Human Quirks: Living Well

August 20, 2016

The Internet Is Taking Over Human Memory

Magic? Making Non-Existent Object Disappear?

Homes in Wealthier Neighborhoods Have More Bugs

DNA Test Predicts Academic Achievement

Latest Headlines

updated 11:31am EDT

Don't Scan So Close to Me: Sting's Musical Brain Scanned

Aug. 15, 2016 — What does the 1960s Beatles hit 'Girl' have in common with Astor Piazolla's evocative tango composition 'Libertango'? Probably not much, to the casual listener. But in the mind of one famously ... read more

Backup Plans May Keep You from Achieving Your Goal, Research Shows

Aug. 11, 2016 — When it comes to setting organizational and personal goals, making a backup plan has been seen as a sensible way to deal with uncertainty -- to be prepared if things don't go as expected. However, ... read more

Reducing the Harms of Alcohol Through Weaker Beer

Aug. 10, 2016 — Could a small drop in the alcohol content of beer or other drinks reduce the harmful effects of alcohol in society at large? A new review, which explores the evidence, suggests this approach may be ... read more

Believe It or Not: Exercise Does More Good If You Believe It Will

Aug. 11, 2016 — People benefit more from exercise when they believe it will have a positive effect, new research indicates. A psychologist and his team have conducted a study demonstrating that test subjects derive ... read more

Recording Selfies While Brushing Teeth Can Improve Oral Health Care Skills

Aug. 10, 2016 — Recording smart phone video 'selfies' of tooth-brushing can help people learn to improve their oral health care techniques, according to a new ... read more

Toe-Tapping to Better Health: Fidgeting Helps Prevent Arterial Dysfunction from Sitting

Aug. 4, 2016 — Previous research has shown that sitting for an extended period of time at a computer or during a long airline flight reduces blood flow to the legs, ... read more

Flexible Wearable Electronic Skin Patch Offers New Way to Monitor Alcohol Levels

Aug. 2, 2016 — Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a flexible wearable sensor that can accurately measure a ... read more

Origins of the Female Orgasm Explained

Aug. 1, 2016 — Female orgasm seems to be a happy afterthought of our evolutionary past when it helped stimulate ovulation, a new study of mammals ... read more

Music Makes Beer Taste Better

July 28, 2016 — Music can influence how much you like the taste of beer, according to a ... read more

Height Rankings Revealed: Dutch Men and Latvian Women Tallest in World

July 26, 2016 — Dutch men and Latvian women are the tallest on the planet, according to the largest ever study of height around the ... read more

Using Tinder Might Lower Your Self-Esteem

We Might Stop Growing As We Age, But Our Ears Don't

Students Build Adjustable Prosthetic Foot for High Heels

Getting a Massage on the Go

We Understand That Social Media Does Not Equal Social Interaction

Aug. 11, 2016 — If you worry that people today are using social media as a crutch for a real social life, a study will set you at ease. A new study found that people are actually quite adept at discerning the ... read more

Driving, Thinking, Dreaming: Why Motoring Can Be Therapeutic

July 26, 2016 — Although driving is now more commonly associated with road-rage than relaxation – at least in congested urban areas – research into the ways in which the concentration required for driving can ... read more

Playing Action Video Games Boosts Visual Motor Skill Underlying Driving

July 13, 2016 — Playing action-based video games may boost players' ability to coordinate incoming visual information with their motor control, a skill critical to many real-world behaviors including driving, ... read more

The Moral Tipping Point: Why It's Hard to Shake a Bad Impression

July 12, 2016 — People require more evidence to perceive improvement in someone’s moral character than to perceive a decline, research shows. In other words, it is easier to become a sinner than a ... read more

Western-Style Diet Linked to State-Dependent Memory Inhibition

July 12, 2016 — Obesity may ultimately be a disease of the brain, involving a progressive deterioration of various cognitive processes that influence eating. Researchers have now shown that memory inhibition -- the ... read more

Why Do We Tap Our Feet to a Musical Beat?

July 8, 2016 — Investigators have explored the theory behind the relationship between musical sound and body movement. Research shows that people tend to perceive affinities between sound and body motion when ... read more

Text Messaging With Smartphones Triggers a New Type of Brain Rhythm

June 27, 2016 — Sending text messages on a smartphone can change the rhythm of brain waves, according to a new study. People communicate increasingly via text messaging, though little is known on the neurological ... read more

How Make-Up Makes Men Admire but Other Women Jealous

June 24, 2016 — Men think women with make-up on are more 'prestigious', while women think women who wear make-up are more 'dominant,' a psychology study has ... read more

RedEye Could Let Your Phone See 24-7

June 20, 2016 — Researchers have just the thing for information overload: image-processing technology that sees all and remembers only what it should. RedEye could allow computers to continuously see what their ... read more

Silencing of Gene Affects People's Social Lives

June 20, 2016 — Psychologists have found that the silencing of a specific gene may affect human social behavior, including a person's ability to form healthy relationships or to recognize the emotional states ... read more

New Equation Reveals How Other People's Fortunes Affect Our Happiness

June 14, 2016 — A new equation, showing how our happiness depends not only on what happens to us but also how this compares to other people, has been developed by researchers. The team developed an equation to ... read more

Children Less Likely to Trust Ugly People

June 13, 2016 — Is beauty only skin deep? Children don't seem to think so, like adults and babies, children think the uglier you are, the less trustworthy you ... read more

No Dessert for You! When It Comes to Diabetes, 'Nagging Is Caring'

May 25, 2016 — For men, an unhappy marriage may actually slow the development of diabetes and promote successful treatment once they do get the disease, finds an American ... read more

Your Friends Have More Friends Than You Do

May 18, 2016 — No matter how smart and funny you think you are, those you follow on Twitter really do have a larger following than you. And the same holds true for Facebook. But there is no reason to feel badly ... read more

Relationship Satisfaction Depends on the Mating Pool, Study Finds

May 17, 2016 — Relationship satisfaction and the energy devoted to keeping a partner are dependent on how the partner compares with other potential mates, a finding that relates to evolution's stronghold on ... read more

Suspense in the Movie Theater Air

May 12, 2016 — Cinemagoers' exhaled breath reveals the scene that is playing. It is now possible to determine whether a movie scene is full of suspense, funny or somewhat boring, using ... read more

Emotions in the Age of Botox

May 12, 2016 — Aesthetic treatments based on botulin toxin affect the perception of emotions, new research shows. The consequence of having Botox injected, scientists explain, depends on a temporary block of ... read more

Twin Study Finds That Gut Microbiomes Run in Families

May 11, 2016 — A genome-wide association analysis of over 1,000 twins in the UK supports that some parts of our microbiomes are inherited and shaped -- not through a spread of microbes from parent to child, but ... read more

Emotion Detector Could Reveal If a Date Really Finds You Attractive: Is This the Kind of World We Actually Want?

May 10, 2016 — Scientists are considering an emotion detector which, potentially, can tell whether a person really finds you attractive on a first ... read more

The Juliet Effect: Real Reason Why Your Mom and Your Sister Don't Like Your 'Hunky' Boyfriend

May 9, 2016 — Why do we choose the partners we do, and why do we get flak about it from our parents? A professor says it comes down to simple ... read more

Thursday, August 11, 2016