Apophenia – seeing meaningful patterns in unrelated information. Making connections or even seeing patterns is natural to humans; I painted this because I think that clusters of cells sometimes look like galaxies. But if I were to make a comment on how life revolves around certain shapes, then that might be an apophenia. The word […]
Children raised in a socially deprived environment may develop quasi-autism. Quasi-autism references autism-like features that likely developed due to the child’s upbringing rather than genetic predisposition. The behavioral symptoms are indistinguishable at certain ages but diverge as the child grows (quasi-autism are noted to have more diminished characteristics with time) [1]. Although not everyone in […]
Sex and violence, they pair well. I assumed that this was mostly pop culture glorifying masculinity through association with aggression and sex… but there’s apparently a tight biological link. Multiple regions in the brain have now been identified as containing cells specific for behaviors related to aggression or mating. Studied mostly in male mice (because […]
You’ve probably heard about the 6 degrees of separation – how everyone knows everyone else (even former presidents or a vocalist of your favorite band) through at most 6 other people who are all friends with each other. This idea can be traced back to 1929 in a story by Frigyes Karinthy, but it wasn’t […]
It’s very possible for life outside of earth to exist – the incomprehensibly large numbers of planets make this a possibility. But “life” in this context usually incorporates single celled organisms, not necessarily a multicellular being with a consciousness. It’s unlikely for a single celled organisms to have thoughts, just because it’s such a complicated […]
Is “food addiction” is real? Despite similarities between junk food consumption and drug addiction, one is still more extreme than the other. Here is how the two compare: (1) a main criteria for labeling something addictive is its ability to produce withdrawal symptoms, like a fever induced by quitting smoking cold turkey. Quitting cookies may […]
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