“Smile in your liver,” Bali medicine man Ketut Liyer urges Elizabeth Gilbert in the author’s iconic memoir, Eat, Pray, Love. The sentiment is heartwarming, but it likely left some readers wondering: How do you smile, or express any emotion at all, in your liver? While many modern-day humans aren’t familiar with this concept, the ancient […]
Kids with summer birthdays get it: It can be frustrating when the timing of a major life event yields unwanted outcomes, like not being able to celebrate with friends in class. But for fish, the timing of their birth can lead to more serious consequences — like whether they live or die. So, these young
What quacks like a duck, but doesn’t look or swim like one? (Hint: It’s probably not a duck.) That’s the enigma researchers have been mulling over since the 1960s, when submariners first reported a strange noise emanating from the Antarctic Ocean. Some two decades later, scientists recorded the unidentifiable sounds while conducting an experiment in
Toddlers have a lot to think about: Which toy is their favorite? What sound does a cow make? Why can’t they eat that sticky fruit snack that fell on the floor? The ability to evaluate probabilities and possibilities, though, might seem a bit outside their wheelhouse. As adults, we’re used to analyzing the likelihood of
We know humans have the capacity to cultivate more positive outlooks, and it turns out we may share that beneficial ability with a much smaller, feathered species. According to a recent peer-reviewed paper, when Cornish cross chickens are given access to learning opportunities, their “optimism” increases. Previous research (as well as anecdotal evidence from anyone
It’s long been known that the way memories are organized in the brain is similar to how movies are organized: scene by scene. But given there are no directors, editors, or screenwriters in our heads deciding when one scene starts and another begins, how exactly these boundaries are delineated has proven more of a mystery.
Your Memories Are Like Movie Scenes and Your Brain Is the Director: Study Continue Reading »
Even in their most straightforward states, emotions are complicated. So it’s no surprise that experiencing multiple feelings at once is an even more complex state of affairs. A bittersweet goodbye party can bring about both pain and joy, for example, while a misbehaving yet adorable child can evoke both frustration and amusement. A recent study from
Google “cats in hats” and you’ll be met with a surfeit of long-suffering kitties donning baseball caps, bonnets, bowlers, tiaras, you name it. And now, adorable woolen beanies that can measure the animals’ brain waves are also in the mix. A first-of-its-kind study out of the University of Montreal fitted cats with a specially crocheted,
To Teach Scientists About Chronic Feline Pain, Cats Wear Adorable Crocheted Hats Continue Reading »
Where is love? Turns out Oliver Twist isn’t the only one asking — the question has been on scientists’ minds as well (though they likely don’t express it in quite as pretty a soprano). Now, a new study out of Finland’s Aalto University has identified where six types of love reside in the brain. The
Canine communication devices have been around for decades (check out this one from 1997), but in the last few years, updated versions of the tech have gained popularity. Videos of pups pressing colorful tiles or buttons to ask for a “walk” or “treat” — and sometimes even seeming to string together words into the semblance
