Young brains actively rewire themselves based on exposure to stimuli. As brains get older, they actively resist this process. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but reversing this process can help with aging-related disorders. Researchers have figured out how to […]
Einstein derisively called quantum entanglement “spooky action at a distance.” Since his time, the phenomenon has been pretty well documented. Now, researchers in China have achieved entanglement over the longest distance yet, from the Earth all the way to orbit. […]
Biologist Eric Verdin runs the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, the largest independent research institute devoted to aging research. “Our mission for right now … is to continue that progressive gain of two years [of life] every 10 years.” | learn […]
The creation (“gecko gripper”) applies something called Van der Waals forces, which create a weak electric field to temporarily allow stickiness. | learn more
“The goal of the Blue Brain Project, which is based in Switzerland, is to digitally create a ‘biologically detailed’ simulation of the human brain. By creating digital brains with an ‘unprecedented’ level of biological information, the scientists aim to advance […]
Researchers created a geek index, then started analyzing the index scores of almost 8,000 twins in the UK. They found evidence that older fathers tend to have geekier sons. The same result was not found in daughters. | learn more
This new study brings a whole new meaning to the oft-repeated phrase power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Feeling powerful impairs the neural process of mirroring. Over time, it may cause functional changes to the brain. | learn more
“When we attempt to multitask, we don’t actually do more than one activity at once, but quickly switch between them. And this switching is exhausting. It uses up oxygenated glucose in the brain, running down the same fuel that’s needed […]
“‘We used to think that there was a cradle of mankind 200,000 years ago in east Africa, but our new data reveal that Homo sapiens spread across the entire African continent around 300,000 years ago,’ palaeoanthropologist Jean-Jacques Hublin of Germany’s […]
Everyone knows that there’s a placebo effect in blind studies, where pills without active drugs still cause patients to feel better. Studies now find that this is true even if the patient knows the pill is a placebo. | learn more