Kiki and Booba visit the Akeley Hall of African Mammals at the American Museum of Natural History.
Who’s who? Kiki and Booba — made famous by an experiment that has been repeated around the world — have arrived in New York City for the Museum’s new exhibition Brain: The Inside Story.
In the experiment, more than 95% of people surveyed agree on which of these odd-looking shapes should be called Kiki and which should be called Booba, regardless of their native language. Some researchers consider the tendency to connect sights, sounds, and other sensations a mild form of synesthesia, linked to the human capacity for language and abstract thought.
Last week, Kiki and Booba explored Central Park and stopped by Columbus Circle before returning to the Museum (check out the slideshow below). Follow Kiki and Booba’s adventures in New York City and find out where they’re heading next at facebook.com/KikiBooba. Read more »
Can scientists stop an asteroid that’s on a collision course with earth? In this episode of SciCafe, Hayden Planetarium Director Neil deGrasse Tyson answers this question during a casual conversation about stars, planets, and the universe.
Recorded at the American Museum of Natural History on June 2, 2010.
As Dr. Anthony Ritaccio enters the operating room, the procedure is already in progress: two neurosurgeons have retracted a portion of the patient’s scalp and removed a section of skull about the size of a playing card. “We’re getting close,” says Ritaccio, leaning over the exposed, visibly pulsing brain. In minutes, the team will carefully slip a sheet of 64 electrodes onto the tissue, draw the attached wires out of the incision, and connect them to an experimental computer system. It’s the first step of an attempt to use computers to directly read the intention of the human brain—in a way, to read minds.
Science Bulletins, the Museum’s multimedia program covering current science, sent cameras into the operating room in May to record this unique attempt at building what’s called a brain-computer interface, or BCI. (The footage appears in a two-minute film in the new exhibition Brain: The Inside Story. A seven-minute film will also be displayed in the Museum’s Spitzer Hall of Human Origins and online at amnh.org/sciencebulletins.) To find this project, a collaboration between physicians at Albany Medical Center and scientists from Albany’s Wadsworth Center at the New York State Department of Health, Science Bulletins producer Sandya Viswanathan interviewed several experts in the field. Like all BCI projects, the Albany project is built on the idea that brains and computers have fundamental similarities.
“The brain itself is an electrical organ,” says Ritaccio,a neurologist at Albany Medical Center. “Brain cells communicate through electricity.” Each brain cell, or neuron, transmits electrical pulses to other neurons, like wires in a computer chip. This transmission generates complex patterns across the neuronal network that change from second to second. For decades, it seemed logical that scientists could tap these electrical signals to communicate directly with the brain. But initial attempts encountered a major problem. Read more »
Some of the most successful species on earth are squamates–the group of scaled reptiles that includes lizards and snakes. In this episode of Wild Wild World, Reptiland owner Chad Peeling discusses the voracious hunting habits of Kimodo Dragons, the Iguana’s third eye, and other amazing reptile traits.
Recorded at the American Museum of Natural History on June 19, 2010.
Bearing postmarks from all over the world, the stacks of boxes that cramped the office of Origami USA bore unusual and exquisite gifts. They included a spaceship, a dog sled, and a glittering hammer. The non-profit organization had asked its members–who live as far away as Brazil, Japan, and India–to begin folding the paper models in July. By early November, ornaments were pouring in.
The theme of this year’s 13-foot tree is Discovery, featuring paper creations that evoke a dinosaur dig, the Museum’s exhibition Race to the End of the Earth, and the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Rose Center for Earth and Space. The tree is located in the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall on the Museum’s first floor.
Ros Joyce, a Museum volunteer who also sits on the executive board of Origami USA, heads the holiday tree effort. “Origami USA’s mission is to share origami through many avenues,” she says. “And one great avenue is the tree that we set up for the Museum.”
In addition to creating the origami decorations for the holiday tree, which has marked the start of the holiday season at the Museum for more than 30 years, Origami USA will be on hand throughout the season to teach visitors of all ages the art of origami paper folding.
Watch a video about the making of the Origami Holiday Tree:
Can scientists stop an asteroid that’s on a collision course with earth? In this episode of SciCafe, 
