Foreign accent syndrome is caused by brain damage. In the past few days, a great deal of media attention has been paid to Leanne Rowe, a Tasmanian woman who has live [...]
Sons and daughters of same-sex couples grow up as good as in traditional families. Preliminary studies of a research carried out by the University of Melbourne on 50 [...]
Newly evolved viral-gene combo could safely cure blindness Gene therapys had a bad reputation over the years, but some gene-based treatments have been successful. One t [...]
Why you eat sweets, Mediterranean diets or convenience food.
You can probably guess that organized people are more likely to eat healthy and have a low BMI score. But did you also know that people who are less open to experiences more often like sweets? These findings, published in the new Health Psychology, may sound pretty random, which some of them may actually be, but they're interesting food for thought.
A group of researchers looked at 1091 70-year olds that already participated in a study in 1936. They asked them about their eating habits, tested their personality with the well known five factor model and measured their BMI to find some interesting associations.
With a computer program they categorized the reported eating habits into four different diets: the Mediterranean, convenience or healt
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We have smart genes--the rest is up to us
A lot of people study intelligence, or at least take it for granted. We speak, listen (sometimesmore on that in a bit), form social groups that other animals dont. Pretty smart, eh? But humans also do some colossally dumb thingsengage in unnecessary stereotyping, stick our tongues to a frozen pole, or trigger a worldwide financial crisis.
So, while its valuable to study human intelligence, it might be just as valuable to study human stupidity. There may be more value than meets the eye.
Gerald Crabtree, a neurobiologist at Stanford University, states that intelligent human behavior requires between 2,000 and 5,000 genes to work together. A mutation or other fault in any of these genes, and some kind of intellectual deficiency results. Before the creation o
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Do geese nest in trees?
On Imgur there was a list of comments on the picture above and its tagline saying "Baby Geese Leave the Nest for the First Time." First there was Stevithegreat, who said that the animals aren't geese but wood ducks that aren't flying but falling. "It's how they leave the nest." Goodloveall partly agreed: "Those arent fucking geese. Geese build nests on the ground." And some more angry words about people not doing research before posting something.
According to Goodloveall (and most other commenters) the babies aren't wood ducks but goldeneye ducks, known to nest in the cavities of large trees, about 1 to 18 meters above the ground. As the young leave the nest one or two days after hatching, and only can fly when they're 5 to 6 weeks old, it seems that these baby ducks are indeed
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Both male and female psychotherapists often cry during sessions.
I guess you would be pretty surprised if you went to a psychotherapist and he or she started crying. But it sounds weirder than it actually is. In a survey among 684 American psychologists and trainees it turned out that most of them shed tears during therapy. And this wasn't a women's issue.
There haven't been many studies into this subject. That's why Amy Blume-Marcovici and her colleagues held an online survey exploring therapist's experience with and attitude towards this phenomenon. It appears to be something that isn't related to the usual crying patterns we see in society.
72 percent of the questioned therapists reported having cried in therapy. And it weren't the subject's sex, personality traits or general feelings of empathy tha
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Scientist has discovered what animal might be responsibe for these mysterious rings.
The Namib, a coastal desert in southern Africa, is known for its "fairy circles": rings of perennial vegetation with a barren center that occur in regular patterns. For long it has been a mystery what caused the fairy circles to pop up, but new research suggests that a species of sand termite (Psammotermes) might be responsible.
Source: Live Science
Photo: N. Juergens
Juergens, N. (2013). The Biological Underpinnings of Namib Desert Fairy Circles Science, 339 (6127), 1618-1621 DOI: 10.1126/science.1222999
circles in africa, faerie rings, desert du na
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The German Development Media Awards champion independent media across the world and put the spotlight on journalists telling important stories affecting their communities, countries and regions. These awards - which recognize excellence in human rights and development journalism - are a new initiative by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and Germany's international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle.
The BMZ has a proud tradition of honoring German journalists who focus on international development issues. Now, in partnership with Deutsche Welle, the new German Media Development Awards are also open to journalists from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. Emphasizing the role of human rights and development in strengthening democracy, good govern
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By: Elke Weesjes, Ph.D and Lori Peek, Ph.D
In 1987, Irwin Redlener, MD, and singer/songwriter, Paul Simon, founded Children's Health Fund (CHF) with the goal of providing comprehensive health care to homeless and medically underserved children. Today, under the leadership of Dr. Redlener, Mr. Simon, and Executive Director, Karen Redlener, CHF sustains a national network of 25 programs serving some of Americas most impoverished communities.
This post, the first of a two-part series on the CHF, features Alan Shapiro, MD. He is Senior Medical Director of the New York Childrens Health Project and of the South Bronx Health Center and Center for Child Health and Resiliency, both affiliated with CHF and Montefiore Medical Center. Recently, Dr. Shapiro talked to us about the history of Children's Health Fund
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Call for Papers
In October 2012 the United Academics Journal of Social Sciences (UAJSS) published the first part of a 'World Religions' series, themed 'Islam & The Western World' (http://www.united-academics.org/journal/septemberoctober-2012-2/). In preparation of part two of this series, we are currently inviting research papers from the various disciplines of the social sciences and humanities that reflect on aspects of 'Christianity & The Western World'. Papers in (intellectual) history, sociology and theology are welcomed, but also papers exploring the connection between political structures and Christianity will be positively considered. Contributions will be published in our journal's Ipad issue (the UAJSS app will be launched in the first week of July 2013), as a pdf on our website and will be includ
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"The Voice of the Silence of the Sacrificed" - Käthe Kollwitz (1867 1945)
The work of Käthe Kollwitz which reflects the ordeal and the pain of the humble and simple is the grandest German poem of the age. This woman of virile heart has looked on them, has taken them in her motherly arms, with a solemn and tender compassion. She is the voice of the silence of the sacrificed. (Romain Rolland, winner of the 1915 Nobel Prize in Literature)
A selection of thirteen rarely displayed prints by the German sculptor and printmaker, Käthe Kollwitz, is currently on display at the Elizabeth A. Ackler Center for Feminist Art in the Brooklyn Museum. It features the artist's most famous print cycles, Krieg (War) and Tod (Death).
Throughout her career, death was one of the most persistent themes in Kollwitz's wor
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By Patrick Meyer
New Orleans Jazz Funerals Celebrate the End of the Struggle
Unlike most port cities in the American South, New Orleans is very Catholic. And with Catholicism come the longstanding and elaborate Old World rituals. And unlike anywhere else in the world, New Orleans has its very own jazz funeral, a communal celebration where grief is danced out of the body and cast off into the air with soaring jazz cadenzas, carnival-worthy costumes, and respect for a time-honored ritual that allows the deceased to be shepherded to their final resting place with great fanfare and joy. A loud and triumphant alternative to Western expectations when it comes to rituals of grief and loss, the jazz funerals genealogical roots are wholly African, using joy and music instead of sadness and silence, to recogn
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