When You're Drowsy, Is Your Brain Partly Asleep?

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

When we’re feeling very tired, we sometimes remark that we’re “half-asleep”. But is this more than just a figure of speech? A new paper suggests that parts of our brain may actually ‘fall asleep’ even while we’re still awake. According to researchers Jeremy D. Slater and colleagues of the University of Texas, “local sleep” occurs throughout the human brain, with each brain region passing into and out of a sleep-like state over time. What&rsq ...read more

The Science is Clear, Torture Doesn't Work

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Whether it’s the classic “good cop, bad cop” scenario played out in countless TV dramas or the psychological mind games that make True Detective‘s Rust Cohle such a chillingly effective detective, interrogators ply their trade with a range of shrewd tricks. This is to say nothing of the “enhanced interrogation” techniques that caused a controversy in 2009 after documents revealed that CIA had waterboarded, physically abused and humiliated prisoners in th ...read more

How to Tell a Rock from a Penguin: It’s Harder Than It Sounds

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Adelie penguins. Credit: Jean Pennycook By: Lishka Arata Many things distinguish penguins from rocks. There’s color difference (usually), behavior (penguins waddle, rocks don’t), social structure (rocks don’t have one) — the list goes on. But why might someone need to distinguish between rocks and penguins? It’s a skill central to a long-term project that relies on citizen scientists, working from the comfort of their homes, to identify penguins in photographs take ...read more

Why LSD Trips Last So Long and Connect Us to the Universe

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

LSD (in blue) fitting into a serotonin receptor (white ribbon). (Credit: Bryan Roth) Two studies looking at one crucial receptor in our brains give different insights into the psychedelic effects of LSD. Two separate teams of researchers publishing papers today in Cell examined how LSD binds to serotonin receptors in our brains and what the consequences of those reactions are. Their results offer an explanation for two hallmarks of LSD use: Its long-lasting effects and apparent ability to ...read more

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