Abu Rayhan Al-Biruni, illustration of different phases of the moon, from Kitab al-Tafhim, 973–1048, [Public Domain] via Wikimedia Commons

Happy Friday! We’ve scoured the web for thought-provoking articles and essays for you to enjoy over the weekend.

In the Paris Review, Benjamin Ehrlich writes about “the father of modern neuroscience” Santiago Ramón y Cajal and his early and fervent predilection for reading fiction. Cajal’s father earned a medical degree after a “grueling life” as the son of peasant farmers. He later despised all literary culture, allowing only medical books in the house.

His mother, however, smuggled cheap fantasy novels into the hands of her children and opened their minds to the literary world. Hidden away in the pigeon house, “among the sweetmeats and the dried fruit, Cajal espied a smorgasbord of literary treats.” Reading Dumas, Hugo, Cervantes, and others, Cajal nurtured creative instincts that would later lead him to study the sophisticated labyrinth of the brain:

“Cellular anatomy, for Cajal, was like the most exciting fiction. He became a researcher, setting up a makeshift laboratory – not unlike the old pigeon house – in his parents’ attic. . . Cajal modeled his scientific quest after literary heroes from his childhood. He cast himself in the mold of Crusoe, envisioning the brain as ‘a world consisting of a number of unexplored continents and vast stretches of unknown territory,’ and devoting his work to ‘islands of discovery.’”

Elsewhere on the Internet:

The Harvard Business Review writes on the importance of emotional intelligence in the wake of sophisticated machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Jessica Stillman at Inc. on intellectual humility and why we must admit what we don’t know to be efficient lifelong learners.

Margaret Kingsbury on the shared passion for poetry passed down through the generations of her family in Book Riot.

Fast Company writes on how “reading fiction can help you work through complex problems and be more empathetic” in the workplace.

John Nosta in Psychology Today rethinks collaboration in the workplace as a tool for innovation, writing that collaboration does not always equal consensus – and the best meetings allow for respectful dissent.

On Aeon, a brilliant short video with a scientific take on how perspectives shape reality.

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