That worn rabbit’s foot in your pocket, the specific shirt you wear for important presentations, the ritual...
Oscar Forrester
Very Big Brain is written by Oscar Forrester, a researcher and writer with a long-standing fascination with how the brain works. Oscar spent several years working in hospital IT, including on infection control systems, and grew up in a household shaped by medicine — his father was a physician and his mother a registered nurse. He is not a clinician himself, and nothing on this site should be taken as medical advice. What he brings instead is a rigorous, source-first approach to research, honed over two decades of writing (he’s authored numerous published books, primarily on software development), and a genuine curiosity about the science of cognition. Mr. Forrester strives to present complex topics in a clear and engaging manner, making it easy for you to understand and apply the knowledge to your daily life.
Someone whispers in your ear and your entire brain shifts gears. Your attention sharpens, your heart rate...
Some people see a maze and feel a spark of excitement. Others see it and feel immediate...
Watch an animator at a coffee shop, and you’ll notice something peculiar. While everyone else glances at...
Creating a language from scratch sounds like the ultimate creative challenge. It is. But what most people...
Ask someone what they’re thinking about, and they might say “I was just wondering whether I should...
If you had visited a monastery in the sixth century, you’d have heard a constant murmur of...
You know that friend who can pack more words into thirty seconds than most people fit into...
Walk through any art museum, flip through architecture magazines, or scroll through your social media feed, and...
Have you ever bumped into someone at the grocery store who clearly knows you, but you can’t...