How junior high school kills scientific curiosity

Rote memorization doesn't cut it for theoretical physicist Michio Kaku. Here's why.

  • What is the greatest destroyer of young scientists? Junior high school, avers physicist Michio Kaku.
  • Why? Because it's during this time when science is reduced to memorization of things that are "totally irrelevant," such as the parts of a flower.
  • Kaku believes all this memorizing detracts from the moving force of science, which is discussing principles and concepts.
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Study links love of instrumental music to intelligence

From deejays to Debussy, it's all brain food.

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  • A new study supports earlier suspicions of a link between intelligence and non-vocal music.
  • This may have to do with a taste for novel experiences way back on the savannah.
  • Purely instrumental music may simply be more fresh for brainiacs
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Mind & Brain

How listening to the universe can help quiet your self-doubt

  • We all exprience self-doubt — sometimes called 'imposter syndrome'.
  • NASA astronomer Michelle Thaller explains how the universe itself has been a salve for her fears.
  • The universe chooses people to be interested it, she says. What has the universe chosen you for?
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Want to get more from books? Stop reading them cover to cover.

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  • We've been taught to treat books like a linear experiece: start, then continue reading until the end.
  • But problematic because it doesnt correspond to how we actually extract knowledge from books.
  • Here are a few ways you can get more from reading books while investing less of your precious time.


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Alan Watts on the meaning of life

The British philosopher reminds us that meaning is anywhere we choose to look.

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  • Alan Watts suggests there is no ultimate meaning of life, but that "the quality of our state of mind" defines meaning for us.
  • This is in contradiction to the notion that an inner essence is waiting to be discovered.
  • Paying attention to everyday, mundane objects can become highly significant, filling life with meaning.
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Personal Growth