Music, Metals, and Learning

The Mind’s Eye is available now in English, German, Dutch, and Portuguese (Brazil), with more translations on the way. Dr. Sacks discusses the book, and many other topics, on his new YouTube channel.

“The Music Never Stopped,” the independent feature film based on Dr. Sacks’s essay “The Last Hippie,” made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival this month, and will open in theaters in March. It is a moving story about the healing power of music, with a soundtrack featuring the Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Crosby, Stills and Nash.

Meanwhile, “Molly Sweeney,” the Brian Friel play inspired by “To See and Not See” (another of the essays in An Anthropologist on Mars) opens tonight at the Irish Repertory Theatre in New York City, with performances through March 13.

And on February 10, at New York’s 92nd St. Y, Dr. Sacks will be in conversation with Jonathan Weiner, discussing Weiner’s latest book, on the science of immortality.

Dr. Sacks will be speaking at two conferences this spring:  WNET’s Celebration of Teaching and Learning (New York, March 18-19) and, for the metallurgically inclined, the InternationalMinor Metals Conference (Philadelphia, May 4-6). What exactly is a “minor metal”? See our Footnote of the Month.

Finally, we want to share with you Dr. Sacks’s New York Times article on New Year’s resolutions, and we wish you many good learning experiences, whatever they may be, in 2011.

PS: Did you know you can follow Dr. Sacks on Twitter and Facebook?  Our favorite tweet this month was about the world’s smallest Periodic Table.  And here’s a bonus for squid lovers.