Are our minds playing tricks on us all the time? Click this link to watch an animated video that explains what perception and hallucination have in common.
Category Archives: How We See Things
Why time feels so weird in 2020
Check out this link to try out some cool interactive perception tests that demonstrate how our sense of time can be distorted.
Can Language Influence Our Perception of Reality?
Learn about research into how and why people from different linguistic backgrounds might remember the same event in different ways.
“Reality” is constructed by your brain. Here’s what that means, and why it matters.
How do we know what is real? This article includes some striking visual illusions and explains how they serve as a good reminder that our perception of reality is not always accurate.
Emily Dickinson is the unlikely hero of our time
Emily Dickinson confined herself to her home for much of her lifetime. She also experienced a series of deaths of people who were important to her. The author of this piece suggests that Dickinson’s ways of dealing with solitude and grief make her particularly relevant in the era of coronavirus.
How the news changes the way we think and behave
This article presents the findings of recent research that suggests the news can make us see the world in a negative light, which has a harmful impact on our mental and physical health.
America’s digital divide: Why Internet access should be a basic human right
The pandemic has forced us to view our everyday lives in a new light, including our access to an internet connection. With virtual learning becoming a necessity rather than a luxury, should internet access be a basic human right?
How to Build a Happier Brain
There’s an old saying that people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. A new book bolsters the idea that it’s not what you see but how you see it that matters most when it comes to happiness.
Animal Navigation
How does a flock of geese or a desert ant find its way without getting lost? Learn about the many strategies and adaptations animals use to help them navigate.
Stay-at-home order protesters represent a minority view
What you see on the news or in viral videos doesn’t always tell the whole story. Read about the reality behind recent scenes of protest.
The Other Problematic Outbreak
Read about how the global coronavirus pandemic exacerbated existing prejudices around the world.
Inventing Telescopes
For most of human history, our view of the universe has been limited to only what the eye could see. But the ingenuity that spurred the Renaissance gave us the beginnings of a more distant view that revolutionized our understanding.
Molly Shannon’s Emily Dickinson Is No Reclusive Spinster
Emily Dickinson is often thought of as a solitary figure who never intended for her poetry to be published. Click this link to read about a 2018 dramatic comedy that challenges these notions.
What Is Infrared?
Your eyes are able to perceive many wavelengths of light as colors. But not all light is visible to the human eye. Here’s a closer look at some of what you can’t see—infrared light.
Your Guide to How the Eye Sees
Like anything you have with you all the time, you might take your eyes for granted. But how the eye translates the light falling onto an object into an image your brain can make sense of is pretty amazing. Here’s an overview.
Eureka!
“One sometimes finds what one is not looking for,” said Alexander Fleming, whose chance observation of a contaminated experiment led to the the world’s first antibiotic. This Smithsonian article discusses inventions and discoveries that centered on a flash of insight in a mind prepared to see what it wasn’t looking for.
MIT’s new robot can identify things by sight and by touch
Researchers at MIT have developed a robot that is capable of identifying objects using a combination of sight and touch. Read to find out more about this new technology.
An 11-year-old’s response to the El Paso shooting: One act of kindness for each victim
An eleven-year-old sees an opportunity to inspire to acts of kindness following the recent El Paso shooting.
Why We Want to Squeeze Cute, Little Things
Cute aggression is the feeling of wanting to squeeze or pinch something we think is adorable.
How to Make a Tesselation
A tesselation is a repeating visual pattern that can be as simple or as complex as its creator wants it to be. Try it for yourself by following the instructions in this online magazine by and for teens.