Over 300 years ago, Swiss physician Johannes Hofer observed disturbing behaviors among Swiss mercenaries fighting in far-flung lands. The soldiers were prone to anorexia, despondency and bouts of weeping. Many…
Category: Humans
Perspective-changing experiences, good or bad, can lead to richer lives
In December, my husband, our 5-year-old daughter and I tested positive for COVID-19. Life, already off-kilter, lurched. Smell, taste, breath — were they normal? The air smelled only of cold;…
Everyone maps numbers in space. But why don’t we all use the same directions?
Consider a ruler, a timeline or even weights lined up in a gym. Why are the smaller values, the earlier times and the lighter weights typically on the left and…
Everyone maps numbers in space. But why don’t we all use the same directions?
Consider a ruler, a timeline or even weights lined up in a gym. Why are the smaller values, the earlier times and the lighter weights typically on the left and…
‘Ghost games’ spotlight the psychological effect fans have on referees
When the fans are away, the home team loses its sway, new research suggests. During the 2019–2020 season, European soccer teams played in front of vacant stadium seats due to…
‘Ghost games’ spotlight the psychological effect fans have on referees
When the fans are away, the home team loses its sway, new research suggests. During the 2019–2020 season, European soccer teams played in front of vacant stadium seats due to…
How the strange idea of ‘statistical significance’ was born
In the middle of the 20th century, the field of psychology had a problem. In the wake of the Manhattan Project and in the early days of the space race,…
A hit of dopamine sends mice into dreamland
A quick surge of dopamine shifts mice into a dreamy stage of sleep. In the rodents’ brains, the chemical messenger triggers rapid-eye-movement sleep, or REM, researchers report in the March…
How to interpret the CDC’s new mask guidelines
One moment, Campbell County in Wyoming’s northeastern corner was an area of high levels of transmission of the coronavirus, a scenario in which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and…
How omicron’s mutations make it the most infectious coronavirus variant yet
In November, a new coronavirus variant took the world by storm. Omicron has since caused an unprecedented wave of infections, striking about 90 million people in just 10 weeks. That’s…
