Imagine this: someone puts a light bulb in your brain. As the bulb switches on and off, it controls the activity of your brain cells. By targeting different cells, it might make you feel intense emotions, wake you up or put you to sleep, or even make you temporarily smarter.
Pterosaurs, birds, bats, and insects were the first to evolve the ability to fly, and in modern times, insects, birds, and bats are capable of true flight. So how exactly did this nearly 400 million year old process first start?
At this time of year, some animals are eating and sleeping more than usual to prepare themselves for the frigid weather ahead—and for their long winter ‘nap’. You see, these animals protect themselves in the harsh winter conditions by hibernating. Right now, you’re probably picturing a bear falling into a deep sleep throughout the winter, but there’s actually more to the story!
While most people recover from concussions within a couple of weeks, about half of concussion patients report symptoms for multiple months, with 10-15% of them reporting symptoms for more than a year after a head injury. When concussion symptoms last for longer than expected, it’s called post-concussion syndrome (PCS).
Did you know that there is a Guinness World Record for longest continuously running laboratory experiment? An experiment that started back in 1927 is still running!
“Everyone needs at least 8 hours of sleep!” How many times have you heard this phrase growing up? Certainly, we can all attest to hearing this from a parent after staying up binging our favourite show or pulling an all-nighter before a test. But in reality, do we actually need all 8 hours?
In 2011, researchers came across something puzzling on 3.4-million-year-old fossilized bones: cut marks. Someone had cleaned and cut these bones—possibly using a pointy stone! The culprit? A member of Australopithecus afarensis, Lucy’s species.
It’s on the wall, it’s on your wrist, it’s built into your laptop, but it’s also within you in the form of a circadian clock. Plants and animals developed this form of time-keeping to adapt their behaviors to the environment in a 24-hour fashion.
Intelligence, by definition, is the ability to change. And it is as simple as it is complex.
Browse through any website with clickbait ads for long enough, and chances are high you’ll eventually see a headline about a nail polish horror story. As it turns out, those pretty bottles of polish can have significant effects on human health and the environment—unassuming as they may seem at first glance.