A pack of potato chips instead of a bowl of salad – a few hours on the couch instead of at the gym: we constantly break our resolutions and surrender to the commands of a very selfish brain. Yet, anyone can beat laziness. What slows us down, what keeps us going? How can we overcome the motivation killers in our heads?
Health
Just ten minutes of acute oxygen deficiency can cause irreparable damage to our brain. If it lasts longer, we become unconscious and fall into a coma.
Some pills consist only of sugar and starch – and can still make you healthy. How can the placebo effect be explained? Researchers suspect that the body heals itself in many cases of illness.
Poisonings are among the greatest dangers our organism can be exposed to. Different toxins affect different parts of the body and often the dosage determines life or death.
Some people can memorize hundreds of faces or phone numbers in a matter of minutes. Everyone is capable of such feats of memory.
Neuroscientists can peer into our brains and read what we are thinking. There are also less chilling possibilities, such as prosthetics that can be controlled by the power of thought.
Left- and right-handed people differ in their dominant side of their bodies. Scientists have been able to find out why these differences exist in humans and animals and where they come from.
Some people look and act like everyone else. But suddenly their limbs start twitching, they start screaming, they start shouting profanities – without ever meaning to. This is what it feels like to have Tourette Syndrome.
If we could use our brain to influence our muscles and our immune system, would it be possible to manipulate our DNA with feelings and thoughts?
On Tuesday night you fought with medieval knights, on Wednesday you flew over the sea. But for some reason, you can’t remember the dream you had on Thursday. Sound familiar? This is why some dreams are remembered and others are lost forever.