animated regal tang fish with short-term memory loss. “She has a problem in remembering anything for more than a minute or so,” said Spiers. “Neuropsychologists term this ‘anterograde amnesia.’ It is a difficulty in encoding, and therefore learning new things.” Popular films, like The Bourne Identity, rely on a different type of amnesia: retrograde amnesia, where information before an event (like a head injury) is lost. Some films take it to the extreme, where a character cannot remember who he is, like Jason Bourne, but this is not an accurate depiction of retrograde amnesia. A person with amnesia would not lose memories of his name or identity and retrograde amnesia can usually be explained, Spiers said, as “a problem of incomplete consolidation of recently learned memory.”

Even though Molaison lost his ability to consolidate memories from short term to long term, he could still develop new motor skills. In one experiment, he was asked to draw within the lines of a star shape while looking in a mirror. It is a difficult task and researchers believed his anterogade amnesia would make him lose this newly gained skilled the next day. But he did not. As you can see, there is more to memory than we can explain in an article (or two or three) but if you have any questions, leave them in the comments and we will try to follow up!

Scientists are still experimenting with memory, and even though Molaison died in 2008, his contribution to science lives on: his brain, cut into slices, resides at the University of California, San Diego, for further study.

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The Man Without a Hippocampus

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