First, of course, you must read my book EMERGENETICS. After that I encourage you to read A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Informational Age to the Conceptual Age by Daniel Pink.

Another brain-based book is The Creating Brain: The Neuroscience of Genius, by Nancy Andreasen, M.D. A review is available here.

Thank you all for reading my blogs. It has been my pleasure sharing Emergenetics with you, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Guess what is coming soon? Brain Awareness Week (March 13-19). Created by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, Brain Awareness Week is an international partnership of government agencies, scientific organizations, universities, and volunteer groups. It includes more than 1,850 partner organizations in 62 countries and many activities. The ultimate purpose of Brain Awareness Week is to make the public more aware of the benefits and promise of brain research. Here is the official web site, which includes brain games (remember blog #4!) and links to brain research news (remember blog #3!).

Another subject I discuss in my book is brain fitness. Most people want their brain to work as well as possible for as long as possible. There are obvious things to do, such as oxygenating your brain with exercise, eating good foods that promote healthy cells, and avoiding bad things like cigarettes and recreational drugs that hurt your brain. Books and puzzles and social gatherings are all good for keeping your brain sharp, but it turns out the key is novelty. To keep those neural connections forming in your brain, do something you are not accustomed to doing. If you dont do crossword puzzles, start now. If you already do crossword puzzles, try sudoku instead. If you have never eaten Indian food, I recommend a glass of mango lassi and anything korma. If you are already an aficionado of Indian food, then switch to Thai! You get the idea. New experiences refresh your brain.

Here is a fun web site that is full of different brain games. It might make you feel really smart for about a minute!

Who you are today is a result of certain characteristics that have EMERGED from your life experiences, plus the GENETICS with which you were born. I call this interplay between nurture and nature EMERGENETICS. People often wonder: Which is more important: nature or nurture? This is like asking: Which is more important: water or air?

In my book, I mention some of startling results of the studies that were done on twins separated at birth, and also discuss more recent findings about the shy brain and other brain research. The more scientists learn about the human genome, the more they discover about the relationship between genetics and personality. New articles constantly remind us about the genetic basis of our innate strengths. For example, here is an article called Stoic Redheads that appeared in the New York Times in December that explains why redheads can stand 25 percent more pain than blonds or brunettes: