Tag: society

  • Harsh sounds…

    Harsh sounds…

    Neuroscientists have analyzed how people react when they listen to a range of different sounds, the aim being to establish the extent to which repetitive sound frequencies are considered unpleasant. Their results showed that the conventional sound-processing circuit is activated but that the cortical and sub-cortical areas involved in the processing of salience and aversion […]

  • Societies… Cooperation… A lone man in the forest…

    Societies… Cooperation… A lone man in the forest…

    Researchers are exploring how cooperation arises in human societies, where people tend to cluster into various group types — political, religious, familial, professional, etc. Within such groups, people can cooperate or ‘defect’ and receive payoffs based on those exchanges. Cooperation, they observed, is most favored when allowing for the existence of ‘loners’ — people who […]

  • Human enhancements. Society.

    Human enhancements. Society.

    Human enhancement technologies are opening up tremendous new possibilities. But they’re also raising important questions about what it means to be human. These technologies are currently geared towards upgrading or restoring physical and psychological abilities for medical purposes. An application is surfacing, however, that is designed with another goal in mind: embellishing performance. An international […]

  • Help not. Bird dying…

    Help not. Bird dying…

    When a coworker or employee is struggling, is it better to offer help on the job or just a shoulder to cry on? A study led by San Francisco State University researchers showed that the two forms of support do roughly the same thing – but that sometimes, it’s best not to address the situation […]

  • French Revolution: Why it failed. Why we still live in it…

    French Revolution: Why it failed. Why we still live in it…

    “May my blood unite the French! I forgive all…” The phrase was never completed. The guilotine fell and its thud ended the life of Louis XVI, giving its place to silence. For some seconds. “Vive la démocratie” Cheers echoed across Place de la Concorde after the execution. A king had fallen. Democracy was born. But […]