Category: General
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Keeping a streak alive can be strong motivation to stick with a chosen activity
Dick Coffee attended 781 consecutive University of Alabama football games. Meg Roh surfed through illness, storms and nightfall to maintain a seven-year daily surfing streak. Jon Sutherland ran at least 1 mile every day for over 52 years. An activity streak has the power to compel behavior, and marketers have taken note. Marketing researchers Jackie Silverman and Alixandra Barasch recently documented 101 unique instances,…
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The Brain Circuit Behind Male Libido Has Been Identified in Mice : ScienceAlert
The sex drives of male mice seem to arise from a single, newly identified brain circuit, a new study reveals. This circuit governs a male mouse’s sex drive and its resulting behavior and reward experience, suggesting it plays a vital role in compelling them to reproduce. And while that’s interesting, the US researchers are curious…
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The Curious Joy Of Being Wrong – Intellectual Humility Means Being Open To New Information And Willing To Change Your Mind
Mark Twain apocryphally said, “I’m in favor of progress; it’s change I don’t like.” This quote pithily underscores the human tendency to desire growth while also harboring strong resistance to the hard work that comes with it. I can certainly resonate with this sentiment. I was raised in a conservative evangelical home. Like many who…
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7 Health Home Remedies That Are Actually Effective
Long before conventional medicine, people used natural remedies to treat all types of ailments. Today, some people still use natural home remedies for many conditions. Some should be avoided, such as rubbing butter on burns, which can cause an infection. From natural anti-inflammatories to antioxidants, these home remedies can actually have some benefits. (Credit: Valentyn…
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4 Reasons Why Your Dog Might be Obsessed with Biting Feet
Every dog owner knows that dogs can have some odd behaviors. These include turning in circles before lying down, eating grass, burying or hiding treats, and getting the zoomies. While these habits may seem quirky to us, there are reasons behind their actions. Nipping or biting people’s feet is another seemingly unusual habit. But there…
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A Persistent Rumor Suggests This Tree Can Walk Around, But Is It True? : ScienceAlert
The stories we tell ourselves about the natural world can sometimes stretch far from the truth. For years, visitors to the rainforests of Central and South America have been told of a tree that slowly ambles around on its stilted roots. The lore of the so-called walking palm (Socratea exorrhiza) has persisted since at least…
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Incredibly Rare Half-Male, Half-Female Bird Caught on Camera : ScienceAlert
A green honeycreeper (Chlorophanes spiza) with male plumage on one half of its body and female coloring on the other has been caught for the first time on camera, with the only other known record being over a century ago. The striking-looking bird has shimmering, aqua-blue and yellow-green feathers, with a clear boundary in the…
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Natural Selection Can Actually Slow Evolution, Scientists Say : ScienceAlert
When you hear the term natural selection, you likely think of change, but new research suggests the mechanism can also preserve similarities between populations. Biologists have a pretty solid grasp on the basic process of evolution. Genetic diversity in a population is the result of mutation, some of which create traits that help individuals thrive…
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Neurons in The Brain Appear to Follow a Distinct Mathematical Pattern : ScienceAlert
Researchers taking part in the Human Brain Project have identified a mathematical rule that governs the distribution of neurons in our brains. The rule predicts how neurons are distributed in different parts of the brain, and could help scientists create precise models to understand how the brain works and develop new treatments for neurological diseases.…
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These Rogue Worlds Upend the Theory of How Planets Form
“We know from direct imaging searches of young stars that very few stars have giant planets in [wide] orbits,” Bate said. “It is difficult to accept that there were many large planetary systems in Orion to disrupt.” Rogue Objects Abound At this point, many researchers suspect there’s more than one way to make these strange in-between…