Category: Humans
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Why be nice?
Kindness and selflessness are widespread among both humans and animals. Many people donate to charity and feel significantly happier as a direct result of doing so. In the animal kingdom, many species show kindness by refraining from violence when settling conflicts. Instead they may use comparatively harmless fighting conventions. The benefits gained from receiving kindness…
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Collective opinions…
How are we affected by other peoples' opinions? To answer this question, scientists at the CNRS, Inra and Université Toulouse 1 Capitole conducted a study in France and Japan, quantifying this impact on our decisions. They identified five behaviors common to both countries: the majority of subjects make a compromise between their opinion and that…
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Boltzmann's idea of entropy and the Creator: An unexpected end…
While reading a scientific paper for thermodynamics (Ted Jacobson, Entropy from Carnot to Bekenstein, arXiv:1810.07839 [physics.hist-ph]) I came up to a reference of Boltzmann’s (and later on Planck’s) notion that entropy corresponds to the logarithm of the number of microstates compatible with a macrostate, and that entropy is maximized in equilibrium. Given that, one can…
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Re-mapping the brain… Moving mountains…
Targeted motor and sensory reinnervation (TMSR) is a surgical procedure on patients with amputations that reroutes residual limb nerves towards intact muscles and skin in order to fit them with a limb prosthesis allowing unprecedented control. By its nature, TMSR changes the way the brain processes motor control and somatosensory input; however, the detailed brain…
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Viking warriors… Women warriors…
Viking warriors have a historical reputation as tough guys, with an emphasis on testosterone. But scientists about a year ago said that DNA had unveiled a Viking warrior woman who was previously found in a roughly 1,000-year-old grave in Sweden. Until then, many researchers assumed that “she” was a “he” buried with a set of…
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