"The hippocampus is crucial for navigation and we use it like a 'sat nav'," says Dr Spiers from the Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience at UCL. "London taxi drivers, who have to know their way around hundreds of thousands of winding streets, have the most refined and powerful innate sat navs, strengthened over years of experience."

對於楊佳的事件，我想做些結語性的想法。楊佳會被判死刑，在現行的體制下，這是板上釘釘的事情，關鍵是當局採用什麽樣的手段來處理這樣的案件，能不能讓民眾信服是個很大的問題。這個案件發生後，最為可怕的事情是當楊佳單刀刺死了警察，很多人不是去譴責楊佳的行為，反而問責這些警察。這令我感到很奇怪，難道各位都失去了理性，難道我們都冷漠了嗎？但是，當我看到在這樣的人群中有很多有責任心的學者、知識分子，他們並是在幸災樂禍。這個社會怎麼了？一點同情心、正義感都沒有了嗎？是什麼造成這種現象？我的內心有非常多的疑問。不管如何，至少有一點是可以肯定的，即官方一直塑造的警民團結的和諧假像被狠狠擊碎，暴露出來的是嚴重的社會矛盾。警民關係緊張到如此，到底有多少假像還沒有被揭穿。

與楊佳在光天化日之下殺人相反，審判卻是在偷偷摸摸地進行，跟做賊一般。這個國家的憲法刑法見不得陽光嗎？本案發生後，有關的錄音記錄被消除，楊佳的母親也隨之莫名其妙地消失了，而官方給楊佳指定的辯護律師是某個警察局的法律顧問，這位律師在辯護席上。審判當天不許媒體旁聽，坐在旁聽席上的全部是內部人員，好比一群狼在審判抑制柔弱的綿羊。

這個時代充滿清朝末年的意味。站在荒島上，我等待黎明到來。 欣賞黨員和性工作者。

Human free will might seem like the squishiest of philosophical subjects, way beyond the realm of mathematical demonstration. But two highly regarded Princeton mathematicians, John Conway and Simon Kochen, claim to have proven that if humans have even the tiniest amount of free will, then atoms themselves must also behave unpredictably.

“If the atoms never swerve so as to originate some new movement that will snap the bonds of fate, the everlasting sequence of cause and effect—what is the source of the free will possessed by living things throughout the earth?”—Titus Lucretius Carus, Roman philosopher and poet, 99–55 BC.

claim to have proven that if humans have even the tiniest amount of free will, then atoms themselves must also behave unpredictably.

Rapid advances in neuroscience could have a dramatic impact on national security and the way in which future wars are fought, US intelligence officials have been told.

However, contact between nerve cells is also constantly being set up and dismantled in adults. It is this continuous restructuring of the brain that allows us to learn and to forget.

In reality, it should actually be consuming much more energy. This is because both young and adult nerve cells allow many hundreds of cell extensions to grow towards their neighbours.

In this light, it’s not surprising that people behave less morally as they become skeptical of free will. Further, the Vohs and Schooler result fits with the idea that people will behave less responsibly if they regard their actions as beyond their control. If I think that there’s no point in trying to be good, then I’m less likely to try.

For a long time, we were pretty dumb. Humans did little but make "the same very boring stone tools for almost 2 million years," he said. Then, only about 150,000 years ago, a different type of spurt happened — our big brains suddenly got smart. We started innovating. We tried different materials, such as bone, and invented many new tools, including needles for beadwork. Responding to, presumably, our first abstract thoughts, we started creating art and maybe even religion.