Category: ideas

“As we discover more about love’s neural basis, we are getting closer to a pill to diminish heartbreak.”

“Breaking up is hard to do. If drugs could ease the pain, when should we use them, asks neuro-ethicist Brian D. Earp.”

“While arranged marriages are considered the moral norm, pursuing individual love fantasies are potentially frowned upon and discouraged in a lot of traditional … homes.” (Can you guess? Probably.)

The overarching concept to which the word “cool” once referred is no longer what the colloquial usage of the word “cool” now refers.

“What makes a champion? Why do some wilt in high-pressure competition, while others rise to the occasion? Drawing on science, psychology, sports and economics, authors Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman explore the anatomy of building champions.” (podcast)

“What did Paris smell like in the mid-18th century? Try skunked red wine, wet cats, and gingivitis-tinged sputum, all bubbling in an open sewer on a record-setting summer’s day.” Sniff for yourself, at an exhibit now in San Francisco.

“Neuroscientists may have figured out what’s behind a visual trick that puzzled Galileo Galilei and stumped many others for centuries. The answer to this trompe l’oeil also could explain why Mom and Dad always warned that it’s bad to read in dim light.”

Our correspondent visits the Playing for Laughs symposium at De Montfort University in Leicester (with reference to “the Chuckle Brothers of philosophy, Plato and Hobbes”).

“For good or ill, we are about to find out what happens if you have media built around you, remixed in real time as your mood and engagement changes. But technology can go further than just monitoring and responding to attention levels. Biosensors such as heart rate monitors and EEGs to measure brainwaves make it possible to use emotive media such as film and music to actively affect an audience’s emotions.”

“Lack of evidence, if indeed evidence is lacking, is no grounds for atheism. No one thinks there is good evidence for the proposition that there are an even number of stars; but also, no one thinks the right conclusion to draw is that there are an uneven number of stars. The right conclusion would instead be agnosticism.”