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The Scientific Explanations Behind Near-Death Experiences

The light at the end of the tunnel. An out-of-body experience. Your life flashing before your eyes. According to Scientific American’s Charles Q. Choi, 3% of Americans have had a near-death experience; now scientists are beginning to unravel the biological roots of these experiences. Choi writes: Near-death experiences are often thought of as mystical phenomena, … Continued

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Yawning isn’t just for the sleepy… it actually cools the brain

If you ask people why they yawn, the most typical answer will be “because I’m tired.” But sleepiness and boredom might not be the real reasons behind yawning. It actually might be a way of getting rid of hot air. That’s the finding of Princeton researcher Andrew Gallup and the University of Arizona Omar Eldakar. … Continued

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Laughter might not cure you, but it’ll make it hurt less.

As the unhelpful platitude goes, laughter is the best medicine. Well, it might not be able to cure anything, but laughter does seem to stop the pain. New research published by the Proceedings of the Royal Society links social laughter to a boosted pain threshold. The researchers ran tests in both labs and the wild … Continued

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A newly-discovered class of cells could one day help repair spinal cord injuries

Injuries to parts of the nervous system — the spinal cord, for example — are among the most devastating that human beings can sustain. But the recent discovery of a new class of spinal cord cell could soon lead to novel therapies capable of regenerating parts of the central nervous system. The newly-discovered cells were … Continued

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15 Years of Cutting-Edge Thinking on Understanding the Mind

What do mirror neurons have to do with Abu Ghraib, the science of religion, and how happiness flourishes? For the past 15 years, literary-agent-turned-crusader-of-human-progress John Brockman has been a remarkable curator of curiosity, long before either “curator” or “curiosity” was a frivolously tossed around buzzword. His Edge.org has become an epicenter of bleeding-edge insight across … Continued

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This thimble-sized microscope could revolutionize neuroscience research

Mice are energetic little buggers, which is bad news for scientists who want to get a look at their brains while they’re scurrying around. But at last, researchers have perfected a high-powered, miniaturized fluorescent microscope that can be mounted on a mouse’s head and used to monitor the activity of as many as 200 brain … Continued

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An objective way to measure pain? It’s closer than you think.

Many doctors rely on patients to indicate levels of pain and discomfort, and while these self-reports are certainly subjective, they can still provide physicians with valuable clinical information. But what happens when patients are unable to talk with their doctors, like in cases of severe cognitive or communicative impairment? For years, researchers have searched for … Continued

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Scientists can make you lie using magnets

Truth serums are something of a staple in scifi and fantasy. They even exist in real life. But now, scientists have found a new way to induce spontaneous truth telling: magnetic fields. What’s more, these fields can not only increase your propensity to tell the truth — they can also turn you into a liar. … Continued

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What does clitoral stimulation do to your brain?

As part of a series on the science of sex at New York’s incredible World Science Festival, neuroscientist Jim Pfaus talked about how clitoral stimulation affects women’s brains. And he notes that the same structures exist in rat brains — indicating that clitoral sexual response is probably an ancient development in animal brains, predating the … Continued

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What happens to your brain under the influence of music

From the perspective of neuroscience, listening to music is one of the most complex things you can do. Many parts of your brain have to work together to comprehend even the simplest tune. So what is music really doing to our minds? The Mechanics of Music There isn’t a single music center of the brain, … Continued

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New research shows why you do dumb things to impress your friends

Whether it was on the playground in elementary school, at a party in college, or on a whitewater rafting trip over Labor Day weekend, odds are high that at some point in your life you’ve gone and done something outstandingly stupid or risky in the company of friends. But why did you do it? You … Continued

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The human mind may secretly follow the laws of quantum mechanics

Quantum theory may only explain the world at subatomic scales, but the mathematics behind it may have even broader applications. How we perceive the world may be shockingly similar to some of the weirdest quantum phenomena. That’s the argument put forward by an article from New Scientist, which points to how human thought processes can … Continued

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A taste map of the brain

While the tongue map may have been thoroughly debunked, what about our brains? Does each kind of flavor get processed in its own little corner of our grey matter? According to new research, they just might. The image above is of the taste cortex (insula) of a mouse, with each of the color clumps representing … Continued

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A chemical that can turn your organs transparent

Who needs an invisibility cloak when you can be transparent? Researchers in Japan recently developed a chemical reagent that turns biological tissue transparent, opening doors to optical imaging techniques and avenues of research that scientists have long only dreamed of. And speaking of dreaming — if you’re going to start turning body parts transparent, where … Continued

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Could probiotic yogurt be changing your behavior?

Mice are less anxious when they eat a diet that includes the kind of probiotic yogurt you can buy in the health food sections of most stores. The yogurt includes Lactobacillus rhamnosus, a bacterium that lives in the guts of humans and many other animals, and is believed to contribute to healthy digestion. It also … Continued

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Your brain is hardwired to recognize animals

Biologically speaking, humans are pretty much just another animal, and it’s actually hard to come up with any clear explanation for what sets us apart. But we have a hard time accepting this … and the reason we’re in denial about our animal status may be hardwired into our brains. It seems as though we … Continued

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These neurons are making you fat

You’re looking at a group of neurons that are responsible for helping you regulate how much you eat. They’re called satiety-promoting melanocortin neurons, and when they’re doing their job, they help you feel full when you’ve had enough to eat. But when these neurons don’t fire, your ability to feel satisfied (i.e. sated) when eating … Continued

ScienceBiology

Watching Ostriches Sleep With Their Eyes Open Is More Exciting Than it Looks

In this thrilling video, you are witnessing ostriches during two phases of sleep: slow wave, or SWS, and repaid eye movement, or REM. So the footage at first blush may seem less than exciting, but scientists were actually thrilled to discover that ostriches have a unique sleeping pattern that harkens back to the earliest evolution … Continued

Tech News

Why Time Passing Can Seem Like Torture

Why some moments can sometimes painfully drag on is still a mystery to brain scientists. But a recent study found some neurons seem to develop expectations that can make time pass more slowly. In a study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, scientists identified channels of neurons that adapt to perceive certain lengths … Continued

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Brain-eating amoebas claim the life of a teenager in Florida

Over the weekend, a sixteen-year-old girl lost her life to a rare infection from an amoeba called Naegleria fowleri, which eats neurons in the brain (in the image here, you can see the amoeba eating rat neurons). Most likely she caught it while swimming in a river near her Florida home. Experts say the Naegleria … Continued