Johannes Gräff and Li-Huei Tsai, “Cognitive Enhancement: A Molecular Memory Booster,” Nature 469, no. 7331 (January 27, 2011): 474–475, doi:10.1038/469474a.
Dillon Y. Chen et al., “A Critical Role for IGF-II in Memory Consolidation and Enhancement,” Nature 469, no. 7331 (January 27, 2011): 491–497, doi:10.1038/nature09667.
Reut Shema et al., “Enhancement of Consolidated Long-Term Memory by Overexpression of Protein Kinase Mζ in the Neocortex,” Science 331, no. 6021 (March 4, 2011): 1207–1210, doi:10.1126/science.1200215.
Brendan Maher, “Poll Results: Look Who’s Doping,” Nature News 452, no. 7188 (April 9, 2008): 674–675, doi:10.1038/452674a.
Eric T. Lofgren and Nina H Fefferman, “The Untapped Potential of Virtual Game Worlds to Shed Light on Real World Epidemics,” The Lancet Infectious Diseases 7, no. 9 (September 2007): 625–629, doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(07)70212-8.
“Corrupted Blood Incident,” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia , August 12, 2013, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Corrupted_Blood_incident&oldid=566358819.
John Gaudiosi, “Gameworld: Virtual Economies in Video Games Used as Case Studies,” Reuters , October 1, 2009, http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/10/01/videogames-economies-idUSSP15565220091001.
Alexandre Alié and Michaël Manuel, “The Backbone of the Post-Synaptic Density Originated in a Unicellular Ancestor of Choanoflagellates and Metazoans,” BMC Evolutionary Biology 10, no. 1 (2010): 34, doi:10.1186/1471-2148-10-34.
P. Burkhardt et al., “Primordial Neurosecretory Apparatus Identified in the Choanoflagellate Monosiga Brevicollis,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108, no. 37 (August 29, 2011): 15264–15269, doi:10.1073/pnas.1106189108.
X. Cai, “Unicellular Ca2+ Signaling ‘Toolkit’ at the Origin of Metazoa,” Molecular Biology and Evolution 25, no. 7 (April 3, 2008): 1357–1361, doi:10.1093/molbev/msn077.
B. J. Liebeskind, D. M. Hillis, and H. H. Zakon, “Evolution of Sodium Channels Predates the Origin of Nervous Systems in Animals,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108, no. 22 (May 16, 2011): 9154–9159, doi:10.1073/pnas.1106363108.
Pierre-Yves Plaçais and Thomas Preat, “To Favor Survival Under Food Shortage, the Brain Disables Costly Memory,” Science 339, no. 6118 (January 25, 2013): 440–442, doi:10.1126/science.1226018.
Margaret Talbot, “Brain Gain,” The New Yorker , April 27, 2009, http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/04/27/090427fa_fact_talbot.
Vihang A. Narkar et al., “AMPK and PPARδ Agonists Are Exercise Mimetics,” Cell 134, no. 3 (August 8, 2008): 405–415, doi:10.1016/j.cell.2008.06.051.
“Christian Bök,” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia , September 14, 2013.
Jamie Condliffe, “Cryptic Poetry Written in a Microbe’s DNA,” CultureLab, New Scientist Online , 2011, http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2011/05/christian-boks-dynamic-dna-poetry.html.
“ Deinococcus Radiodurans ,” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia , July 29, 2013.
Yes, there may be random elements—quantum flickers that introduce unpredictability into one’s behavior—but slaving your decisions to a dice roll doesn’t make you free.
Benjamin Libet et al., “Time of Conscious Intention to Act in Relation to Onset of Cerebral Activity (Readiness-Potential): The Unconscious Initiation of a Freely Voluntary Act,” Brain 106, no. 3 (September 1, 1983): 623–642, doi:10.1093/brain/106.3.623.
Chun Siong Soon et al., “Unconscious Determinants of Free Decisions in the Human Brain,” Nature Neuroscience 11, no. 5 (May 2008): 543–545, doi:10.1038/nn.2112.
Björn Brembs, “Towards a Scientific Concept of Free Will as a Biological Trait: Spontaneous Actions and Decision-Making in Invertebrates,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (December 15, 2010), doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.2325.
Alexander Maye et al., “Order in Spontaneous Behavior,” PLoS ONE 2, no. 5 (May 16, 2007): e443, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000443.
Anthony R Cashmore, “The Lucretian Swerve: The Biological Basis of Human Behavior and the Criminal Justice System,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 107, no. 10 (March 9, 2010): 4499–4504, doi:10.1073/pnas.0915161107.
David Eagleman, Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain (New York: Vintage Books, 2012).
Daniel M. Wegner, The Illusion of Conscious Will (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002).
Sam Harris on “Free Will,” 2012, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCofmZlC72g&feature=youtube_gdata_player.
Davide Rigoni et al., “Inducing Disbelief in Free Will Alters Brain Correlates of Preconscious Motor Preparation: The Brain Minds Whether We Believe in Free Will or Not,” Psychological Science 22, no. 5 (May 2011): 613–618, doi:10.1177/0956797611405680.
Roy F. Baumeister, E. J. Masicampo, and C. Nathan DeWall, “Prosocial Benefits of Feeling Free: Disbelief in Free Will Increases Aggression and Reduces Helpfulness,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 35, no. 2 (February 1, 2009): 260–268, doi:10.1177/0146167208327217.
Kathleen D. Vohs and Jonathan W. Schooler, “The Value of Believing in Free Will: Encouraging a Belief in Determinism Increases Cheating,” Psychological Science 19, no. 1 (January 1, 2008): 49–54, doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02045.x.
Hagop Sarkissian et al., “Is Belief in Free Will a Cultural Universal?,” Mind & Language 25, no. 3 (2010): 346–358, doi:10.1111/j.1468-0017.2010.01393.x.
Wasn’t it Joss Whedon, in one of his X-Men comics, who stated that “Contradiction is the seed of consciousness”?