“There Is Something At The Bottom Of Every New Human Thought, Every Thought Of Genius, Or Even Every

Women scientists made up 25% of the Pluto fly-by New Horizon team. Make sure you share this, because erasing women’s achievements in science and history is a tradition. Happens every day. http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20150712

Helen Levitt, Children with Soap Bubbles, New York City, c. 1945

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art:

Helen Levitt’s photographs of everyday life in her own New York neighborhood have epitomized domestic urban life for over sixty years. This image of children - one of her most common subjects - demonstrates Levitt’s astute portrayal of gesture, praised as “lyrical” by James Agee in the introduction to her book, A Way of Seeing. As the viewer’s attention echoes the children’s glance toward the left of the scene, the picture poses a riddle as to the bubbles’ source, transforming this gritty city street into a magical metropolitan playground.

Quantified Life: An Interview with Sun-Ha Hong

Miriam Makeba interview, 1969

Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 – 10 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a Grammy Award winning South African singer and civil rights activist. She actively campaigned against the South African system of apartheid. As a result, the South African government revoked her citizenship and right of return. After the end of apartheid she returned home.

Alfred Wertheimer’s never-before-seen photos of Elvis when he was a 21-year-old up-and-coming crooner.

Many highly creative people [display] personal behavior [that] sometimes strikes others as odd. Albert Einstein picked up cigarette butts off the street to get tobacco for his pipe; Howard Hughes spent entire days on a chair in the middle of the supposedly germ-free zone of his Beverly Hills Hotel suite; the composer Robert Schumann believed that his musical compositions were dictated to him by Beethoven and other deceased luminaries from their tombs; and Charles Dickens is said to have fended off imaginary urchins with his umbrella as he walked the streets of London. […] In fact, creativity and eccentricity often go hand in hand, and researchers now believe that both traits may be a result of how the brain filters incoming information. Even in the business world, there is a growing appreciation of the link between creative thinking and unconventional behavior, with increased acceptance of the latter. … In the past few decades psychologists and other scientists have explored the connection using empirically validated measures of both creativity and eccentricity. [The latter is measured] using scales that assess schizotypal personality … which is among a cluster of personality disorders labeled ‘odd or eccentric’ in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. […] A brain-imaging study, done in 2010 by investigators at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, suggests the propensity for both creative insights and schizotypal experiences may result from a specific configuration of neurotransmitter receptors in the brain. Using positron-emission tomography, Örjan de Manzano, Fredrik Ullén and their colleagues examined the density of dopamine D2 receptors in the subcortical region of the thalamus in 14 subjects who were tested for divergent-thinking skills. The results indicate that thalamic D2 receptor densities are diminished in subjects with high divergent-thinking abilities, similar to patterns found in schizophrenic subjects in previous studies. The researchers believe that reduced dopamine binding in the thalamus, found in both creative and schizophrenic subjects, may decrease cognitive filtering and allow more information into conscious awareness.

Fascinating Scientific American article on why creative people tend to be eccentric. For real-life case studies, look no further than the odd habits and eccentric behaviors of famous writers. (via explore-blog)

MANDELA: A CELEBRATION

July 15 to 20, 2013

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture will mark Nelson Mandela’s birthday and Nelson Mandela International Day (July 18) with six days of commemoration.

Mandela: A Celebration is a special...

Modasa - It is just a Beginning

Modasa – It is just a Beginning

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The Eiffel Tower, winter of 1948 - Paris, France. (Dmitri Kessel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images) #prayersforparis

“Singularity (after Stephen Hawking)” by Marie Howe from Maria Popova on Vimeo.