Observations
The Real Reason Fans Hate the Last Season of Game of Thrones
It's not just bad storytelling—it’s because the storytelling style changed from sociological to psychological
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Observations
We Broke the Atmosphere; Here's a Way We Can Start to Fix It
It’s counterintuitive, but let’s temporarily increase carbon dioxide emissions in order to get rid of a more potent greenhouse gas
Observations
Where (Some of) Earth's Gold Came From
Of all of that precious metal ever refined, 600 tons were created in a collision between two neutron stars 1,000 light-years away and 4.6 billion years ago
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Artificial Sweeteners May Have Despicable Impacts on Gut Microbes
I find it ironic that Thanksgiving coincides with American Diabetes Month. In honor of that irony, two recently published studies have suggested a possible link between what you eat, how it impacts the behavior of the microbes living in your gut, and type II diabetes...
Daydreaming and Mental Contrasting for Goal-Fulfillment with Gabriele Oettingen
Psychologist Gabrielle Oettingen’s research on goal-setting and self-regulation animates discussion of some incredibly practical tools to help with constructive daydreaming, hurdling obstacles, implementation intentions and goal-fulfillment...
Kitchen science: evaluating methods of self-defense against onions.
Background I hate chopping onions. They make me cry within seconds, and those tears both hurt and obscure my view of onions, knife, and fingertips (which can lead to additional injuries)...
South America's very many remarkable deer
Deer are strongly associated with Eurasia and North America and less so with the other regions of the world. In this brief article - part of which is an excerpt from my 2013 article on the conservation status of South American mammals (Naish 2013) - I'm going to say a few things about the deer [...]..
Dana’s Super-Gargantuan Guide to Science Books Suitable for Gift-Giving
It’s the gifting time o’ year! You’ve got science readers on your list, but you’re not sure what books to get them, right?
Sex and Suicide: Why Do More Men than Women Kill Themselves?
How far is it from being to nothingness? I hope it's a journey you never decide to take, but wherever death by firearm is the most common method of suicide, it's about half an inch.
One Last Goodbye: The Strange Case of Terminal Lucidity
I'm as sworn to radical rationalism as the next neo-Darwinian materialist. That said, over the years I've had to "quarantine," for lack of a better word, a few anomalous personal experiences that have stubbornly defied my own logical understanding of them...
Personal Biases May Be Stoking the Flames in Ferguson
Unrest in Ferguson, Mo., flared Monday after a grand jury decided not to indict white police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager.
Black Girls serving as their own Role Models in STEM
This world sends many different messages. Today a rather poignant message was sent to America, it was directed at Americans who care about justice in particular.
A Paper Puppet Homage to Microbes
The amazing power duo of Flora Lichtman and Sharon Shattuck (Sweet Fern Productions) has come out with a new animated short on the discovery of microbes.
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