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Belief
A study published in the journal Science today (April 27, 2012) provides new understanding of the different cognitive strategies the mind uses in forming religious beliefs.
Read MoreObesity Caused by Non-Neuronal Cells (Glia) in the Brain
Forget about stomach staples. Treatment for obesity in the future may involve an X-ray beam to the brain. This is what researchers have discovered to keep mice slim, trim, and energetic while gorging on a fatty diet. How it works offers a fascinating new insight into the cellular mechanisms of the brain in a spot…
Read MoreDrilling for Oil in Eden: Initiative to Save Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador is Uncertain
“When you have all your needs solved you can buy a bigger house and you have a garden. The garden for us is Yasuní National Park. When you don’t have [wealth] you have to live in a small apartment without a garden. In Europe and the US there are big national parks because the basic problems of poverty are not present.” Professor Hugo Navarrete.
Read MoreDiversity Promotes Selfishness–Forced Integration is the answer
Ethnic and religious diversity in a society should undermine cooperation, but does it?
Read MoreAlarming Increase in Fatal Shark Attacks World-Wide: Science Cuts through the Hysteria for Answers
Can Science Explain the Marked Increase in Shark Attacks? Authorities in Western Australia have failed in their attempt to hunt down and kill a great white shark that took the life of a 32 year old American diver, George Wainwright last Saturday. This is the fourth fatal attack by sharks in Australia in the last 14…
Read MoreObama’s Vision of National Security, Science, and Children
What would President Kennedy have thought, I wondered as I surveyed the surreal scene? Deep inside the White House eight middle school students sat in black leather executive chairs reserved for the President, Vice President, and his top national security advisors; the polished oak boardroom table hitting them at chest level as they munched…
Read MoreExtraordinary Ability of Blind People to Hear Ultrafast Speech
New research presented at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego shows that blind people can understand speech at ultrafast rates, well beyond what a sighted person can comprehend. Using brain imaging, the researchers discovered how they were able to do this. The parts of the brain that process hearing get re-wired to the…
Read MoreSticks and Stones–Hurtful words damage the brain
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me… We all know how untrue that childhood incantation is. Words do hurt. Ridicule, distain, humiliation, taunting, all cause injury, and when it is delivered in childhood from a child’s peers, verbal abuse causes more than…
Read MoreMirror Image People—Why it Matters Which Side of Your Brain Does What
Most people salute the flag by respectfully placing their right hand over their heart, but not everyone does this. That’s because some people (1 in 10,000) are born with their heart on the wrong side. Not only their heart, but all their internal organs are swapped left for right: liver, stomach, pancreas, gallbladder, spleen,…
Read MoreMoney Buys Unhappiness, Proven in a New Study
“Tis the gift to be simple,” the Quakers sing. A century later Paul McCartney echoes the refrain, “Money can’t buy me love.” Catholic nuns and Buddhist monks take vows of poverty. “Simplify. Simplify.” Henry David Thoreau preaches. The belief that money erodes happiness is a persistent theme running through centuries of the world’s…
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