Anyone who has ever been tickled for longer than a few seconds knows that it can be real torture – our body compels us to laugh as a reflex. However, anyone who tries to tickle themselves will invariably fail. Why is that?
WoW
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?
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.
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.
Soldiers in crisis areas or aid workers on disaster relief missions often have traumatic experiences. The images, sounds and smells remain with some people for the rest of their lives. What happens in our brain? And can trauma be healed?
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.
Forget everything you thought you knew about dieting – a number of new studies show: It’s not what or how much we eat. Rather, it is where, when, and from what kind of plate we eat determines whether or not we gain weight. The good news: With a few simple tweaks, we can change our eating habits.
