One of the most distinctive characteristics of humans is probably one you don’t think of very often — the capacity to learn based merely on what someone tells you. For instance, if we are told that our neighbors’ son has died his hair purple, we...

A situation in which wages increase 2.3% and prices increase 3.1% is equivalent to a situation in which wages fall by 0.8% at constant prices. Though the two scenarios are equivalent in real terms there are people who perceive these situations differen...

Katherine Franz, an assistant chemistry professor at Duke University, says the key to battling neurological diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases may lie in binding up iron and then separating the good from the bad. Her approac...

Few people have used the theory behind the Shangri-La Diet more successfully than Tim Beneke, an Oakland journalist. I put before and after photos of him — before and after he lost about 100 pounds — on the front page of the proposal for The Shangr...

Ever heard of cynical shyness? Researchers at the Shyness Research Institute in Indiana say this extreme form of shyness is behind the school shootings in the last decade. Conveniently, it predominantly affects males and can lead to violent behavior. ...

Prof. Yadin Dudai, Head of the Weizmann Institute’s Neurobiology Department, and his colleagues recently discovered that the process of storing long-term memories is much more dynamic than previously thought, involving a miniature molecular machine t...

A film that wins critical acclaim is likely to be an R-rated drama, adapted from a prize-winning play or book, based on a true story, with the original author or director involved in writing the screenplay. It is unlikely to be a sequel or remake, a co...

“They all look the same” is a common expression regarding people of other races. The “cross-race effect” is one of the most well replicated findings in psychological research and is one reason for the disturbingly common occurrence of ...

Human experimental psychologists (also called cognitive psychologists) are in a curious position. Their subject — the human brain — is obviously the most complicated thing studied by any science. Its components (neurons) are not only very numerous...

Birds use song to attract mates and mark their territory but according to University of Washington researchers, it’s a naturally occurring steroid that improves their brains and not practice. Neuroscientists have long attempted to understand if ...