For years, tales of giant squids roaming the ocean depths lived mostly in folklore and maritime legends — dismissed as mythological creatures without solid scientific backing. These elusive beings were long considered cryptids due to the lack of confirmed evidence.That started to change with mounting clues: squid beaks and body parts discovered in the stomachs of sperm whales, and occasional dead specimens snagged by deep-sea fishing vessels. These rare finds confirmed the creature’s existen ...read more
When you meet a stranger for the first time, how do you judge your potential to be friends? Is it their personality? Their style? Their smile? According to a new study in Scientific Reports, scent might have something to do with it, as smell preferences can predict whether people see each other as potential friends. “People take a lot in when they’re meeting face to face. But scent — which people are registering at some level, though probably not consciously — forecasts whether you end u ...read more
Mental health for U.S. children has declined before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic — a substantial break in a trend that has long shown this age group generally reports feelings of happiness and well-being, according to a report in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.Children under 18 years reported a slow, steady climb in anxiety and depression from 2016 to 2022. In contrast, incidents of physical health problems, such as asthma, severe headache or migraine, and heart conditions declined or ...read more
Denver, Colorado became the first U.S. city to decriminalize psilocybin — a chemical found in “magic mushrooms” — in May of 2019. Since then, usage across the U.S. has bloomed significantly. Often known for a hallucinogenic effect, many people have started using psilocybin as a mental health and pain treatment. A new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine examines the increase in psilocybin consumption along with the benefits and risks of taking it. “We found that since 20 ...read more
Scientists have gradually shifted their stance on lucid dreams (LD) — the ability to know that you are dreaming and even controlling your fate within that dream state.Many were initially skeptical when, in the 1970s, Stanford psychophysiologist Stephen LaBerge proposed the concept. Psychologists slowly came around, conducting research and tapping into patients’ lucid dreaming capacity for therapeutic purposes.Now, a team of neuroscientists has collected and analyzed the largest known set of ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine