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Piece Description
We should award frequent travel miles to your brain. After all, it’s evolved a long way from the days of guiding brachiation from tree-to-tree to become the three pounds of web-surfing, Sudoku-playing powerhouse it is today. But a suite of technologies may expand human brains further still.
From smart pills to nano-wires: discover the potential – and peril – of neuro-engineering to repair and enhance our cognitive function.
Also, how our brains got so big in the first place: a defense of the modern diet.
Guests
· Bill Leonard - department chairman and professor of Anthropology at Northwestern University
· Michael Gazzaniga - neuroscientist and director of the University of California – Santa Barbara’s SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind. Author of Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique
· Ian Pearson - futurologist at Futurizon
Steven Rose - biologist and director of the Brain and Behavior Research Group at the Open University in London. Author of The Future of the Brain: The Promise and Perils of Tomorrow's Neuroscience
Broadcast History
first aired April 6, 2009
Additional Files
- Listing - Life of Brain (Life_of_Brain.doc)
Additional Credits
Seth Shostak - Host and Producer
Molly Bentley - Co-Host and Executive Producer
Gary Niederhoff - Assistant Producer
Barbara Vance - Production Assistant




