Researchers found that people who visited a high-intensity haunted house as a controlled fear experience displayed less brain activity in response to stimuli and less anxiety post-exposure. This finding suggests that exposing yourself to horror films, scary stories or suspenseful video games can actually calm you afterward.
Twelve skeletons have been found in a large, 2,000-year-old tomb directly in front of the Khazneh (“Treasury”) in the city of Petra in Jordan. Alongside them, excavators have discovered grave goods made of pottery, bronze, iron and ceramics. There is much excitement among archaeologists because of what the rare opportunity to investigate this site might tell us about Petra’s ancient people, the Nabataeans, and their culture.
Decades of vaccine research led to one of the most successful public health projects in Texas. And we’re hopeful it could provide a road map for the use of mass wildlife vaccination to prevent future outbreaks.
The Arabian Lizard: A Unique Culinary Delicacy The Arabian lizard, particularly the species known as Acanthodactylus schneideri, is a fascinating creature native to the arid regions of the Arabian Peninsula. With its distinctive features and
Automakers are tweaking production processes to create a slew of new steels with just the right properties, allowing them to build cars that are both safer and more fuel-efficient. Such materials can reduce the weight of a vehicle by hundreds of pounds — and every pound of excess weight that is shed saves roughly $3 in fuel costs over the lifetime of the car.
The public deserves honesty and respect. Scientists need to do a better job delivering, says Frederic Bertley, president of the COSI Science Center.
Many experts say water fluoridation is a safe, crucial tool for preventing tooth decay. Critics say fluoridated water has little dental value, and they point to some studies suggesting that swallowing fluoride may harm developing brains.
Just like people confronted with a sea of options at the grocery store, bees foraging in meadows encounter many different flowers at once. They must decide which ones to visit for food, but it isn’t always a straightforward choice.
Mounting pressure to regulate children’s use of technology in the United States raises the question: Is childproofing the internet constitutional? In response to significant political pressure stemming from alarming revelations about youth experience with digital
Since 1900, the number of published scientific articles has doubled about every 10 to 15 years; since 1980, about 8% to 9% annually. This growth reflects the immense and ever-growing scope of research across countless topics, from the farthest reaches of the cosmos to the intricacies of life on Earth and human nature.
The official poverty measure declined to 11.1% in 2023 from 11.5% in 2022. At the same time, the supplemental poverty measure, an alternative way to measure poverty introduced in 2011, increased to 12.9% in 2023 from 12.4% a year earlier.
In September 1984, Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” was atop the charts, and Ronald Reagan, running for reelection against Walter Mondale, told a New Jersey audience that he and the singer-songwriter shared the same American dream. Springsteen disagreed.
Evacuating might seem like the obvious move when a major hurricane is bearing down on your region, but that choice is not always as easy as it may seem. Evacuating from a hurricane requires money, planning, the ability to leave and, importantly, a belief that evacuating is better than staying put.
Could climate engineering help reduce the national security risks of climate change, or would it make things worse? Answering that question is not simple, but researchers who study climate change and national security like we do have some idea of the risks ahead.
How could gaming go deeper into inner experience? Here’s one example. Many people report having a silent, internal conversation with themselves for much of the time. Our research has shown that inner speech comes in several different forms and has varied functions in thinking, planning and emotion regulation. But when inner speech is depicted in video games, it tends to lack the qualities and variety.
Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris is headline news, as were the mere rumors that Beyoncé might perform at the Democratic National Convention. Donald Trump, too, has his pop culture supporters, including Kid Rock and Lee Greenwood.
The kitchen offers plenty of opportunities to view and explore what physicists call soft matter and complex fluids. Everyday phenomena, such as Cheerios clustering in milk or rings left when drops of coffee evaporate, have led to discoveries at the intersection of physics and chemistry and other tasteful collaborations between food scientists and physicists.
It appears that the UK government is going to ban “no-fault” eviction by private landlords in England. It promised to abolish these notices immediately after the election, and the king’s speech in July indicated this was a priority.
A whole “beyond GDP” movement has emerged over the last several decades, arguing that we should adopt a new way of measuring the wealth of nations. There is an ongoing debate about the best alternative, and many indicators have supporters, such as gross national happiness and the genuine progress indicator.
Ancient civilizations constructed buildings right next to each other, which reduced the number of walls exposed to the intense solar radiation. Small courtyards provided lighting and ventilation. Narrow streets ensured shade throughout the day and allowed pedestrians to move comfortably through the city.
While promoting her role in the upcoming film adaptation of the Broadway hit “Wicked,” singer Ariana Grande made a podcast appearance that left many of her fans befuddled and concerned.
A company that makes tests for lead poisoning has agreed to resolve criminal charges that it concealed for years a malfunction that resulted in inaccurately low results. While many of the fault-prone devices were used from 2013 to 2017, some were being recalled as late as 2021. The Justice Department said the malfunction produced inaccurate results for “potentially tens of thousands” of children and other patients.
Philadelphia’s camera network grew at an astounding pace. In the past decade, the city has gone from 216 cameras to a network of more than 7,000 cameras operated by police and transportation officials.
Although working memory has very limited capacity – at any given time, it can accommodate just four to seven pieces of information – it is essential for normal human functioning and represents what Spitzer calls a ‘superpower’.
There’s been a 50% drop in numbers of maths students at the lowest tariff universities over the five years between 2017 and 2021 in England. As a result, some universities are struggling to keep their mathematics departments open.