Grade 8

 
Three girls watching a scary show and eating popcorn
The Thrill of Horror

Why do we enjoy being scared?

Man looks through window blinds

This Is Your Body on Fear

Source: Right as Rain (University of Washington Medicine)

Your fear response starts in your brain but quickly spreads through your body—affecting your thinking, heart rate, breathing, muscles, digestion, and more. Fear is normal and helpful, but it can become anxiety if your fear response kicks in when no threat is present. Read this article to learn more about how fear works, how it differs from anxiety, and when fear may be negatively affecting your life.


Robots dressed in a business suits

People Are Increasingly Worried A.I. Will Make Daily Life Worse

Source: Wired

Like it or not, artificial intelligence is here to stay–and it is making its way into every part of our lives. With self-driving cars using A.I. to make split-second steering decisions, A.I. helping to sort job and college applications, and companies using A.I, to sway customer behavior, a lot of people are growing fearful of the technology. People used to fear monsters in the darkness, but in modern times, some of our scariest monsters are lines of code in a machine.





A Brief Introduction to Gothic Literature

Source: ThoughtCo.

You may have heard of ‘Gothic horror,’ but do you know what makes a story ‘Gothic’ or not? This resources provides a quick, high-level breakdown of key elements, themes, and techniques that can earn a story the label of ‘Gothic,’ as well as a few examples of famous Gothic horror stories you can read on your own.


The zombie fungus from ‘The Last Of Us’ is real — but not nearly as deadly

Source: NPR

There’s been a lot of fungus talk in the news after the popular Last of Us video game became a popular TV show. In the show, people are turned into zombies by a new form of fungus that takes over their brains. And guess what? It’s real! Well, sort of–it’s only real for insects. Should we be worried? Or do fungi do more to help humans than harm them?












Mexican red-kneed tarantula

Searching the Brain for the Roots of Fear

Source: The New York Times

Do you know the difference between fearing something and worrying about it? How do things that probably won’t do us any harm come to symbolize threats? This commentary from Joseph LeDoux, the director of the Emotional Brain Institute and a professor of neural science, describes the problems that arise when fear turns to anxiety.




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