Surprising Science

Researchers delve into Facebook, looking into what our status updates say about our personalities.

Currently, scientists and physicians have a limited understanding of the complex issue of pain and how to treat it. Pain or numbness is perceived by the brain using signals sent by the peripheral nervous system and it is hard to determine how a person’s nervous-system cells react and respond to stimuli. While it is relatively easy to collect a blood or a skin sample or even a tissue biopsy, it is not possible to sample portions of a patient’s neural system. A recent breakthrough finds a way around this problem.

Birds can differentiate empty peanut shells from full ones — without even cracking them open.

More evidence that thin models are doing nothing for some target markets.

Video games that prioritize balance, cognition, and motor skills have proven to be strong tools for various forms of therapy.

A new method for creating bird flu vaccines for particular strains could help researchers swiftly develop additional vaccines for other forms of influenza.

As authorities seek answers, cleanup crews are getting to work to rehabilitate the fragile California coastal ecosystem sullied by 20,000 gallons of crude oil.

It’s safe to say most of us hate going to the dentist. But you know what’s worse than going to the dentist? Having no teeth.

Information Theory explicitly ignores meaning. Its focus on messages makes it uninformative about their effects. And limits the usefulness of its way of quantifying information. 

Psychedelics like psilocybin and LSD are being researched again after a 40-year hiatus, and the results are promising, from both a scientific and spiritual perspective. 

As the machines in our lives struggle to understand simple speech, is there a chance they could ever understand our emotions? Researchers Reza Asadi and Harriet Fell think so.

People like rewards. Researchers found people are more likely to participate in programs as well as change their behavior if there’s a little money coming their way.

Robots have already bested humans in chess and Jeopardy; now, developers are trying to create the next poker master.

Common assumptions about the dangers of radiation are excessive. Journalism plays a huge role in creating and feeding these fears.

We don’t need to eat meat, and yet we still do. Researchers sought to find out how people defended their meat-eating habits.

Researchers believe that mothers and fathers complement each other when aiding in their child’s speech development.

Researchers found banning smartphones from the classroom helped raise the worst students’ test scores and bring up the class average.

Dance classes are low in physical activity, study says, but there’s more to the story.

Ian Mitchell argues that alcohol may make you friendlier, but only to certain people.

Unsurprisingly, researchers have found sadness stays with us the longest, or at least that’s how people tend to remember it.

Worldwide, there is an annual net loss of 11 billion trees. Despite all reforestation efforts, this loss reflects the fact that while deforestation is a mechanized, rapid, and highly efficient process, reforestation, mostly done by hand, is a tiresome, laborious, and highly inefficient one.

In collaboration with Exponential Finance

Whether we’re professional athletes or cellphone gamers, falling just short of our goals can be motivating, not crushing.

Researchers are using music to light up unconscious minds, but the results only bring more questions about its effectiveness for coma patients.

A study suggests that long-term depression can more than double one’s chances of suffering a stroke.

Science and all of society benefit from an informed and knowledgeable public, yet not enough academics are recognized by scientific bodies for their contributions to popular writing.

People who hold the belief that there are people who are “pure evil” are more willing to support harsher prison sentencing and the death penalty for those individuals.

The study opposes the notion that sexual equality is merely a goal of modern society that is mostly free of concerns over resource scarcity. 

GMO opponents hope labels will scare customers away and kill the technology. New evidence suggests that labels are more likely to encourage sales than reduce them.

Trivializing mental illness by making jokes on Twitter may not endear your followers to you.