There are those who master so many languages ​​that they should have applauded the day that Babel did come down. For others, however, they hardly know how to string together two or three words in a row despite spending time and energy on them. Why are there people who acquire verbal fluency in foreign languages … Read more
One can argue long and wide about the inconvenience of relying on pseudosciences, but the most important points could be summarized in four maxims that we offer you below . Obviously, when we say not to trust pseudosciences, it should not be interpreted that the particular approaches of a certain pseudoscience do not end up … Read more
A neurologist and pediatrician at the Children’s Hospital of the University of Helsinki (Finland), Heli Malm , has just published a study in which it is suggested that the intake of antidepressants during pregnancy could affect the brain, which pregnant mothers should In the first place, receive a non-pharmacological treatment to combat anxiety and depression … Read more
Sometimes it seems that we have forgotten what it was like to live without penicillin. No vaccines of any kind. We also seem to have forgotten that not long ago 15% of women died in childbirth . That, until recently, it was believed that certain plants can effectively cure cancer (although in some countries such … Read more
In a well-known experiment conducted by researchers at the University of Uppsala in Sweden, images of snakes and spiders were exposed to a series of volunteers. However, these images only appeared on the screen for less than one three hundredth of a second . To consciously register an image we need about half a second. … Read more
Just as heliocentrism or Darwinism demanded that many religions had to readjust to a new state of things, also the fossil and geological evidence that contradicts the claims of some holy books are indigestible for those who believe at face value and without the ability to self-correct everything what is poured there. For that reason, … Read more
Barley, corn, quinoa, rice, rye or wheat are some examples of whole grains that can extend our life expectancy , according to a meta-analysis carried out by the Harvard University School of Public Health TH Chan in Massachusetts. It is important to note that they are eaten whole, because the refining process largely reduces the … Read more
One question we could ask ourselves is whether aspects such as work or the tendency to play sports are fully acquired traits or do they really have an important genetic component . Theodore Garland, a physiologist at the University of California Riverside, with his team, did a series of experiments in which he was able … Read more
Often times, when a person who defends a holistic view of the world or who criticizes that science is shortsighted, squared off and refractory to accept pseudosciences, the criticism is often confused: the scientist is attacked instead of the science . Science is a tool for exploration and verification of facts, and depending on the … Read more
We get the good news that NASA has contractually extended the science operations of its Hubble Space Telescope for another five years . This action will take effect from July 1 to June 30, 2021. The amount of the contract will increase by more than 196 million dollars to 2,030 million dollars . This contract … Read more
Despite the fact that it is relatively easy to identify a pseudoscience, there are still many people who trust them or who, in any case, consider it appropriate to investigate them thoroughly to see if they really are a pseudoscience or not . In the meantime, we have the list of shame in effect, and … Read more
With the birth of agriculture , there was a surplus of food, because agriculture can feed ten to one hundred times more people per square kilometer than hunting and gathering. As there was more food, the population grew. Thanks to agriculture, we stopped being hunter-gatherers, and we were able to settle in villages, with more … Read more
Tridymite is generally associated with silicic volcanism that is known on Earth, and it was not believed to be very important, however it has just been found on Mars as well. The person responsible for the discovery of this unexpected mineral has been NASA’s Curiosity rover, after carrying out an X-ray analysis of the remains … Read more
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which has given us so many joys (such as the detection of the Higgs boson) should work until 2035, however the international community of physicists has been working for years on the next great machine that will unravel the nature of the smallest. That machine could be the Compact Linear … Read more
Only a small fraction of the evolutionary selection that has taken place on Earth has been destined to enhance intelligence, creating more or less complex nervous systems. In that sense, the human nervous system seems the most sophisticated of all those that inhabit the planet. This could change if one day we design an Artificial … Read more
36,518,100 voters are called today to vote, for the second time in six months, a new government. The seats of a dozen provinces will determine this 26-J the changes with respect to 20-D . We should all exercise our right to vote, however are we really aware of what we are voting for? We start … Read more
Marc Steinberg , a US Navy research program administrator, is overseeing research at the Georgia Institute of Technology to create an artificial intelligence software program called Don Quixote , to teach robots to function in human society. The rapid rate of growth of artificial intelligence has raised fears that robots could act unethically or harm … Read more
A group of researchers from the University of Chicago have published a study that suggests that sleeping long hours on the weekend, to recover the sleep deficit that we carry throughout the working week, can help reduce the risk of suffering diabetes. This is not the first time that a study has suggested this approach, … Read more
We often hear that someone is stressed, but is there a more or less objective way to measure the amount of stress we are under? It is something that Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe tried to do in 1967 after evaluating thousands of medical patients who were asked about their life experiences and experiences, looking … Read more
On June 30, 1908, what appeared to be a huge thermonuclear detonation took place some five miles above Tunguska , Siberia. In reality, what probably took place was the explosion of a comet that came from space: when it did not reach the surface, no crater was produced, and the lack of debris makes us … Read more
A recent study published in the journal Art Therapy that has been carried out by experts from Drexel University in Philadelphia, suggests that creating art in any of its manifestations can reduce stress levels , regardless of the artistic ability that we harbor. And, in general, doing things by hand, by ourselves, not only has … Read more
Broadly speaking, we could say that we have two ways of behaving : one way is characterized by social exchanges and the other by mercantile (or economic) exchanges. Social norms are very delicate and can be transformed into mercantile ones, but it will hardly be the other way around. Imagine that you own a nursery … Read more
Volcanoes are fascinating geological phenomena, capable of vomiting the bowels of the Earth, producing diamonds and even, in their dormant state, giving fruit to a national park that seems to be from another planet, that of Yellowstone. To measure the fierceness of a volcano’s eruption, the Volcanic Explosive Index (IEV) is used, a scale that … Read more
"Winter is Coming" has a real-world equivalent: Hongerwinter , that is, the Winter of Hunger, which took place between 1944 and 1945 in Holland. It was neither the first nor the most insidious famine in human history: heavy rains in the early 1300s reduced harvests to such an extent that a quarter of the entire … Read more