You've likely seen some version of this scenario on television or in the halls of a university: A researcher runs out of the lab in a frenzy, electrified after suddenly arriving at the solution to an impossible problem. These "aha!" moments are supremely satisfying, whether you're a scientist, a hard-bitten detective or an unlucky horror movie actress realizing that something's just not right.
But what happens to us in the moments just before the light bulb turns on? New research from ...read more
In a thought-provoking new paper called What are neural correlates neural correlates of?, NYU sociologist Gabriel Abend argues that neuroscientists need to pay more attention to philosophy, social science, and the humanities.
Abend's main argument is that if we are to study the neural correlates or neural basis of a certain phenomenon, we must first define that phenomenon and know how to identify instances of it.
Sometimes, this identification is straightforward: in a study of brai ...read more
Every morning at Hamelin Pool, in Western Australia, the first rays of sunshine illuminate knobby reef-like structures, submerged or peeking just above the gentle waves, depending on the tide. On the crudely rounded surfaces of these rocks, microorganisms stir and begin the daily task of photosynthesizing, fighting against occluding sand grains to harvest the sunlight.
This scene, or something like it, has likely been occurring every morning, somewhere on Earth, for the last 3.7 billion y ...read more
It's surprisingly hard to stick a camera to a dolphin. Surprising, anyway, when you consider the other animals that have carried monitoring devices down into the ocean for human scientists: sharks, sea turtles, birds, manatees, even whales. When a group of researchers recently overcame the challenges and created a camera that dolphins can wear, they were inducted into a dizzying underwater world.
Scientists may attach instruments to marine animals to do environmental research, as wi ...read more
Smelling someone's stinky body odor can really bum you out, at least temporarily. But did you know that BO can communicate emotions directly? According to this study, human body odor may contain chemicals, also known as "chemosignals", that can carry information about emotional states. To test this hypothesis, the researchers evoked emotions in 12 men by showing them movie clips to make them either happy (e.g., “Bare Necessities” from The Jungle Book), a ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine