Scientist John Medina presents 12 basic principles on how your brain works. He illustrates how you can apply these principles to improve your life. Medina uses stories to demonstrate how these principle work. Some of the principles include: the best way to exercise your brain is actually physical exercise – not cross-word puzzles or Sudoku, or special computer games, rather aerobic exercise! it improves cognition and cuts the risk of dementia in half; the brain is incapable of multitasking that involves dividing one’s attention; we learn and remember best through pictures not through words – so chuck your old text-based power-point presentations and create new ones filled with graphics and pictures. He also discusses learning from 1 form of sensory input – visual or auditory – versus 2 forms of input – visual AND auditory – and how multi-sensory learning is quite superior to a single mode of input. In connection with his discussion on sleep, he highlights the time period with the highest # of accidents 3-5pm in the afternoon.
I enjoyed learning about the way our brains work, Medina’s writing is clear, engaging and infused with a sense of humor.
Medina knows what holds people’s attention, and knows how helpful narratives are to explaining impersonal research studies.
Now you know why I include so many graphics in my reviews!
Interesting book on the history of salt. It is amazing what is now so plentiful that we throw on our roads as a de-icer was once a precious and rare commodity that caravans crossed the desert for and created empires. Salt discusses methods of salt extraction, uses of salt as a preservative and seasoning, and the practical applications of salt in industry. Fun fact for the day; salted fish sauce has long been a flavoring used by societies from the Romans and Greeks in antiquity to the cuisine of southeast Asia and China today and initially, our favorite condiment catsup was an anchovy tomato sauce until the Americans and the British moved away from having fish in the sauce.
