At 3:30 p.m. on Friday, April 5, Robert Provine, professor of psychology, will discuss “Curious Behavior” and his concept of “small science” at the Goddard Space Flight Center. This talk, part of the Goddard Scientific Colloquium series, will be Provine’s 4th colloquium at Goddard.

The talk will be held in the Building 3 (Goett) auditorium. Access to the Goddard Space Flight Center is limited to those holding Goddard badges or official visitors; if you would like to attend, contact Scientific Colloquium at (301) 286-0660 or by e-mail more than 48 hours beforehand.

Robert Provine, professor of psychology, will lead a discussion at the DC Science Café on May 21.  The DC Science Café, which is sponsored by the DC Science Writers Association, aims to give the general public an opportunity to participate in lively and important discussions about the consequential scientific discoveries and issues of our times.

The discussion will be held from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Busboys and Poets’ 5th and K St., NW location. Provine’s discussion will focus on “Curious Behavior,” the subject of his book “Curious Behavior: Yawning, Laughing, Hiccupping, and Beyond.”

A flyer for the event is below.

The small-on-purpose social network adds new features, but no clear purpose.

The tech world was buzzing about Facebook’s redesign yesterday, but I was more interested in what was new at the “anti-Facebook,” Path. If you haven’t heard of it (and, given that it only has 6 million users, you may not have), Path is a mobile-only social network that limits you to 150 connections. The idea is that this limitation matches the limit most humans have on maintaining meaningful relationships. Path, then, is supposed to be the social network where your “real” friends are. On Wednesday Path released, um, “Path 3” (they like to issue product updates as if they’re movie sequels), which includes private messaging, “Stickers” (large emoji, basically), and a “Shop” (where you can buy the Stickers and photo filters). 

Robert Provine, professor of psychology, was a keynote speaker and judge at the U.S. finals of the Fifth Annual International Brain Bee on March 2 and 3.  This is the second time that Provine has spoken at and judged this event. The topic of his talk was “Curious Behavior,” and was based on his book “Curious Behavior: Yawning, Laughing, Hiccupping, and Beyond.”

The International Brain Bee is an annual competition about knowledge of neuroscience for high school students sponsored by the Society for Neuroscience. Thousands of students from around the world participate. Forty-seven US regional finalists, from as far as California and Alaska competed; one regional finalist will be attending UMBC.

The U.S. finalist won a $3,000 and the opportunity to compete at the international championship in Vienna, Austria.

With Microchip’s BodyCom technology, the human body is the medium for short-range authentication.

Leave a gun lying around, and anyone who picks it up could fire it. That could change, though, with newly announced technology from Microchip Technology, which uses the body as part of a secure authentication process.