Intelligent learner

 There are some science myths that are very deeply ingrained in our society.  One such myth is regarding our brain and how much do we use it. There are many numbers floating around, depending on who are you talking with! Some say, we use just 2 % of our brain, while some claim it to be 4 or 10 %. Whatever the numbers are, I usually become frustrated with such claims. These notions became more popularized because of media- specially Hollywood films and TV shows. I can distinctly remember a show where one can just take a pill, and suddenly, they are able to use all of their brain- and thus resulting in great memory retention, information processing to catch bad guys and saving the day.  Unfortunately, this is not true- at least using our whole brain at special occasions. The potential range of memory retention and information processing can vary largely based on lot of factors. You need to understand that a normal healthy brain has mechanisms to actually 'forget' memories o...

There are certain topics that are like showstoppers in the intellectual debate world. The notion of ‘Free Will’ must be in one of the top positions among those. And like other good debates, the main points revolve around- ‘what exactly is Free will’ and ‘Is there Free will’. I am not going to answer them today (that would have been interesting!). I am not sure whether we as human beings are certain about our understanding of free will. But I will give a brief review on the book, ‘Free Will’ by Dr. Sam Harris, discuss his opinion and might throw some of mine (opinion, that is).   The Book Starting with the book, it certainly is a great read. The book is pretty short (at around 100 pages) considering the subject matter. But it certainly creates an impact. It enforces you to not just read its’ contents within but also to think and to introspect. Dr. Harris has a PhD degree in Neuroscience. He knows what he is talking about. He started off with what we as a community think or def...

We humans are pretty proud about our intelligence. We think that we are a superior species just because we are capable of complex things like art, poetry, calculus and what not. Have you ever thought that what exactly is behind all our complex activities? Even simple activities like walking, eating, talking etc. which might seem very easy far off, are not that easy at all. So, what is behind all these? Well, there are many things, but primarily I am talking about brains here. So, brain is the squishy organ, weighing around 3 pound or about 1.5-2 kilogram sitting inside all of our head. If you are reading my blog, a lot of parts in your brain are actively working to make it happen. Some are working in tandem with your eyes to read this stuff off your phone or laptop or desktop screens. But hold on. Even a simple act of reading is not that easy at all. If you think carefully, our eye is just a modern camera made up of biological stuff. It can do only what your normal camera is able to do...