This article was first published on Feb. 13, 2015. “If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it,” Albert Einstein reportedly said. I’d like to broaden the definition of addiction — and also retire the scientific idea that all addictions are pathological and harmful. Since the beginning of formal diagnostics more than fifty years ago, the compulsive pursuit of gambling, food, and sex (known as non-substance rewards) have not been regarded as addictions. Only abuse of ...read more
You’ve long heard that eating your biggest meal in the morning and your smallest meal at night is the best way to stay slim and trim. But what’s the truth? What does science say about optimal eating times for keeping the weight off and staving off cardiovascular disease, diabetes and a host of other chronic illnesses? Experts contend that while the quality of the food you eat is most important, the timing is a close second. Research shows that when people ate the same amount of calories each ...read more
It’s been long known that arthropods, meaning all animals with articulated limbs and bodies with segments, can rebuild legs and arms after a loss, according to Gerhard Scholtz, a comparative zoologist at Humboldt University Berlin. For instance, when crustaceans are attacked they can even break off their injured leg themselves, and sacrifice it to survive. And a growing body of research into the molecular mechanisms behind regeneration seems to suggest that there’s no one-size-fits-all come ...read more
For years, organizational expert Marie Kondo advised people to declutter their homes. An object that didn't "spark joy" needed to be let go, and a person had to be mindful not to "relapse into clutter" by buying things they truly didn't need. Kondo recently admitted her own relapse into clutter. She told a reporter from The Washington Post, "My home is messy." She's now the parent of three young children, and culling her bookshelves is no longer a priority. Household clutter is such a uni ...read more
In the fifth century B.C., Hippocrates first reported a disease with “flu-like symptoms” spreading across northern Greece. Years later, in Renaissance Florence, around A.D. 1300 a flu virus called “influenza di freddo” hit the Italian city with a vengeance. History shows that we’ve been dealing with the flu for thousands of years, while COVID-19 is a comparably new contagion. Still, according to experts, the flu has provided the groundwork for how we might respond to COVID-19 in the f ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine