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Science / Mind & Body

Five Reasons Why You Should Probably Stop Using Antibacterial Soap

As the FDA recently noted, antibacterial products are no more effective than soap and water, and could be dangerous

Your Complete Guide to the Science of Hangovers

Here’s what we know, what we don’t know, and how you can use this information to minimize your suffering

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The Coolest Science of 2013, in GIFs

This year, we saw dissolving electronics, flying meteors, gravity-defying chains and rotting pineapples

It’s a Myth: There’s No Evidence That Coffee Stunts Kids’ Growth

The long-held misconception can be traced to claims made in advertisements for Postum, an early 1900s coffee alternative

Using interpretive dance, Cedric Tan, a biologist at the University of Oxford, explains his PhD thesis, "Sperm competition between brothers and female choice.

Art Meets Science

This is What Happens When You Ask Scientists to Explain Their PhDs in Dance

Watch this year’s winners of the “Dance Your Ph.D” contest animate sperm competition, cell division and sleep deprivation

One of the ancient human fossils found in Spain's La Sima de los Huesos.

Scientists Just Sequenced the DNA From A 400,000-Year-Old Early Human

The fossil, found in Spain, is mysteriously related to an ancient group of homonins called the Denisovans, previously found only in Siberia

The Toxins That Affected Your Great-Grandparents Could Be In Your Genes

Biologist Michael Skinner has enraged the chemical community and shocked his peers with his breakthrough research

Electronics That Can Melt in Your Body Could Change the World of Medicine

John Rogers, a revolutionary materials scientist, is pushing the boundaries of the medical world

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Why Brain Size Doesn’t Correlate With Intelligence

We can nurture growth, but never really control it

Resurrection Bay, Alaska (1939), by Rockwell Kent

Art Meets Science

Art Chronicles Glaciers As They Disappear

The Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, Washington, is exhibiting 75 works of art pulled from the past two centuries—all themed around ice

It’s time to give thanks for your taste buds.

10 Things We’ve Learned About Taste

Do following rituals before a meal make the food taste better? What about the ambience of the room in which you’re eating it?

A mounting body of research shows that the circumstances and chronic stresses of poverty interrupt the development of the brain.

How Growing Up in Poverty May Affect a Child’s Developing Brain

A mounting body of research shows that the circumstances and chronic stresses of poverty interrupt the development of the brain

Art Meets Science

Should We Use Body Painting to Teach Anatomy?

Artist Danny Quirk’s paintings on the skin of willing friends show in textbook-like detail the muscle, bone and tissue that lie underneath

Move and This Interface Will Adjust Its 3D Form Accordingly

MIT students have developed a motion-based interface that allow users from afar to build formations in real time

Compared to a control brain (top), neuroscientist James Fallon’s brain (bottom) shows significantly decreased activity in areas of the frontal lobe linked to empathy and morality—anatomical patterns that have been linked with psychopathic behavior.

The Neuroscientist Who Discovered He Was a Psychopath

While studying brain scans to search for patterns that correlated with psychopathic behavior, James Fallon found that his own brain fit the profile

Researchers have found neurological abnormalities that persist long after the symptoms of a concussion have faded away.

Four Months After a Concussion, Your Brain Still Looks Different Than Before

Researchers have found neurological abnormalities that persist long after the symptoms of a concussion have faded away

Photographer Rose-Lynn Fisher captures tears of grief, joy, laughter and irritation in extreme detail. Above: Tears of timeless reunion

Art Meets Science

The Microscopic Structures of Dried Human Tears

Photographer Rose-Lynn Fisher captures tears of grief, joy, laughter and irritation in extreme detail

When neurons misfire: Those who can remember what they ate for lunch on a day ten years ago can be fooled by tests that distort memories.

Even People With “Perfect Memory” Can Be Tricked Into Recalling Fake Events

Those who can remember what they ate on a day ten years ago can be fooled by tests that distort memories

The Foodini

Hungry? A Startup Wants You to 3D Print Your Next Meal

The Foodini may allow people to painlessly prepare healthier meals instead of reaching for that factory-processed stuff sitting in the freezer

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10 Things We’ve Learned About Fat

Experts have long known that trans fat isn’t good for us, but research has turned up surprises—chocolate and chili peppers can help us lose fat

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