‘Belief’ means something different to scientists and the faithful … we’re open to the idea Einstein may have been wrong Most physicists believe, as Albert Einstein proposed, that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum. You might say that some, like...

Many of science fictions deal with technology taking over civilization – but embedded within this framework is a great deal of excitement, along with some deserved anxiety. For example, we are slowly inching closer to developing lab-produced organs, which would be incredibly beneficial for a...

What’s the Big Idea? Language is so central to everything we are and do from toddlerhood on that unless you are a) a linguist or b) right now raising a toddler it’s easy to forget just how amazing our capacity to produce and decode speech actually is. For the most part, language just...

Particles that move faster than c might sound like pure sci-fi, but it wouldn’t be as hard to square with current physics as you might think. By now you’ve probably heard the widely reported news about the possible discovery of neutrinos that allegedly travel faster than light. The...

This figure shows the kind of stimuli used in the study: whole faces (left) and only partly revealed faces. According to the researchers, the surprising finding was that although neurons respond most strongly to seeing the whole face, they actually respond much less to the middle panel than to...

If at first you don’t succeed, have at least one more go. Early humans did, colonising Asia in two waves. The two migrations have left their mark in the genes of native people in south-east Asia, Polynesia and Australia. Anthropologists have long debated whether there was more than one...

People don’t like changing their minds (for an extreme example see: Bachmann, Michele). Most research ties this tendency to things like status quo biases, sunk cost effects, and inaction inertia, but a new study by researchers at the University of Oslo investigates whether there is a...

Once upon a time, Sherlock Holmes urged us to maintain a crisp and clean brain attic: out with the useless junk; in with meticulously organized boxes that are uncluttered by useless paraphernalia. But how exactly do you determine what should be in, and what, out? As it turns out, Holmes’s...

The reason we like harmonious chords is built into the wiring of our brains The key to pleasant music may be that it pleases our neurons. A new model suggests that harmonious musical intervals trigger a rhythmically consistent firing pattern in certain auditory neurons, and that sweet sounds...

Long before the Nike logo and McDonald’s golden arches straddled the planet, there was a truly global brand. Before the worldwide web, before mass production and even before the first economist, our own species, Homo sapiens, had penetrated every corner of the globe, succeeding in an...

When we make a decision, we are, in fact, deciding. It’s plain common sense. The definition of a decision. A tautology if ever there was one. Right? Actually, wrong. While it may indeed seem a commonsensical tautology, the truth is that we often decide long before we’re making a decision:...

Fibbing is tough on the brain. New strategies expose liars by adding to the load One of my guilty pleasures is the long-running TV show NCIS, a drama focused on the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. The hero is a former marine, now Special Agent Jethro Gibbs, a disciplined detective with...

John Covach’s December 29th column in The Plain Dealer, “Why no Yes in the Rock Hall?” offers a provocative view on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction process.  Covach correctly pointed out that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has not yet inducted many prog rockers. Only Genesis...

Scientists studying the origins of Australia’s aboriginal population have found no genetic evidence of significant immigration from outside the continent for 45,000 years after humans first arrived. Their research suggests that Australian aborigines share the same common ancestor with...

Tetchy people might calm down if they had more of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Researchers gave 19 healthy volunteers a diet that reduced their serotonin levels and then scanned their brains. They found that communication between the brain’s amygdala regions, which process fear, and...

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Tufts University, Stanford University and the University of California, Irvine has found that the perception of race can be altered by cues to social status as simple as the clothes a person wears. Far from being a straightforward “read...

Moody. Impulsive. Maddening. Why do teenagers act the way they do? Viewed through the eyes of evolution, their most exasperating traits may be the key to success as adults.   Although you know your teenager takes some chances, it can be a shock to hear about them. Through the ages, most...

The sociology professor says we are moving away from seeing ourselves as ‘normal’ humans as we increasingly embrace technological and medical advances – if we can afford them Steve Fuller holds the Auguste Comte chair in social epistemology in Warwick University’s...

Particle physicists detect neutrinos travelling faster than light, a feat forbidden by Einstein’s theory of special relativity It is a concept that forms a cornerstone of our understanding of the universe and the concept of time – nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. But...

Holmes often faults the hapless Watson–and many others who come under his exacting gaze–for a failure to use proper logic. But his admonishments often remain general, noting an overall failure to demonstrate the requisite logical finesse without necessarily taking the time to point out...

What is it that makes society function as it does? Where Rousseau and Hobbes went before him, Holmes bravely ventures forth. Surely, he has taken up with more formidable foes in the past. Here, Holmes hits upon several threads that form some of the backbone of social psychology: we tend to...

How Your Choices Today Affect the Universe at its Origin   The late philosopher Robert Nozick​, talking about the deep question of why there is something rather than nothing, quipped: “Someone who proposes a non-strange answer shows he didn’t understand the question.” So, when...

“There is nothing softer and weaker than water, and yet there is nothing better for attacking hard and strong things.” The Chinese sage Lao Tzu stated this paradox in his ancient text, the “Tao Te Ching.” Indeed, water’s ability to wash, soothe and nourish...

Smells shape our moods, behaviour and decisions, so why do they barely register in our conscious lives? Such a challenge might sound doomed to failure. After all, dog noses are renowned for their sensitivity to smells, while human noses are poor by comparison. Yet that might be a...

Do we all experience the world in the same way? Is the same event actually the same event when viewed from the vantage point of each observer, each participant, each accidental onlooker? I’m not trying here to get at the more philosophical issues that one can raise, quite naturally, in...

Confidence in ourselves and in our skills allows us to push our limits, achieve more than we otherwise would, try even in those borderline cases where a less confident person would bow out. But is there such a thing as being too confident, a flip side to this driver of success? Absolutely....

It’s easy to see Sherlock Holmes as a hard, cold reasoning machine: the epitome of calculating logic. And it’s true. In many ways, the ideal Holmes is almost a precursor to the computer, taking in countless data points as a matter of course, analyzing them with startling precision, and...

“Perceive” maybe isn’t strong enough a word: our minds construct the past, present, and future, and sometimes get it badly wrong   Neuroscientist Kathleen McDermott of Washington University began by quoting famous memory researcher Endel Tulving​, who called our ability to...

A new methodology to study world events   The study of the future, as a scientific and intellectual endeavor, used to be driven by the careful extrapolation of trends, as in Herman Kahn’s Year 2000, or the forecasting of complex interaction among many variables, as in the Club of...

Details are important, often crucial. But focus exclusively on the details, without taking a step back, and you run the risk of getting lost in minutiae – and more likely than not, of missing any actual importance the details might contain. In other words, don’t forget the old proverb,...

Distinguishing between science and pseudoscience is problematic   Climate deniers are accused of practicing pseudoscience, as are intelligent design creationists, astrologers, UFOlogists, parapsychologists, practitioners of alternative medicine, and often anyone who strays far from the...

Overestimating our abilities can be a strategy for success, model shows. Believing you’re better than you are may help you succeed, a new study says. For years, psychologists have observed that people routinely overestimate their abilities, said study leader Dominic Johnson, an...

MIT research continues to push the boundaries of the burgeoning technology of 3-D printing. Imagine being able to “print” an entire house. Or a four-course dinner. Or a complete mechanical device such as a cuckoo clock, fully assembled and ready to run. Or a printer capable of printing …...

The commerical space pioneer Jeff Bezos — better known as the founder and CEO of Amazon.com — hasn’t let the failure of a unmanned rocket dampen his ardor for building a business that will be able to take passengers to the edge of outer space. And he’s working to get...

Garrett Lisi, Independent theoretical physicist We humans are terrible at dealing with probability. We are not merely bad at it but seem hardwired to be incompetent, in spite of the fact that we encounter innumerable circumstances every day which depend on accurate probabilistic calculations...

In the first years of your life (especially the first two), the part of your brain that is developing has to do with your ability to bond, trust, and relate to others. It grows from your experiences with your caregivers and your environment. During this period, the brain basically decides...

UCLA life scientists have identified for the first time a particlular gene’s link to optimism, self-esteem and “mastery,” the belief that one has control over one’s own life — three critical psychological resources for coping well with stress and...

Seth Lloyd, Quantum mechanical engineer, MIT; author, Programming the Universe The ability to reason clearly in the face of uncertainty. If everybody could learn to deal better with the unknown, this would improve not only their individual cognitive toolkit (to be placed in a slot right next...

We’ve often heard that babies are able to learn a second language more easily than adults, but why?  How does the bilingual brain operate in children too young to articulate their thoughts for themselves?  New research published in the journal of phonetics is finding answers for some...

Babies may look helpless but as soon as they come into the world, they’re able to do a number of important things. They can recognize faces and moving objects. They’re attracted to language. And from very early on, they can differentiate their mother from other humans. “They...