Don't use a time machine to change your past—make out with it instead

Cartoonist Jess Fink has already straddled the line between science fiction and sexy times with her webcomic Chester 5000 XYV (NSFW). Her latest book, We Can Fix It!: A Time Travel Memoir blends science fiction, a bit of young sexuality, and something else: autobiography. Fink uses a time machine to change her bad…

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Cryptomnesia makes us accidental plagiarists

We know that people make up false memories if prompted. But since our brain never stops being a jerk, we can also convert real memories into things we believe we imagined. Cryptomnesia can strike via our own memories, or our memories of things that others tell us. One of the most famous cases of cryptomnesia…

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Having trouble focusing? Try chewing gum.


The longer the task, the more difficult it is to avoid drifting off. But as a new study from the University of Cardiff has shown, people who chew gum have an enhanced ability to concentrate over extended periods of time, along with the added benefit of quicker reaction times.

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Why slime molds can solve mazes better than robots

Despite not having brains, slime molds are able to remember where they've been. They avoid oozing back over paths that didn't lead them to food by detecting "memories" in the trails of slime they leave behind. It's possible that these slimy recollections were what led to the evolution of more complex cognitive…

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Neuroscientists successfully control the dreams of rats. Could humans…

Researchers working at MIT have successfully manipulated the content of a rat's dream by replaying an audio cue that was associated with the previous day's events, namely running through a maze (what else). The breakthrough furthers our understanding of how memory gets consolidated during sleep — but it also holds…

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Why do we hate seeing photos of ourselves?

You know what I'm talking about. There you are, clicking through your friend's Facebook album, when suddenly you happen upon a picture of yourself — or rather, a slightly less attractive version of yourself. The "real" you appears to have been abducted, replaced with some second-rate knock off. What gives? you ask…

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