In many ways, the advancement of science itself is largely dependent on the efficiency with which the world’s top scholars can produce and share academic references about their discoveries. Yet until recently, this process has been extremely cumbersome for most research teams. (more…)
We are pleased to announce Brainscape Spanish, the FIRST comprehensive mobile Spanish language learning tool! This novel language learning app is is the first app to employ Brainscape’s Intelligent Cumulative Exposure learning methodology.
You can find Brainscape Spanish on the iTunes App Store for $40, but if you head to the Brainscape Facebook Page, like it, and comment on our latest post about Brainscape Spanish, shoot us an email and we’ll send you a promo code!
Whaddup fellow hackers. If you’re anything like me, you’re in this line of work both because we love working on cool technologies and – even more so – because we want to advance the quality of life of the next generation. So why are we spending so much time working on the next daily deals website or badge aggregator?
That’s why Brainscape has teamed up with Mendeley to plan a full-out education hackathon to round out an awesome Internet Week here in New York. We’re putting together some of the top education, academic, and geolocation APIs to give you the tools to create the next big tool or platform in education. If you’re in NY on June 11-12, be sure to check out our Hack4Knowledge event at Mendeley’s headquarters. There will be some great judges and awesome prizes.
We’ve all experienced frustration with a textbook’s poor attempt to explain a difficult concept to us. The unfortunate fact is that sometimes, no matter how good the writer or illustrator, some concepts are just too difficult to explain clearly using static text and images. If only there was some way to make the experience of having a private virtual tutor accessible on demand. (more…)
When I entered MIT in the fall of 2006, I wanted to be an architect. I had no idea what the heck “brain and cognitive science” meant, and was certain that the mandatory intro chem and bio classes would be the end of me. But an interest in brains quickly took hold, and now, here I am, 4.5 years later with a BS in Brain and Cognitive Science, only two studios under my belt. and working at Brainscape.
So what got me into brains? Well, among other things: a book! (more…)
What are you doing this Monday? If you’re in New York City, stop by Botanica after work, bring your iPhone, grab a beer (1/2 price drafts!), and find out who’s the FASTEST LEARNER IN NEW YORK CITY!
This is the first New York Memory Contest and we hope you can come. Contestants will put their memory skills to the test, using Brainscape to memorize as much of a to be announced content area before they are quizzed and then…
Winner gets Mac Bar mac n’ cheese and a $25 iTunes gift card!
So sign up on Facebook and bring your game face.
See you there!
There’s an old college joke that “classes can really get in the way of your social life.” While intended to be ironic, people like Tom Krieglstein see a lot of truth in this statement. Tom’s startup Red Rover is the leading college network that helps students connect with peers and activities that will enrich their social college experience. Extracurricular activities, Tom says, can be the most professional enriching part of your time at a university.
I sat down with Tom this evening to discuss Red Rover, its activities to date, and its eventual vision to become a central activities hub, from a student’s college life through their professional career in the corporate world. Check out our video below, and be sure to tell Tom what you think!
What would life be like if we could download the neural patterns of a memory and upload them to experience that exact memory in the future? What if we could help blind people see by reactivating their retinal cells? Well, scientists like Ed Boyden and Karl Deisseroth are on the verge of making these seemingly impossible ponderings a reality. In fact, in Ed Boyden’s lab, they have made blind mice effectively seeing mice by activating their retinal ganglion cells with…LIGHT. This was one of the most exciting fields of neuroscience for me when I was a student, and I love keeping up with it and seeing people like Ed Boyden giving this information to the greater public at events like TED.
Watch Ed Boyden’s TED talk below the cut to find out more about this amazing science called Optogenetics. (more…)
This saying is really old…old enough to be one of those latin phrases that’s engraved into stone: Repetitio mater studiorum est | Repetition is the mother of all learning. We love this phrase at Brainscape, and maximizing repetitions is one of the cornerstones of the science behind Brainscape. What’s really cool is that Scientists are still finding compelling research that back this truth.
Often times, old(er) people will say, “I’m too old to learn a new language. Isn’t my brain closed off to learning new things anyways?” These people are wrong; you can learn a new language at any age and new research conducted at Cambridge University has demonstrated that all you need to do is see a word 160 times in 14 minutes. What’s more, is that the scientists compared the memory traces of familiar words to the memory traces of the new word repeated 160 times in 14 minutes, and they were nearly identical!
So don’t tell yourself that you can’t learn a new language, and don’t blame it on your old brain. Because you can and science keeps finding evidence saying that your brain can too! Just remember that repetition is crucial for learning new languages (as well as anything else), and systems like Confidence Based Repetition make repetitions easier and faster.
As the founder and CEO of Brainscape, I have had numerous conversations over the past two years about flashcards’ effectiveness as a study tool. I find it amazing how passionate people can be about flashcards! Some people recall their schooldays spent making flashcards quite nostalgically, while others remember having avoided flashcards like the plague. My own challenge as Brainscape’s founder has been creating an online flashcard platform that appeals to both types of learners. (more…)
