Have you ever sensed that your dog can read your mood? It’s not an illusion—science suggests that your pet can tune in to your emotional wavelength. One reason that dogs have survived so long as a species is because they evolved to understand humans. Think about it: humans depend on the ability to read one […]
Be a Better Control Freak
Research shows that feeling in control—not necessarily being in control—helps determine how happy and successful you are. People who have a sense that their actions shape their fate are less stressed, in life and at work. Feeling in control will help you communicate better, solve problems faster, and feel more motivated. It might even improve your health. […]
Are You at Risk for a Microsleep Event?
You probably know that not getting eight hours’ sleep every night can damage your long-term health outlook. But sleep deprivation also puts you at risk for microsleep events: brief, involuntary lapses in attention that can be extremely hazardous. Microsleep carries a clear risk for drivers, but even people who seldom drive or operate heavy machinery […]
The Secret to Aging Well
Telomeres are a hot topic among health and wellness researchers. Telomeres are cap-like structures at the end of each chromosome that have the capacity to accelerate or decelerate the aging process, depending on your lifestyle choices. Diet, sleep hygiene, and exercise all play a role. Telomeres shorten as we age, with longer telomeres indicating good health, and […]
How Much Do They Know?
They can guess where you’re going because they know where you’ve been. The apps, browsers, and social media platforms you use constantly collect data about your habits and locations (in real life and online), which is then sold to the highest bidder. In return, you get free services like Facebook and Gmail. Is that a […]
How a Teenager Disrupted his African Village—and Became a Celebrity Innovator
William Kamkwamba’s fellow villagers worried that he was a malevolent wizard. But the African teen was in fact a talented inventor who taught himself how to build windmills from library books. Up against immense hardship—family tragedy, a hostile government, famine, and catastrophic weather—Kamkwamba found a way to better the lives of everyone in his village. […]
The Uninhabitable Earth
Famine. Flood. Death. Destruction. Science journalist David Wallace-Wells’s vision of Earth’s future has a horrifying cinematic quality. In THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH, Wallace-Wells explores the near-term consequences of global warming. Is it too late to head off disaster? Travel to the end of the world in our latest Instaread.
How the internet rewires your brain
What happens after you click a link? Something like this: a pop-up window asks if you want to join a mailing list. You accept the site’s cookies, and maybe close a second pop-up ad. Finally, you begin to read—until, somewhere on the page, a loud video starts to play. Fundamentally, the experience of using the […]
Deadly secrets
Nuclear accidents and secrecy are a terrifying combination. But even a government apparatus as clandestine as the Soviet Union couldn’t hide a disaster on the scale of Chernobyl. While Ukrainians’ mistaken notion that radiation poisoning could be neutralized with vodka was dispelled quickly in the aftermath of the crisis, denial of responsibility and propaganda persisted […]
Canine Wisdom
How do our pets feel about us? Bored with studying the way that humans make decisions, neuroscientist Gregory Berns decided to find out. He used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to make the world’s first maps of the canine brain. One of the things Berns wanted to know is whether dogs have emotional lives, or […]
