Human Quirks: Living Well

April 30, 2025

Top Headlines

Evolution of Pugs and Persians Converges on Cuteness

Apr. 28, 2025 — Through intensive breeding, humans have pushed breeds such as pug dogs and Persian cats to evolve with very similar skulls and 'smushed' faces, so they're more similar to each other than they are to other dogs or ...

What Happens in the Brain When Your Mind Blanks

Apr. 24, 2025 — Mind blanking is a common experience with a wide variety of definitions ranging from feeling 'drowsy' to 'a complete absence of conscious awareness.' Neuroscientists and philosophers compile what we know about mind blanking, including insights from ...

Using ChatGPT, Students Might Pass a Course, but With a Cost

Apr. 22, 2025 — With the assumption that students are going to use artificial intelligence and large language models such as ChatGPT to do their homework, researchers set out to learn how well the free version of ChatGPT would compare with human students in a ...

A Bowling Revolution: Modeling the Perfect Conditions for a Strike

Apr. 15, 2025 — Researchers share a model that identifies the optimal location for bowling ball placement. Employing a system of six differential equations derived from Euler's equations for a rotating rigid body, their model creates a plot that shows the best ...

Latest Headlines

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The New Season of The Last of Us Has a Spore-Ting Chance at Realism

Apr. 7, 2025 — The Last of Us is back on April 13 and this season is more realistic than ever. The trailer for the hit HBO series appears to show the 'zombie fungus' cordyceps infecting humans by releasing ...

The Experts That Can Outsmart Optical Illusions

Apr. 1, 2025 — Medical imaging experts are adept at solving common optical illusions, according to new research. The research is the first to show that people can be trained to do better at solving visual ...

First Therapy Chatbot Trial Shows AI Can Provide 'Gold-Standard' Care

Mar. 27, 2025 — Researchers conducted the first clinical trial of an AI-powered therapy chatbot and found that, on average, people with diagnosed mental disorders experienced clinically significant improvements in ...

Cold Plunges Actually Change Your Cells

Mar. 28, 2025 — Cold water immersion for seven days significantly improves cellular resilience and autophagic function, helping cells manage stress better. This adaptation could enhance health and longevity, ...

Feeling the Future: New Wearable Tech Simulates Realistic Touch

Mar. 27, 2025 — Most haptic devices only deliver feedback as simple vibrations. New device applies dynamic forces in any direction to simulate a more realistic sense of touch. Small, lightweight device can enhance ...

Geometric Design of Material Provides Safer Bicycle Helmet

Mar. 25, 2025 — By using geometric shapes in the shock-absorbing material, researchers have developed a bicycle helmet that provides better protection against head injuries. The material absorbs shock by contracting ...

Postpartum Female Preference for Cooler Temperatures Linked to Brain Changes

Mar. 25, 2025 — Mothers experience major metabolic adaptations during pregnancy and lactation to support the development and growth of the new life. Although many ...

To the Brain, Esperanto and Klingon Appear the Same as English or Mandarin

Mar. 18, 2025 — New research finds the brain's language-processing network also responds to artificial languages such as Esperanto and languages made for TV, such as Klingon on 'Star Trek' and High Valyrian and ...

VR Study Reveals How Pain and Fear Weaken Sense of Body Ownership

Mar. 21, 2025 — A study found that when people were told to imagine their virtual bodies in pain, their brains resisted the illusion of ownership. Their findings could provide insights into why some people may ...

Feline Therapy: Study Suggests Cats Could Fill an Assistive Niche

Mar. 18, 2025 — For years, therapy dogs have ruled the world of animal-assisted services (AAS), offering stress relief to college students, hospital patients, and those in need of emotional support. But research ...

Man's Best Friend May Be Nature's Worst Enemy, Study on Pet Dogs Suggests

Apr. 10, 2025 — New research into the overlooked environmental impact of pet dogs has found far-reaching negative effects on wildlife, ecosystems and ...

Biodegradable Fake Fingernails Make Manicures More Sustainable

Apr. 2, 2025 — A new kind of press-on nails come in all shapes and colors -- and when you're done with them, you can melt them down and reuse the materials to make your next ...

Scientists Uncover Principles Underlying the Toxicity of 'Selfish' Genes

Mar. 18, 2025 — Lurking within the genomes of nearly all species--including plants, fungi, and even humans--are genes that are passed from generation to generation with no clear benefit to the organism. Called ...

Foraging Footballers Suggest How We Come Together to Act as One

Mar. 11, 2025 — Originally described in the context of particles drifting through liquid, Levy walk has been found to accurately describe a very wide range of phenomena, from cold atom dynamics to swarming bacteria. ...

My Compliments to the Chef: Researcher Studies Robots in the Kitchen

Mar. 5, 2025 — Walking into your favorite restaurant and seeing a robot chef in the kitchen may seem far-fetched, but new research suggests that bots could be a solution to persistent labor shortages in the ...

Sometimes, When Competitors Collaborate, Everybody Wins

Feb. 27, 2025 — A framework helps rail system operators or other planners identify the best joint infrastructure projects to collaborate on with other firms. Their tool can tell an operator how much to invest, the ...

Adults Can Learn Absolute Pitch: New Research Challenges Long-Held Musical Belief

Feb. 12, 2025 — It's been a long-held belief that absolute pitch -- the ability to identify musical notes without reference -- is a rare gift reserved for a select few with special genetic gifts or those who ...

New Device Uses Electrically Assisted Wind to Fight Fires

Feb. 4, 2025 — Researchers have developed a new portable tool that could improve how firefighters douse fires, making the process more efficient and far less ...

Sound Is a Primary Issue in the Lives of Skateboarders, Study Shows

Jan. 31, 2025 — Sound plays a significant and often poignant part of skateboarders' relationship with their sport, a new study ...

The Big Chill: Is Cold-Water Immersion Good for Our Health?

Jan. 31, 2025 — In a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis, researchers have taken a deep dive into the effects of cold-water immersion on health and wellbeing. Analyzing data from 11 studies with 3177 ...

Working Dogs Take a Day to Adjust to Daylight Savings Time, but Pets Are More Flexible

Jan. 29, 2025 — Working dogs take a day to adjust to the change in routine caused by Daylight Savings Time, whereas pet dogs and their owners seem to be unaffected, according to a new ...

New Insights Into the Perception of Coffee Taste -- Genetic Predisposition Plays a Role

Jan. 29, 2025 — Why does coffee taste more bitter to some people than it does to others? Researchers have now come closer to answering this question. They have identified a new group of bitter compounds in roasted ...

Building Sentence Structure May Be Language-Specific

Jan. 21, 2025 — Do speakers of different languages build sentence structure in the same way? In a neuroimaging study, scientists recorded the brain activity of participants listening to Dutch stories. In contrast to ...

Salt Deposit Ring Inside Your Pasta Pan?

Jan. 21, 2025 — If you've ever tossed a generous pinch of salt into your pasta pan's water for flavor or as an attempt to make it boil faster, you've likely ended up with a whitish ring of deposits ...

Electrohydraulic Wearable Devices Create Unprecedented Haptic Sensations

Jan. 8, 2025 — Scientists have invented compact wearable devices that deliver rich, expressive, and pleasant tactile sensations that go far beyond the buzzing vibrations of today's consumer ...

Heart Rate Activity Influences When Infants Speak

Dec. 17, 2024 — A psychologist found that a baby's first sweet sounds and early attempts at forming words are directly linked to the baby's heart ...

Travelers Weigh in on Weight-Based Airfares for Eco-Friendly Skies

Dec. 17, 2024 — The holidays are in full swing and people are shopping, wrapping and packing to visit loved ones. Along with the extra fees for checked baggage and seat upgrades, some airlines are also considering ...

World Cup Soccer Is Getting Faster for Men and Women Alike

Dec. 17, 2024 — If the experience of watching a FIFA World Cup soccer final is intense, spare a thought for the players, who are competing at an ever increasing intensity, according to a new ...

How the Dirt Under Our Feet Could Affect Human Health

Dec. 12, 2024 — Researchers are linking human activity to increased gene transfer from soil bacteria to ...

Dogs Use Two-Word Button Combos to Communicate

Dec. 9, 2024 — A new study shows that dogs trained to use soundboards to 'talk' are capable of making two-word button combinations that go beyond random behavior or simple imitation of their ...