According to astronomy, when you wish upon a star,
You’re actually a few million years late.
That star is dead.
Just like your dreams.
(via scinerds)
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Ever enter a room and forget why you're there? Science is here to help! →
New research suggests the mere act of walking through a doorway helps people forget, which could explain many millions of confusing moments that happen each day around the world. A study published recently in The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology found that participants who walked through doorways in a virtual reality environment were significantly more likely to forget memories formed in another room, compared with those who traveled the same distance but crossed no thresholds.
Notre Dame University researcher Gabriel Radvansky says doorways serve as a type of “event boundary” that the brain uses to separate and store memories. When you enter a new room, your brain updates its understanding of what’s going on in the new environment, which takes some mental effort. This parsing of memory, albeit subtle, leaves the information encoded in the other room (i.e. “Now I’m going to my room to fetch some knickers”) less available in your new location.
Recognizing this tendency could help you avoid future lapses. Or you could take Radvansky’s advice, as (jokingly—I think) told to Postmedia News: ”Doorways are bad. Avoid them at all costs.”
(via sciencecenter)
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People cited violation of the First Amendment when a New Jersey schoolteacher asserted that evolution and the Big Bang are not scientific and that Noah’s ark carried dinosaurs. This case is not about the need to separate church and state; it’s about the need to separate ignorant, scientifically illiterate people from the ranks of teachers.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (via scinerds)
(Source: dostthouquotethme, via approachingsignificance)
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Dreaming 'eases painful memories’ →
Scientists have used scans to shed more light on how the brain deals with the memory of unpleasant or traumatic events during sleep.
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Scientists at the University of California, Irvine, announced the creation of the world’s lightest material in the journal Science last week. The material, which is 100 times lighter than Styrofoam, is 99.99% air. The rest is a micro-lattice that can be made out of many materials, but the one in the above picture is composed mostly of nickel.-The Atlantic
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The Dalai Lama’s 18 Rules for Living
At the start of the new millennium the Dalai Lama issued eighteen rules for living. Although simple, these statements are profound and can be applied to anyone’s daily life. While not a physics or mathematics post, enjoy:
- Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
- When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
- Follow the three Rs:
- Respect for self
- Respect for others
- Responsibility for all your actions.
- Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
- Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
- Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
- When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
- Spend some time alone every day.
- Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
- Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
- Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
- A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
- In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
- Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.
- Be gentle with the earth.
- Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
- Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
- Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
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http://www.quantumactivist.com/meditating-brain/ →
“A new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the latest in a hot emerging field of research examining how meditation relates to the brain. It shows that people who are experienced meditators show less activity in the brain’s default mode network, when the brain is not engaged in focused thought.”
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Photoset
The Carl Sagan-inspired surrealist GIFs of Ignacio Torres, featuring humans as star stuff.
(images by Ignacio Torres, full gallery at The Morning News)
And if you missed these Carl Sagan-inspired digital artworks a couple months back, you’re doing yourself a disservice.
Happy Carl Sagan Day!
(Source: jtotheizzoe, via jtotheizzoe)
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Bacterial protein mimics its host to disable a key enzyme - insciences →
Helicobacter pylori infects up to 90 percent of people in the developing world and causes gastric ulcers and cancers of the gut. Now scientists have revealed a subterfuge used by the bacterium to trick stomach cells into playing along. By injecting a protein into the stomach lining that mimics a native protein but has its opposite effect, the bacterium shuts down a process that helps properly structure stomach tissue, scientists say.
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NASA Satellite Spots New Behemoth Sunspot
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory has spotted one of the largest new sunspots to appear on the surface of the sun in years. It is nearly 25,000 miles wide, or more than three times larger than the Earth. The enormous sunspot was seen rotating over the sun’s northeastern limb on Nov. 3.
A little hydrogen fusion concealer and some galactic radiation powder will cover that spot right up. Don’t be self-conscious, Sun.
(via jtotheizzoe)
Theory guides. 
