“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom,” says ancient philosopher Aristotle. But it seems that most of us are not wise because we don’t know ourselves — our capabilities, and our personalities — fully. In other words, we are not self-aware. This is much true when it comes to the financial aspect of our lives.

Numerous statistics from social science studies attest to the poor financial knowledge of American consumers, and the significant downsides that occur from the lack of knowledge.

But what exactly does it mean to be financially knowledgable? When considering financial knowledge, many psychologists and public policymakers focus on financial literacy, defined as an understanding of basic economic principles and financial concepts such as how interest rates work, the effects of inflation on savings, the differences between individual stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, and so on.

But more than being financially knowledgeable, there is also another type of financial knowledge, and that is financial self-awareness (FSA).

Head over to Psychology Today to learn the benefits of having financial self-awareness.

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Humans can see faces in pretty much everything, like power outlets, or car headlights, or two circles and a line. This delightful quirk is called pareidolia, and this also applies when we look up into the cosmos.

You may be surprised to learn that the image above isn't actually a giant spooky head floating in space, but two galaxies undergoing the process of merging. The picture was released by the Hubble Space Telescope team in time to celebrate Halloween.

The system is called Arp-Madore 2026-424; located around 704 million light-years away, its sports an unusual head-shaped appearance because of the turbulent effects of two galaxies colliding.

More details about this galaxy over at Science Alert.

(Image Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Dalcanton, B.F. Williams, and M. Durbin/University of Washington)

Facebook has recently launched a new preventive health tool that lets its US users opt in for reminders to get health examinations, vaccines, and cancer screenings. The initial focus is on the two leading causes of death in the US (namely, heart disease and cancer) and the flu, as well.

Facebook plans to expand the range of illnesses, and countries, covered. It has partnered with several US health organizations for the launch.

On the downside, this would also involve the most private data being collected by the social network company.

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Life can be found virtually everywhere here on Earth. You can find it on polar ice sheets, in scalding hot springs, and even kilometers underground. But life reaches its limits in some spots here on Earth — spots that, according to scientists, are too hostile for even the toughest microbes, like the briny lakes of Africa’s Rift Valley and the cold, dry soil of Antarctica’s Shackleton Glacier Valley.

Together the two projects “contradict the current wisdom that life is really everywhere,” says Nathan Smith, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County in California who was not involved with either project. “Both, in their own ways, in different types of environments, are homing in on what might be real barriers to life.”

In the Rift Valley lakes, in Ethiopia, volcanic gases venting from below acidify the water, which is also rich in salts from brines created by the evaporation of ancient and modern bodies of water. Add the heating effect of the volcanic activity, and the lakes represent an environment more extreme than any found in Yellowstone National Park or even in the Atacama Desert.

More details over at Science Magazine.

(Image Credit: Puri Lopez)

Remember that time when we just dreamed that there will be flying cars in the future? That future is nearer than ever now, as the Japanese tech company NEC tests this flying car prototype, which looks like a humongous drone.

The prototype flying car measures in at 3.9 m (12.8 ft) L x 3.7 m (12.1 ft) W x 1.3 m (4.26 ft) H, which makes it one of the biggest quadrotors I’ve ever seen. In addition to testing out the hardware for the car drone, NEC is working on autonomous flight technology for the aircraft.

The prototype currently hovers only about 10 feet above the ground, and is being tested on a tether for safety purposes. The video below shows off a test of the vehicle, which is at once impressive and terrifying:

It would be awful, however, if any part of your body touches the giant rotors. But hey, this is just a prototype, and the design would probably improve.

(Video Credit: Washington Post/ YouTube)

They look and sound like venomous vipers. But don’t be fooled, because they’re not. They’re just your Congolese giant toads, which look like vipers when they display their backside, and sound like vipers when they hiss.

These toads (Sclerophyrs channingi) may be using mimicry to avoid becoming other animals’ lunch, researchers report October 20 in the Journal of Natural History.

If this is true, then this would be the first known case of a toad trying to mimic a poisonous snake.

More details over at Science News.

(Image Credit: Colin Tilbury)

Published recently in the journal Clinical Oral Investigations, a new study has discovered that sugar-sweetened acidic drinks, like softdrinks, is the common factor when it comes to obesity and tooth wear among adults.

Being overweight or obese is indubitably associated with having tooth wear, scientists from King’s College found out.

Significantly, they also found that the increased consumption of sugary soft drinks may be a leading cause of the erosion of tooth enamel and dentine in obese patients.

[...]

"It is the acidic nature of some drinks such as carbonated drinks and acidic fruit juices that leads to tooth wear," said lead author Dr Saoirse O'Toole from King's College London.

Tooth wear is ranked as the third most important dental condition, after cavities and gum disease and the consumption of acidic food and drink is a leading cause of this. Obese patients also have other risk factors such as increased likelihood of gastric reflux disease (heartburn) which was controlled for in this study.

"This is an important message for obese patients who are consuming calories through acidic sugar sweetened drinks. These drinks may be doing damage to their body and their teeth. There is also an important message for dentists. We should be asking our patients who are obese and have tooth wear what calories they are drinking as this may be having an effect on their full bodies - not just their teeth," Dr O'Toole added.

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The Mars 2020 rover of NASA has shed its skin and was given a new arm. The rover now can also stand on its own, which makes everything better.

Having gone through a few major updates this October, and having been relocated from the Spacecraft Assembly Facility to the Simulator Building at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to undergo testing, the first, inner layer of protective, anti-static foil of the rover has been removed by scientists.

… you can see a team of engineers in bunny suits (a nickname for their clean room coveralls) "unwrapping" the rover.

After removing the first layer of anti-static foil, the team of engineers wiped down the last layer of foil with 70% isopropyl alcohol. The protective foil and alcohol wipe-down are meant to prevent Earth material from hitching a ride on the rover to Mars and contaminating the surface of the planet. 

[...]

A few days later at JPL, on Oct. 8, the Mars 2020 rover carried its full weight on its six legs and wheels for the first time ever. 

More details over at Space.com.

(Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Cancer cells are very elusive cells. As they hide among billions of blood cells, they become incredibly difficult to find. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. But what if we try to remove the haystack first? This is the new approach by 3-D-printed cell traps; they remove the “hay” to expose the cancer cells.

Trapping the white blood cells—which are about the size of cancer cells—and filtering out smaller red blood cells leaves behind the tumor cells, which could then be used to diagnose the disease, potentially provide early warning of recurrence and enable research into the cancer metastasis process. The work, led by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, could advance the goal of personalized cancer treatment by allowing rapid and low-cost separation of tumor cells circulating in the bloodstream.

More details about this approach over at PHYS.org.

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(Image Credit: Allison Carter, Georgia Tech)

Now this is food that literally arrives from the skies.

Uber has revealed more details with regards to its plans of Eats delivery via drones. If all goes to plan, the company will be able to start flying its first drone model before this year ends.

Uber’s design, which it unveiled at the Forbes 30 under 30 Summit today, is made to carry up to one meal for two people. Featuring rotating wings with six rotors, the vehicle can vertically take-off and land, and travel a maximum of eight minutes, including loading and unloading. The total flight range is 18 miles, with a round trip delivery range of 12 miles.

As Uber stated previously, their plan is not to use the drones for full delivery. Rather, they plan to use the drones for partial delivery.

Once a customer orders food, the restaurant will prepare the meal and then load it onto a drone. That drone will then take off, fly and land at a pre-determined drop-off location.

An Uber Eats delivery driver will then complete the last mile to deliver the food to the customer.

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If you think you’re supposed to wash your hands every hour, think again. A new research has just arrived stating the opposite. According to this research from Ohio State University (OSU), living up close with farm animals could help boost a baby’s immune system.

In the study, published in the journal Frontiers in Immunology, OSU researchers analyzed the bacteria found in the fecal matter from 10 babies in Ohio between the ages of 6-12 months old. Five of the babies were Amish and lived on farms with cattle, pigs, horses, and sheep; while the other five babies were from an urban mid-sized city of Wooster with no exposure to livestock.

The fecal samples revealed that Amish babies possessed more rich and diverse microbial communities with far more variation than those from urban babies. This makes sense because previous research found farm-raised children to have an improved immune system and a reduction in rates of asthma and allergies. At the time, the researchers came up with a theory that it had to do with a less sanitized lifestyle because by being exposed to bacteria, their immune systems grew stronger. They even gave the theory a name – “hygiene hypothesis.” The hygiene hypothesis is an idea that ultra-clean modern life has led to an increase in autoimmune and allergic diseases.

I guess it’s time to move out from the city.

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It appears Spotify’s strategy of owning a chunk of the podcast game is paying off, at least according to its latest financial report. In the third quarter of 2019, Spotify states that in just three months, they saw a 39 percent increase in just three months — an "exponential growth".

The US is the biggest consumer of the format, but Spotify is also seeing bumps in a number of European countries. And those people who come to Spotify for podcasts are, according to the company, more likely to sign up for premium than others.

The company is looking to further analyze the data about podcasts and premium sign-ups, but believes that it's "onto something special." If proven true, we can expect to see Spotify lean even harder in to owning the space, with more paid-for exclusive titles to lock people into subscriptions. It looks as if the music platform will look to become a Netflix for Podcasts, with a number of new and original shows being commissioned.

What are your thoughts about this one? Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

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Rats can’t drive. I mean, let’s get this straight. Driving is mostly a human thing. We only see driving rats in cartoons or animations with anthropomorphic characters. But this study proves otherwise. Turns out, rats CAN drive.

But why would scientists teach rats something as crazy as this?

Find out more about this study, and watch the video, over at Mashable.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: Mashable)

Over the years, blue light has had a bad rap. It has been blamed for sleep loss and for eye damage. Since blue light has a short wavelength, that means that it is a high-energy, which are harmful to the delicate tissues of the eyes. Moreover, blue light can also pass through the retina, the collection of neurons which convert light into signals, the foundation of sight.

While laboratory studies in mice have shown that prolonged exposure to high-intensity blue light can damage retinal cells, epidemiological studies on real people suggest a different story.

If it is not blue light that causes eye fatigue and sleep loss, then what is? Find out over at Ohio State News.

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Polycystic kidney disease or PKD is a hereditary and relatively common disease. It has been long thought that this disease is irreversible. Those who have this disease develop fluid-filled cysts inside their kidneys, which grow and eventually take away the function of these organs.

Once their kidneys fail, PKD patients often require dialysis several times a week or must undergo a kidney transplant. To make matters worse, a host of other PKD-related conditions and complications add to the patients’ health burden, including high blood pressure, vascular problems and cysts in the liver. And that doesn’t take into account the medical costs and the reduced quality of life.

Progress toward finding a cure has been sluggish, with only one drug proven to slow — but not stop — the progression of PKD.

But there is hope. A team of researchers from UC Santa Barbara has discovered a diet that could be a key in treating this disease.

See more over at The Current.

(Image Credit: Sonia Fernandez)