A surgical robot originally intended for space has the potential to revolutionize surgery here on Earth.
Tag Archives: Health & Medicine
A new device let a man sense temperature with his prosthetic hand
Researchers in Italy and Switzerland have developed a new device that makes it possible for a person with an amputation to sense temperature through their prosthetic hand. The technology is a major step toward prosthetic limbs that could restore a full range of senses, improving both the prosthesis’s usefulness and its acceptance by those who wear them.
This Is Your Body on Fear
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.
Would Shakespeare’s poisons and drugs work in reality?
Several Shakespearean plots points, including the climax of Romeo and Juliet, focus on powerful potions. Did the bard dream them up, or might they have really existed?
Is Fear Contagious?
Fear may be able to spread from person to person—just like a virus. Recent studies have indicated that humans can smell fear and disgust in the body odor of those nearby, causing the part of their own brain that processes those emotions to become active.
Scientists have solved a classic optical illusion–and the answer’s in your neurons
There is a famous optical illusion with two gray lines inside a number of black and white bars. The gray bars are the same color, but they appear lighter or darker depending on which bars are around them. Science was never sure why, but it seems the answer lies in you brain’s neurons and how fast they can fire.
Rare Brain Disorder Prevents All Fear
A middle-aged woman—known as SM—blithely reaches for poisonous snakes, giggles in haunted houses, and once, upon escaping the clutches of a knife-wielding man, didn’t run but calmly walked away. All because a rare kind of brain damage precludes her from experiencing fear of any sort.
Why Popcorn Tastes Better When You Eat It with Chopsticks
How do you make something old and familiar feel fresh and new? Science suggests the trick is to interact with it in new ways. Something as simple as eating popcorn–but doing so with chopsticks–can result in people rating the popcorn as tastier and more enjoyable than eating the same popcorn with their hands. Read the article and think of ways you may make things you already own feel new again.
Can You Trust Your Ears?
When most people think of an illusion, they think of an image or video–but there are audio illusions that trick your hearing, too. After you watch this video, you’ll have to ask yourself “Can I trust my own ears?”
What happens in the brain when you learn a language?
One great way to expand your worldview is to learn a new language. It turns out that the benefits of doing so reach far beyond simply being able to communicate with more people.
Great Accidental Discoveries
While hard work is a good path to success, there is another route that some people have followed: the simple accident. Some of the world’s biggest discoveries and inventions have happened by accident. And yet, to see a mistake and not think of it as a failure, but rather as a new and unexpected form of success, takes a special kind of industrious mindset.
How To Make Eyewitness Testimony More Reliable
Eyewitness testimony can be really important when investigating crimes, but how can we make them more reliable? SciShow looks at the scientific and psychological evidence around several ways in which your memory can fail–and how we may be able to minimize these effects.
She awoke from a coma. Five months later, she ran the Boston Marathon.
Completing a marathon is a huge landmark for anyone, but even more so for Rachel Foster, who ran the Boston Marathon shortly after surviving a near-fatal accident.
5 Biggest Risks of Sharing Your DNA with Consumer Genetic-Testing Companies
Nearly 50 million people have used consumer genetic-testing services to have their personal DNA analyzed to learn more about their ancestry, their risk for developing various diseases, or to find long-lost relatives. While there are many upsides, there are risks, as well. This article walks you through five of biggest risks when sending your DNA off to be tested.
The zombie fungus from ‘The Last Of Us’ is real — but not nearly as deadly
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?
‘I’m a Friendship Expert, This Is How Many Friends You Need’
What’s the best number of friends for a person to have? Click this link to hear from a professor whose research explores this very question.
Brazilian Explorers Search “Medicine Factory” to Save Lives and Rainforest
We often think of cures for cancer as chemicals developed in laboratories, but nature may be the source of new remedies. Tom Phillips explains how researchers aim to tap into the medical possibilities of the Amazon rainforest—and at the same time protect this threatened environment from human development.
Shark Attack Survivors Unite to Save Sharks
Imagine barely escaping a shark attack with your life and going on to become an advocate for protecting sharks. It happens more often than you’d think!
The Benefits of Optimism Are Real
In this article, Emily Esfahani Smith examines two films, Silver Linings Playbook and Life of Pi, to delve into the relationship between optimism and resilience.
Memory contaminates perception
An interesting new study that shows how visual working memory can influence our perception of events.