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ScienceSeeker Editor's Picks: Superstition, "Up" North, Addiction, Mental Illness

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


Here are my Science Seeker Editor's Selections for the past week:

"To prepare for Wimbledon, Bjorn grew a beard and wore the same Fila shirt during the matches." At Why We Reason, Sam McNerney discusses the science of superstition.

Why do we say that we travel "up north" or "down south"? It turns out that people, in general, assume it's hillier up north. Even if it isn't! Read about it at BPS Research Digest.


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At the TEDMED 2012 conference, Addiction Inbox blogger Dirk Hanson caught up with Retraction Watch's Ivan Oransky to discuss the disease model of addiction.

There's a lot of talk about the relationship between creativity and mental illness. But let's not romanticize it, warns the Neurocritic: suffering for art is still suffering.

Jason G. Goldman is a science journalist based in Los Angeles. He has written about animal behavior, wildlife biology, conservation, and ecology for Scientific American, Los Angeles magazine, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the BBC, Conservation magazine, and elsewhere. He contributes to Scientific American's "60-Second Science" podcast, and is co-editor of Science Blogging: The Essential Guide (Yale University Press). He enjoys sharing his wildlife knowledge on television and on the radio, and often speaks to the public about wildlife and science communication.

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