RECENT NEWS (All press stories)
  • NEW: Harnessing our oximetric eyes in medicine in Forbes, Matthew Herper's column.
  • 'Writing' research in NY Times rev of Dehaene's book. "...most interesting..."
  • Benchfly interview.
  • Interviewed on LateNightLive, ABC Radio National.
  • My interview with Iran's Mullahs in Jam-e-Jam.
  • An interview on This Week in Science (33 min in).
  • City-Brain research on Discovery Channel's Daily Planet (7 min, 30 sec in).

    MY COLUMNS: Telegraph, ScientificBlogging, ChangiziBlog, BrainWhy's
  • NEW: Is Racism Due to Perceptual Illusions (ScientificBlogging).
  • NEW: Darwin: "How" versus "That" (BrainWhys).
  • NEW: How Wide Receivers Catch With Their Eyes Closed (ScientificBlogging).
  • What are We, in the Eyes of Alien Probers? (ScientificBlogging).
  • You Are a Supercolony (Telegraph).
  • Why Patients are Safer in the Nude (ScientificBlogging).
  • Going Green with Reading: Dehaene's Reading in the Brain (Telegraph).
  • How Music Sounds Like Moving People (ScientificBlogging).
  • Do the aliens in 'Avatar' realise they are blue? (Telegraph).
  • The Science of Illusions in Four Easy Steps (ScientificBlogging).
  • Why Doesn't Size Matter for the Brain? (ScientificBlogging).
  • Why Does Music Make Us Feel? (SciAm).

    • Research, CV, Contact       books: THE VISION REVOLUTION (FB page), The Brain from 25,000 Ft       Twitter, Twitter for Book  

    MARK CHANGIZI is an evolutionary neurobiologist aiming to grasp the ultimate foundations underlying why we think, feel and see as we do. His research focuses on "why" questions, and he has made important discoveries such as on why we see in color, why we see illusions, why we have forward-facing eyes, why letters are shaped as they are, why the brain is organized as it is, why animals have as many limbs and fingers as they do, and why the dictionary is organized as it is.

    He attended the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, and then went on to the University of Virginia for a degree in physics and mathematics, and to the University of Maryland for a PhD in math. In 2002 he won a prestigious Sloan-Swartz Fellowship in Theoretical Neurobiology at Caltech, and since 2007 he has been an assistant professor in the Department of Cognitive Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

    He has more than thirty scientific journal articles, some of which have been covered in news venues such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and Wired. He has written two books, THE VISION REVOLUTION (Benbella, 2009) and THE BRAIN FROM 25,000 FEET (Kluwer, 2003). He is currently wrapping up his third book, HARNESSED: How Language and Music Mimicked Nature and Transformed Ape to Man.

    Praise for THE VISION REVOLUTION:

    "...the novel ideas...may have a big effect on our understanding of the human brain." -- Wall Street Journal, June 19, 2009. Book excerpt in WSJ.
    "Changizi's theories are appealing and logical... ...will make you wonder the next time you notice someone blush" -- Scientific American MIND, July 2009
    "...surprising, overturning theories that have dominated primatology since the 1970s" -- Barnes & Noble Spotlight Review, July 13, 2009
    "Changizi challenges common notions regarding sight. ...keep[s] them... dazzled." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review), May 11, 2009
    The book has also been mentioned in interviews in the New York Times and Scientific American,