Like Civilization? Thank Tectonic Plates
Mesopotamia is Greek for “land between rivers” and indeed it sat between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, what is now basically modern Iraq.
Anthropology
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Archaeology
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Lady 56: A Swedish Grave Reveals A Famed Spanish Pilgrimage
If you see multiple graves in medieval graves, it is reasonable to assume children and adults were related, but a new study finds that was not the case.
Psychology
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Repressed Memories Nonsense Is Making A Comeback
Have you heard someone say online or in casual conversation, when responding to someone’s struggles, “well, the body keeps the score”? For many people, this phrase is a useful way to name the...
Science Education & Policy
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The Endangered Species Act Attempted To Define 'Habitat' And Controversy Ensued
It wouldn’t make much sense to prohibit people from shooting a threatened woodpecker while allowing its forest to be cut down, or to bar killing endangered salmon while allowing a dam to dry out...
Science History
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The Scorched Cherry Twig And Other Christmas Miracles Get A Science Look
Bleeding hosts and stigmatizations are the best-known medieval miracles but less known ones, like a scorched cherry twig miraculously sprouting, a diseased swamp becoming fertile land, and healing...
Philosophy & Ethics
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Editorial: This Week’s LA Non-riots
A Facebook friend opined that Los Angeles protesters could “turn LA into another Portland.” I expand for you my rejoinder to his post:
Odorrana Tormota - This Chinese Frog Can Tune Its Hearing Frequency
Researchers have discovered that a frog that lives near noisy springs in central China can tune its ears to different sound frequencies, much like the tuner on a radio can shift from one frequency to…
The Speed Of Thought And The Debate About How Ion Channels Open And Close
In some ways, your body's thoughts and actions are like a complex series of water faucets but the spigots open or close in response to signals. Each thought or action sends a million electrical…
Bold Birds Get Babes
Humans often choose partners based on behavioural keys that are displayed during social interactions. The way we behave in different social contexts can reflect personality traits or temperament that…
Cerebral Cortex And Its Millions Of Neural Fibers Gets A Map
"Don't tug on that, you never know what it might be attached to ...," said Buckaroo Banzai while doing brain surgery in an early scene from one of the greatest science fiction movies of all time.
He…
Cryptochromes And The Circadian Clock
We all know that light effects the growth and development of plants but a new paper by Nathalie Hoang et al., published in PLoS Biology examines the effects light has on humans and animals.
In…
Neural Stem Cells Reprogrammed - While Still In The Brain!
Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have gone beyond manipulating adult stem cells cultured in the lab and achieved the same feat with adult neural stem cells - still in place in…
Super Sonar - Bat Vocals Also Cue Memory And Assist Flight
Not many people think about what it's like to be a bat, but for those who do, it's enlightening and potentially groundbreaking for understanding aspects of the human brain and nervous system.
Cynthia…
Does The Personality Of Bilingual People Change When The Language Does?
People who are bicultural and speak two languages may actually shift their personalities when they switch from one language to another, according to new research in the Journal of Consumer Research…
How Good Is The Memory Of An Octopus?
Think an octopus is just an invertebrate mollusk with a brain that contains fewer nerve cells and a much simpler anatomical organization than that of vertebrate brains? Well, you're right, and that'…
Fragile X Syndrome's Missing Protein And Its Impact On Memory
Fragile X syndrome (FXS) robs the brain of a protein that plays a major role in the way neurons communicate and that is essential for brain development, learning and memory.
A team of scientists has…
