RSS Parrot

Flexible School Start Time

https://theness.com/neurologicablog/flexible-school-start-time/

Published: March 2, 2026 14:06

A recent study shows pretty clearly that highschoolers benefit from a little extra sleep. We will get to the study in a bit, but first I want to note that this information is not new. Teenagers tend to stay up late, and yet we make them get up super early…

Universal Respiratory Vaccine

https://theness.com/neurologicablog/universal-respiratory-vaccine/

Published: February 26, 2026 15:34

The news is abuzz with talk of a potential universal respiratory vaccine. It’s definitely interesting research, but may not be what you think. In this case, the reporting has been quite good on the whole, but the headlines can be misleading if you are not…

Why UFOs Are Back

https://theness.com/neurologicablog/why-ufos-are-back/

Published: February 23, 2026 13:36

Fascination with UFOs (unidentified flying objects) is endless. I get it – I was into the whole UFO narrative when I was a child, and didn’t shed it until I learned science and critical thinking and filtered the evidence through that lens. I credit Carl…

The Future of AI-Powered Prosthetics

https://theness.com/neurologicablog/the-future-of-ai-powered-prosthetics/

Published: February 16, 2026 13:41

It’s not easy being a futurist (which I guess I technically am, having written a book about the future of technology). It never was, judging by the predictions of past futurists, but it seems to be getting harder as the future is moving more and more…

Falling In Love With AI

https://theness.com/neurologicablog/falling-in-love-with-ai/

Published: February 12, 2026 14:25

There are many ways in which our brains can be hacked. It is a complex overlapping set of algorithms evolved to help us interact with our environment to enhance survival and reproduction. However, while we evolved in the natural world, we now live in a…

Uranium and Motivated Reasoning

https://theness.com/neurologicablog/uranium-and-motivated-reasoning/

Published: February 9, 2026 14:06

This post is only partly about uranium, but mostly about motivated reasoning – our ability to harness our reasoning power not to arrive at the most likely answer, but to support the answer we want to be true. But let’s chat about uranium for a bit. In the…

The AI Slop Problem

https://theness.com/neurologicablog/the-ai-slop-problem/

Published: February 5, 2026 13:50

Mark Zuckerberg said a few months ago that AI is ushering in a third phase of social media. First social media was used to connect with family and friends, then it became a platform for content creators, and now creativity is being further unleashed with…

Forgetting History

https://theness.com/neurologicablog/forgetting-history/

Published: February 3, 2026 15:06

Engaging on social media to discuss pseudoscience can be exhausting, and make one weep for humanity. I have to keep reminding myself that what I am seeing is not necessarily representative. The loudest and most extreme voices tend to get amplified, and…

A Fully Renewable Grid?

https://theness.com/neurologicablog/a-fully-renewable-grid/

Published: February 2, 2026 13:38

My long-stated position (although certainly modifiable in the face of any new evidence, technological advance, or good arguments) is that the optimal pathway to most rapidly decarbonize our electrical infrastructure is to pursue all low-carbon options. I…

Rethinking the Habitable Zone

https://theness.com/neurologicablog/rethinking-the-habitable-zone/

Published: January 26, 2026 14:21

As we continue the search for life outside of the Earth, it helps if we have a clear picture of where life might be. This is all a probability game, but that’s the point – to maximize the chance of finding the biosignatures of life. One limitation of this…