Alva Noë

Philosopher Alva Noë ponders gender, considering the idea that males and females are simply different kinds of people — and how hard it can be for a child to tell whether someone is a boy or a girl.

Turner's whaling paintings, recently on display at the Met, do little to convey the detail of the whale's powerful movement or the seas — but what they do create is atmosphere, says Alva Noë.

Blogger Alva Noë says he doesn't feel that, as an instructor, he has a right to ask students to come to class without technology, "even when I think, even when I know, that it would be a good thing."

Beep baseball is a game that requires trust, quiet and cooperation between the sighted and the blind. It gives us an opportunity to think about human ability and disability anew, says Alva Noë.

Alva Noë considers the idea that we have entered an era in which our technologies are so complex that they exceed what any of us can really grasp, as suggested in a new book by Samuel Arbesman.

In a newly published study, "witnesses" were randomly assigned to wear the niqab and "jurors" had to decide if they were telling the truth. The findings are surprising, says Alva Noë.

As commentator Alva Noë heads off to a youth baseball tournament with his 11-year-old son, he pauses to review a new book by Jeff Passan on the dangers of too much baseball in the lives of young kids.

Philosopher Alva Noë discusses new work on the neuroscience of spontaneous thought — and asks whether anyone can have accurate awareness of his or her own thoughts and experiences.

Alva Noë considers a new hypothesis suggesting dogs may have been domesticated in two different places from genetically distinct wolf populations in Europe and in East Asia.

Growing research on the effects of botox treatments on emotional perception sheds light on the nature of human emotion, says blogger Alva Noë.

This simple question posed by ecologist Fred Smith led to profound discoveries about delicate balance and styles of regulation in healthy ecosystems, a topic covered in a new book Alva Noë considers.

Commentator Alva Noë considers new work on the age-old topic of nature versus nurture — a new study finding no evidence that babies imitate others in the first 9 weeks of life.

Alva Noë takes a look at a new study concluding that passengers in economy are almost four times as likely to lash out on board when there is a first class section on the flight.

The conviction that the interests of animals need to be taken seriously is now very much the norm, and it's possible Animal Sentience could change the scientific landscape, says Alva Noë.

Commentator Alva Noë reflects on Maia Szalavitz's new book presenting the view that addiction is a learning disorder.

Kevin Sudeith's work is not only site-specific, but it also makes unusually specific geological and cultural demands, says blogger Alva Noë.

Alva Noë revisits Anri Sala's Ravel Ravel Unraveled, which was part of the artist's solo show at the New Museum in New York City.

To celebrate the start of the new baseball season, blogger Alva Noë offer thoughts on the poem The Pitcher, by Robert Francis.

In videos posted to blogger Alva Noë's Facebook feed this week, a monkey and an orangutan seem to be surprised by stage magic. Noë reflects on the related conversation among his science-guru friends.

Psychologically modern human beings have always used technology to enable shifts and enhancements beyond the confines of biology, says philosopher Alva Noë.