We live in a loud and distracting world, where silence is increasingly difficult to come by — and that may be negatively affecting our health.
In fact, a 2011 World Health Organization report called noise pollution a “modern plague,” concluding that “there is overwhelming evidence that exposure to environmental noise has adverse effects on the health of the population.”
We’re constantly filling our ears with music, TV and radio news, podcasts and, of course, the multitude of sounds that we create nonstop in our own heads. Think about it: How many moments each day do you spend in total silence? The answer is probably very few.
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LM Photo via Getty Images
Making time for silence can make you feel less stressed, more focused and more creative, according to science.
Ever wonder if Rover really loves you — or if he’s just in it for the kibbles?
Alas, scientists haven’t figured out exactly how our dogs feel about us. But a study published this week in the journal PLOS One has yielded fresh insight into how dogs see us. It adds to existing research showing that — much like humans, other primates and even goats — our canine friends use specific regions of their brain to “process” our faces.
“Our study provides evidence that human faces are truly special for dogs, as it involves particular brain activity,” study co-author Dr. Luis Concha, an associate professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s Institute of Neurobiology, told The Huffington Post in an email. “To dogs, the human face is no ordinary thing.”
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Cuaya, Hernandez and Concha
A golden retriever inside an fMRI scanner wears earmuffs to…
The effects of popping Molly may last longer than Tomorrowland.
Science has bad news for people who use MDMA, the synthetic drug known as Ecstasy or Molly. New research published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology found poorer cognitive functioning in the brains of people who’d used MDMA compared to those who’d never tried the drug before.
MDMA causes the brain to release various neurotransmitters — among them, serotonin, which can elevate a user’s mood. Effects of taking MDMA include “mental stimulation, emotional warmth, empathy toward others, a general sense of well-being and decreased anxiety,” according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
While NASA has its sights set on Mars, the European Space Agency is looking a little closer to home.
Starting in the 2020s, ESA wants to send humans back to the moon and use robots to build an international village at the lunar south pole. That village will serve as a base to launch longer missions to places like Mars, and might even serve as a tourist destination for commercial spaceflight companies.
ESA thinks we can use robots controlled by telepresence to build the infrastructure of the village, and we could use the resources that are already on the moon to do it. Robots could use lunar soil to build shelter walls, according to a video from ESA. Lunar soil mixed with magnesium oxide and salt could be used to 3-D print materials.
On Wednesday, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) unveiled a stunning new image of the Milky Way’s galactic plane taken by the APEX telescope in Chile’s Atacama Desert.
A composite of more than 700 observations captured by the telescope, it’s the most detailed image ever created of our galaxy from the Southern hemisphere, and the first time that the southern Milky Way has been shown at the submillimeter wavelengths between infrared light and radio waves:
Native Americans are often represented in the media as drinking far more excessively than other racial and ethnic groups in the United States — but new research shatters that damaging stereotype.
Native Americans’ binge-drinking habits are on par with those of white people, according to a study by researchers at the University of Arizona. What’s more, the study also found that Native Americans are more likely than white people to abstain from drinking alcohol.
To reach their findings, the researchers examined data on 4,000 Native Americans and 170,000 white people between 2009 and 2013 — originally collected as part of a survey by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, according to Science Daily. They also looked at a survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention measuring how many times Native Americans and white people had drunk excessively in the past month.
Mantis shrimp are one of the coolest animals to ever exist. They have a pair of front limbs that can punch through aquarium glass, and they have some of the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom. Now there’s evidence that they might be better at secure communication than humans.
That’s because these creatures have their own secret language based on polarized light signals, according to previous research. Polarized light is created by passing light waves through some kind of filter to make the waves line up in a certain direction or pattern (think polarized sunglasses or camera lenses). Polarized light isn’t really visible to humans. Polarized sunglasses and lenses just change the amount of light intensity that gets through to us. But some animals like the mantis shrimp have specialized eyes that can detect the different light waves.
Now scientists from the University of Bristol think they’re closer to understanding how this light communication works. Mantis shrimp have a handful of tiny structures on their shells and limbs that can reflect regular light back out as polarized light. Nearby mantis shrimp can see the reflected polarized signal and answer back. This secure communication is useful when predators are around.
Sifting through the seemingly infinite (though ever-shrinking) Netflix catalog is a daunting task. Even with access to codes for several of the hidden genres, the surplus of shows and films remains exhausting when one wants instant gratification. Luckily, all of those titles mean the streaming service has a broad range of genres represented to pique fan interests. One just has to know where to look.
Take sci-fi. Netflix contains an excess of sci-fi series, ranging from the iconic (Star Trek: The Next Generationand The Twilight Zone) to the disappointing (NBC’s Surface). As such, the sci-fi catalog is teeming with potential, as long as a user knows what to find. Here are seven of the best shows currently available to stream — not including the obvious like Star Trek and Twilight Zone.
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Firefly
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Click link belowfor article (see article for complete list):
Can pot give you cancer? The answer to that question is a resounding “maybe.” Intuition says a substance that potentially causes cancer shouldn’t be prescribed to cancer patients as part of their treatment, as medical marijuana sometimes is. The risk seems to vary depending on how a person ingests weed.
We know that smoking cigarettes causes cancer, which is why research on the connection between cannabis and cancer has focused on the effects of smoking marijuana. Yet the findings have so far proved inconclusive, in part because the possible link has been identified so recently that the data to support it (or to disprove it) does not yet exist.
But, as with all things substance-related, it’s best to err on the side of caution if cancer is your concern.
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Concerned about cancer? Maybe have a pot brownie instead. Source: Brennan Linsley/AP
In lighthearted flicks like Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and Pineapple Express, the comedic main characters will pause their adventures at some point to rip a bong. Formerly called the water pipe, bongs are tools used to smoke herbal substances like tobacco or marijuana distinguishable by their tall stems and water-filled chambers.
The origins of the water pipe is unknown, but it most likely hails from Persia, according to Tobacco in History: The Cultures of Dependence. The device spread throughout the Middle East as a way to socially smoke tobacco, similar to the way people gather around a hookah. These days, anyone can pop into a head shop and pick up a bong in varying sizes, shapes and colors.
While lighting the herb-loaded bowl of a bong and inhaling, the smoke runs over the water and cools down, functionally similar to a…
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
James' World 2 