Diet soda once ruled the weight loss kingdom… but unfortunately, that time has swiftly passed. At this point, these sweet beverages should come with a warning label. Not only are they one of the worst drinks for diabetics, but diet sodas can also take a serious toll on your brain—and the health hazards don’t stop there.
Ian Leslie reveals in his new book that lying is as innate to us as communication – and just as important to our survival.
We all know, of course, that liars are always other people. Lovers who have fallen out accuse one another of deceit; voters declare all politicians liars; the religious charge the godless with hating the truth, while atheists accuse churchgoers of perpetuating the biggest lie of all.
Regularly getting less than six hours sleep a night could cause the same long-term damage as alcohol abuse, according to a worrying new study.
What causes the body to age?
The Greek Philosopher Aristotle thought it was the heart—a “hot, dry” organ at the seat of intelligence, motion and sensation.
It doesn’t take a neuroscientist to know that doing nice things for people feels good. But now, researchers say they’ve discovered that even thinking about doing something generous has real mood-boosting benefits in the brain.
It may surprise you but inflammation is the connection between your good health and many terrible illnesses.
One super-powerful antioxidant can help you gain control over the silent killer of inflammation.
You can reduce inflammation with carotenoids and flavonoids, which are both potent antioxidants. Arguably one of the most effective anti-inflammatory and antioxidant is the little known astaxanthin.
We all wish we could read faster and comprehend more of what we read – not only would it help smash through those papers, but understanding topics more effectively on the first read through is also a huge help for those late night cramming sessions.
That’s why our ScienceAlert Academy deal this week is the Award-Winning Speed Reading Bundle: Lifetime License.
With two separate courses, 7 Speed Reading EX 2017, and Spreeder CX, you’ll be able to increase your reading speed and comprehension in no time.
7 Speed Reading EX 2017 has been awarded the TopTenReviews Gold and Excellence Awards Winner, with PC World calling it “the most comprehensive speed reading system anywhere – with 7 learning strategies, 15 software activities, video training, ultra-advanced tracking, and much more.”
Thanks to the British Library, we can go inside the mind of a genius and peruse Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebooks. The first true Renaissance Man, Da Vinci not only painted the Mona Lisa, but was a master inventor who is sometimes credited with creating the parachute and helicopter. And, to top it all off, he wrote his notes backward, in mirror image from right to left.
Who wouldn’t want to understand more about what this master of painting, drawing, engineering, and mathematics was thinking? Now you can flip through 570 pages of his notebook The Codex Arundel. Works of art themselves, the pages date from 1480 to 1518, and are a fascinating glimpse into Da Vinci’s process. Interestingly, for a man so in tune with technology, the artist never attempted to publish his notebooks during his lifetime. Instead, they were left to his pupil Francesco Melzi and individual sheets have since been dispersed among wealthy collectors, many ending up in museum collections.
Unlike most brain studies where scientists watch as people respond to cues or commands, Johns Hopkins researchers found a way to observe people’s brain activity as they made choices entirely on their own.
“How do we peek into people’s brains and find out how we make choices entirely on our own?” asked Susan Courtney, a professor of psychological and brain sciences. “What parts of the brain are involved in free choice?”
The team devised a novel experiment to track a person’s focus of attention without using intrusive cues or commands. Participants, positioned in MRI scanners, were left alone to watch a split screen as rapid streams of colorful numbers and letters scrolled past on each side. They were asked simply to pay attention to one side for a while, then to the other side — when to switch sides was entirely up to them. Over an hour, the participants switched their attention from one side to the other dozens of times.
