Recent Posts
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Peak Fear
The Recreational Fear Lab at Aarhus University, Denmark studies the effects - good and bad - of fear on the human psyche. In a recent experiment, two volunteers in Sweden shared their worst fears to the scientists, who then recreated them in an amusement park in Sweden. Anthony and Jeff discuss The Peak Fear Experiment, and whether this type of research is worthwhile or just good branding. [more]
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Pave the Moon
Lunar colonization faces many potential problems, not the least of which is the fact that landing and moving around on the moon kicks up lots of dust and dirt that can wreak havoc on equipment. One solution is to pave roads and landing pads on the surface before settling begins, and the European Space Agency has a plan to do just that. Jeff and Anthony discuss the ingenious method devised to make the process efficient and effective. [more]
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Man the Hunter Debunked
A common trope in evolutionary anthropology is the notion of the male as hunter and the female as gatherer. But was this binary division of labor actually in place among developing cultures? New research challenges this all too accepted belief, and forces Anthony and Jeff to reexamine one of science's most common misconceptions. [more]
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Rat Ticklers
Newly published research represents “a fantastic step forward” for understanding the neural basis of play and laughter in mammals. That research involves tickling rats and playing games with them, and may reveal where in the brain play is localized. Jeff and Anthony are tickled to see it, and discuss their own thoughts on rodent play. [more]
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Do Opposites Attract (feat. DJ Skat Cat)
Researchers at CU Boulder analyzed more than 130 traits, including millions of couples over more than a century, to determine whether opposite kinds of people are actually attracted to one another. Anthony and Jeff delve into the data and compare it to their own experience as an odd couple themselves. [more]
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Salty
Exactly how our taste buds sense saltiness is a mystery, and researchers haven’t deciphered all of the details yet. In fact, the more they look at salt sensation, the weirder it gets. Jeff and Anthony get their licks in, working through everything that is known - and unknown - about tasting salt. [more]
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Don’t Get Hangry
With calorie limiting diet fads like intermittent fasting spreading in popularity on the Internet, researchers have started looking into the effects that not eating has, not just on the body, but on the mood. Anthony and Jeff take a look at the data to determine whether skipping meals is really worth it. [more]
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Leaf of Three, Let it Be
Climate change is having all sorts of unexpected side-effects. One of which has been recorded over the last 14 years by Pesky Pete of Pesky Pete's Poison Ivy Removal. It turns out, poison Ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac love warmer climates and higher carbon dioxide, and have been growing bigger, faster and itchier than ever before. Jeff and Anthony pull out the calamine lotion to discuss this disturbing phenomenon. [more]
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Howdy Neighbor!
Gallup Polls, famous for its political odds-making every election cycle, has released a new poll that attempts to draw correlation between general happiness and certain everyday activities - like saying hello to your neighbors. As Anthony and Jeff dig into the data, however, it reveals the way polling can seemingly justify misleading conclusions. [more]
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Intelligence and Personality
An enormous new publicly available dataset containing over 1,300 studies of millions of people from across the world, establishes reliable relationships between personality traits and cognitive abilities. Jeff and Anthony dig into this vast amount of information to see if our assumptions about the relationship between intelligence and personality are true. [more]
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