A powerful text. A deep question.

Each Tangent track begins with a powerful text and a question worth sitting with.

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Available / Upcoming Tracks

A neuron receiving thousands of incoming synaptic connections

Cover of The Brain: A Practical Guide by Annual Reviews

Available

Neuroscience

Central questionHow does the brain give rise to thought, feeling, memory, and behavior?

For students interested inNeuroscience, cognition, development, psychology, and the biology of mind.

ResourceThe Brain: A Practical Guide — Annual Reviews

Diagram pages from The Feynman Lectures on Physics

Cover of The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Volume 1

Available

Physics

Central questionWhat are nature's laws? How did we discover them?

For students interested inPhysics, explanation, mathematics, and the structure of nature.

BookThe Feynman Lectures on Physics, Vol. 1 — Richard Feynman

Everyday handles, controls, and objects illustrating affordances and feedback

Cover of The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman

Available

Design

Central questionWhy do some everyday things feel obvious to use while others leave us confused?

For students interested inDesign, psychology, technology, everyday objects, and how people understand and use things.

BookThe Design of Everyday Things — Don Norman

Diagram of Braitenberg vehicles and their simple sensor-motor wiring

Cover of Vehicles by Valentino Braitenberg

Available

Intelligent Behavior

Central questionCan simple mechanisms produce behavior that looks alive and intelligent?

For students interested inAI, animals, robots, psychology, mind, and behavior.

BookVehicles — Valentino Braitenberg

$A mathematical diagram representing geometric structure and proof$

Cover of Proofs from THE BOOK by Martin Aigner and Gunter Ziegler

Future

Mathematics

Central questionWhat makes a proof beautiful?

For students interested inPuzzles, logic, elegance, and mathematical argument.

BookProofs from THE BOOK — Martin Aigner and Günter Ziegler

Future

Computing and Algorithms

Algorithmic procedures, machines, and the logic of computation.

Future

Biology and Evolution

Life, adaptation, inheritance, and the strange power of selection.

Future

Chemistry / Materials

Matter, structure, transformation, and why materials behave the way they do.

Current Tracks

Ongoing tracks will appear here.

Past Tracks

Intelligent Behavior (Vehicles) — Sushrut Thorat
Physics (Feynman Lectures, Vol. 1) — Amogh Deshpande