The human brain is a complex and interconnected system, the largest and the most functionally important part of the central nervous system. Its functions include processing of sensory information coming from the senses, planning, decision making, coordination, motion control, positive and negative emotions, attention and memory. The highest function performed by the brain is thinking. You can easily find out which of the hemispheres of your brain is active at the moment. Look at this picture. If the person in the picture is rotating clockwise, your left hemisphere is more active at the moment [...]

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​People who use Internet Explorer have lower IQs than people who use other browsers like Firefox or Google Chrome, a new study finds. AptiQuant, a Vancouver, B.C., company founded in 2006, administered 101,326 IQ tests to people who visited their website over a four-week period. Researchers hypothesized that since tech-savvy people are typically smarter, those who adopted new browsers in recent years probably had a higher IQ. They were right. “A significant number of individuals with a low score on the cognitive test were found to be using Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) versions 6.0 [...]

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Following this week’s coverage of the reversible male contraception method, it appears that a birth control pill for men is also in the works. Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center are developing what may be the first non-steroidal, oral contraceptive for men. The team of scientists, led by Dr. Debra J. Wolgemuth, discovered that low doses of a compound that interferes with retinoic acid receptors (RARs), stopped sperm production with no apparent side effects. In addition, just like the birth control pill for women, normal levels of fertility could be restored almost [...]

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Goddard Space Flight Center have sent us this spectacular 16:9 panoramic high definition close-up of a recent gigantastic solar prominence. What you are seeing here occurred during 90 minutes on February 24, 2011. When a rather large-sized (M 3.6 class) flare occurred near the edge of the Sun, it blew out a gorgeous, waving mass of erupting plasma that swirled and twisted over a 90-minute period. This event was captured in extreme ultraviolet light by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft. Some of the material blew out into space and other portions fell back to the surface. [...]

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The woman who gave birth on 10.10.10, 09.09.09 and 08.08.08 A Michigan housewife is celebrating the birth of her daughter Cearra on the 10.10.10. It follows the birth of her son on 09.09.09 and her other daughter on 08.08.08, at the odds of 50 million to one. Barbara Soper, 36, said: ‘She’s our own little miracle.’ Despite the neat pattern of their children’s birthdays, the Sopers insist it was not planned… Barbie Soper tells The Grand Rapids Press she’s excited about her children’s unique birth dates and that they ‘all get to share in it. The baby who [...]

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Video of an uncontacted tribe spotted in the Brazilian jungle has been released, bringing them to life in ways that photographs alone cannot. The tribe, believed to be Panoa Indians, have been monitored from a distance by Brazil’s National Indian Foundation, a government agency charged with handling the nation’s indigenous communities. Many of the world’s 100 or so uncontacted tribes live in the Amazon. Until 1987, it was government policy to contact such people. But contact is fraught with problems, especially disease; people who have stayed isolated from the mainstream world have [...]

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While we’re always using our brains, we’re not necessarily doing much to keep them in good shape. Here are the top ten sites and tools to train your brain and exercise your mental muscles. 10. Sudoku By now you’re probably familiar with Sudoku, but just in case it’s a number puzzle game with the objective of filling up a grid of numbers. Check out these instructions to learn how to play. Most people find Sudoku a fun and addictive game, plus it can help improve your problem-solving skills (just not your overall brain health). You can play online, on your iOS device, [...]

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Pixiq has a great write up on the similarities and differences between the human eye and a camera. Apparently, we’re the same in image focusing and light adjustment but different in lens focus and sensitivity to light. What else? Pixiq’s breakdown gets even more interesting when they explain how cameras work like our eyes. The cornea acts like a lens, the iris and pupil act like the aperture of a camera and the retina is like the imaging sensor of a digital camera. There’s much more interesting tidbits in their piece and I suggest you skim it all, you might even find out [...]

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I’d never want to suggest that Nikola Tesla isn’t awesome—he’s a badass—but I have serious doubts anyone could use his ideas for an ionization machine to create 52 rainstorms in the middle east, like these guys claim. The Abu Dhabi-based Meteo Systems says that when air humidity is above 30%, you can use their Tesla-inspired ionizer to send charged particles up into the air, which attracts dust, which in turn attracts water particles, and then—BOOMSHAKALAKA—you have a rainstorm. According to the Daily Mail, Meteo Systems aren’t revealing any data for these [...]

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If you came of age without Facebook, you probably regularly find reasons to be grateful for it. But a new survey suggests that despite the risks, social networks can make teen girls more emotionally safe and closer to their friends. A study of 1,000 girls ages 14-17, conducted by the Girl Scouts, found that 68 percent of girls have been bullied or gossiped about on a social network, and 46 percent thought the medium makes friends jealous of each other. 40 percent say they lost respect for someone based on what they put on their social media profile. Still, 56 percent of girls told researchers [...]

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