When drug companies launch ads about the prescription medicines they sell, we often get a big dose of the benefits that they give without being given what the potential risks or side effects could be. However, when they did include them, both major and minor side effects, it had the reverse effect of what the FDA policy wanted to do. Instead of deterring consumers, it encouraged them even more to buy the prescription medicines. This is a cognitive bias called the argument dilution effect.
Fifteen years ago, Opportunity rover started exploring the surface of the Red Planet, originally as a 90-day mission in order to find out what Mars holds. One of the first things it discovered during the first two months was these spherical objects scattered on the surface. It was something that scientists began to refer to as 'blueberries' because they seemed bluish and round. Many theories have been proposed as to what these objects could be and you may read them here. Now, only recently, Opportunity had been retired but the Martian 'blueberries' remains one of its biggest finds as it points to the evidence of possible presence of water on Mars.
Optical illusions can take your brain for a whirl and this common one called the Pinna-Brelstaff illusion could literally make your brain spin. You can try it out by moving closer toward the circles and then quickly pulling away. You will notice that it would seem to rotate though you know it doesn't move at all. Scientists wanted to know why this was the case, so they conducted a study on humans and macaques to figure out the underlying neurological mechanisms at play. They found that in looking at the optical illusion, the brain takes about 15 milliseconds to process what was happening.
Serving as the source of half the nation's economy, the Mauritania Railway stretches 700 kilometers long, connecting the mining town of Zouerat to the ports in Nouadhibou. For a lot of the people living in settlements all across Mauritania, the train is the closest to modern civilization that they have seen. Every day the train transports iron ore from the mines to the ports and on its way back, it brings passengers with it.
Is it ash or soot? What's the black snow that has blanketed Siberia? Well, it's actually coal dust mixed with the air and the snow. It has afflicted three cities of the coal-mining region of Kemerovo.
In grim scenes uploaded to social networks and described as "post-apocalyptic" by Russian media, Siberian residents in the cities of Prokopyevsk, Kiselyovsk, and Leninsk-Kuznetsky have shared images of their soiled, shadowy landscape – prompting at least one Twitter user to ask, "Is this what snow looks like in hell?"
The director of the Prokopyevskaya coal plant claims the black snow was the result of a broken shield at the facility, which exposed coal powder to the atmosphere – but has also said emissions inevitably escape, and "we can't tackle coal dust in the streets".
It looks pretty and mysterious, a natural wonder on its own, perhaps the only one of its kind. The Great Blue Hole off the coast of Belize is exactly what the name says, it's a circular sinkhole with a deep blue hue which is oddly different from the surrounding waters. It's surrounded by an atoll in the Caribbean Sea. What lies in the waters of the Great Blue Hole was a mystery to most but a recent expedition featuring Richard Branson has been launched in order to explore the waters underneath it.
For most of the first half of her life, Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten lived in obscurity, outside the life of fame. But during her childhood years, she had been a lover of music and instruments. This she carried with her well into her adulthood when she became a domestic for a family of musicians, the Seegers. It wasn't until the 1960s when Libba Cotten would get recognized, record her own albums, and go on tour singing in various music, mostly folk, festivals. Her career began at the age of 66 and only at the age of 93 did she win her very first Grammy.
If you have ever been in love or have seen two people head over heels in love with each other, then you might have heard such awkward baby talk, pet names, and sweet nothings exchanged between two lovers. It's cringy and it's easy for outsiders to scoff at people who use such language, but for those who have been smitten and know what it feels, they would understand that these intimate conversations actually help break down barriers of uncertainty and improve the strength of their relationship. The cheesier it gets, it shows just how open and vulnerable two people are with each other, which according to some researchers might indicate where they are in their relationship. To be comfortable around someone enough to not care whether you look or sound silly to them, is one way of gauging the bond that two people have developed for each other. But still, why does the language have to be so cringy? Chi Luu of Jstor explores this language of love life in her article.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual as well as the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM are some ways on how to diagnose a patient's mental health and if they suffer from mental disorders. It's not really the best way to diagnose someone, but it provides some insight on a person's thought life as well as their mental and emotional disposition. Now, whether it leads to the right conclusion is still a bit suspect but again, it does provide some form of roadmap where psychologists can begin to navigate a person's mental health. The following interview between Dr. Barron and William Perry shows the different questions within the SCID.
Matthew Dana was a healthy, 27-year-old local police officer from Tupper Lake. He died on August 6, 2017 at home. Initially, nobody knew what had happened to him and it came as a shock that his life would end so suddenly. After Shawn Stuart, one of the county's elected coroners, conducted an autopsy, it was revealed that Dana died of pulmonary hemorrhage. Toxicology reports found the presence of mitragynine in his blood which could have caused the sudden death. Later on, Stuart would learn that mitragynine is one of the active ingredients found in kratom.
Botanically, kratom is related to the coffee plant. Traditionally its leaves are steeped into a tea or chewed, like coca, and people use kratom’s stimulating effects to endure long hours of manual labor. Over the past two decades, though, kratom has spread across the U.S., often in powder or capsule form, thanks to numerous anecdotal reports that it can counteract fatigue and treat pain. But kratom is also used to manage withdrawal from prescription painkillers and heroin, and it has recently gained widespread attention—and notoriety—for its reputation as a potential cure for opioid addiction.
There has been ongoing debate about kratom and whether it should be sold in the market especially with the potential health risks that its substances pose on the users. It's not necessarily considered a dangerous drug but there are questions regarding its potential lethality that raises much concern.
The waves of the sea ebb and flow, bringing with it a swath of things from sea creatures to memories from yesteryear. In this occasion, as Candy and Jim Duke were out on their treasure hunt at a beach in Texas, they found an odd bottle with a message inside which read "Break Bottle". Not wanting to destroy their precious find, they set out to carefully get the paper out. After doing so, they were surprised at what they found.
Everyone wants free stuff. It doesn't matter what the consequences of getting that would be, if it's "free" we'll kick, scratch, or even kill for that gratuitous item. But the thing is, the psychology behind it is completely irrational whereas the economics of "free" deals are actually as detrimental to the consumer as it is profitable to the retailer. But retailers and marketers know this and so they prey on our hapless desire to get "free" stuff for their own gain. What makes the label "free" so appealing to consumers is just the fact that we think it wouldn't cost us anything, but in reality, we don't exactly get what we bargained for.
When confronted with a purchasing choice, we typically run a quick internal cost-benefit analysis, weighing potential satisfaction/joy against price.
But Ariely concluded that when the word ‘free’ is introduced, it not only decreases the cost but makes us believe the benefits of the free item are higher. Suddenly, that mediocre Hershey’s Kiss is the finest chocolate known to mankind.
As a result, we fall victim to the zero price effect, a phenomenon whereby our demand for an item dramatically increases when it is free.
Neanderthals roamed around the Earth up until 40,000 years ago, or so evidence points. A recent discovery of supposed Neanderthal footprints in Gibraltar suggests that they might have lived a little while longer, at around 28,000 years ago.
If they are right, the find is highly significant: Only one other Neandertal track site is known, a set of 62,000-year-old footprints from Romania. And the Gibraltar print is reportedly much younger, in which case it could have been made by one of the last Neandertals ever to walk the Earth. But other experts are not so sure about that interpretation. The discovery figures into long-standing questions about when anatomically modern Homo sapiens colonized Europe and when the archaic Neandertals went extinct.
Can cats who have been infected with the brain parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, really cause harm to people's mental health? Theoretically, researchers say, there have been studies that suggest the strong correlation between the two. But whether it actually happens, no evidence would be able to conclusively say.
Most of the evidence comes from rodents, which develop bizarre behaviors when infected with T. gondii. They lose their fear of the smell of cat urine, in some cases walking right into the jaws of waiting felines. Scientists think T. gondii alters brain function by forming cysts in regions that process fear and decision-making. The cysts may also affect behavior by ramping up levels of dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved in reward and risk-taking. There’s some evidence that T. gondii can rewire the brain permanently, making mice unafraid of cats even long after the parasite has been cleared.
Now, the problem with trying to test for the causal relationship between T. gondii and mental illnesses like schizophrenia is that it would be very difficult to test on humans. One can try to find people who have both been infected by T. gondii and have been diagnosed with schizophrenia or other mental disorders but it would be a challenge, to say the least, to determine whether they were infected first and then developed symptoms of mental illness or the other way around. Whatever the case may be, it would be best to stay cautious.
Over the past several decades, China has grown exponentially to become the economic powerhouse that it is today and has given its leader such immense power on the global stage. Of course, China had once been on a very strict path toward communism, where class inequalities would be abolished and everybody would have public ownership of property. Everyone will receive what they need from these publicly owned institutions. But trying to skip a step in what Marx calls the stages of historical development can lead a nation to crash and burn. So in the past decades, the Chinese government has been doubling back and boosting their economic power by allowing some form of capitalism to accumulate enough wealth. All of this, of course, is headed toward their goal of achieving communism. And that's the gist of what Chinese socialism is. But will it hold up? Recently, China has hit a bump on the road and their economic growth has slowed down. Will they be able to achieve their long-term goal of communism? Or will they go through the same financial crisis that the West had back in 2008? Only time will tell.
