Possible to read each other’s minds, say scientists
Uncommon Science
Fringe science articles: Interesting & weird facts and disputable scientific theories about the human, the Earth and the Universe
What Is Love According to Science, Philosophy and Religion?
The most popular Google search of last year was the question: “What is Love?” And the Guardian newspaper asked five “experts” to answer it.
A physicist, a psychotherapist, a philosopher, an author of romantic novels and a nun gave their answer to the question about Love, from their personal perspective of the subject.
The Physicist
“Love is chemistry” (Answers Jim Al-Khalili, theoretical physicist and writer).
Biologically, Love is an intense neurological condition, such as hunger or thirst, but more permanent. We say that love is blind or we talk about love being blind or unconditional, meaning that we cannot control it. But again, this is not particularly surprising, since Love, is basically (more…)
Can the Human Soul Be Weighed?
The book “The Lost Symbol” by Dan Brown contains a chapter on some amazing experiments. According to the author, our soul is a material substance which can exist outside the body and can have weight. Therefore, it can be weighed. One of the characters in the book, Katherine Solomon, was able to weigh human soul. She placed a dying man (he had donated his body for scientific purposes) in an air-tight capsule, fitted with very sensitive micro weight detectors. While the man was alive, the scales showed a figure of 51, 4,534,644 kilograms. And after the old man’s death, the micro scales showed a decrease in the body weight. Brown does not specify this difference as a number, but makes a general comment: “This difference, though microscopic, is quite measurable.” This experiment allowed Brown to stipulate that the human soul does exist.
Dr. Duncan MacDougall from Haverhill (Massachusetts, USA), was the first scientist to conduct this kind of experiment in 1906, as reported by the New York Times on March 7, 1907. McDougall “detected” the change in the body weight when the person had died. The measurements were performed on a special bed, which was also a gigantic scale with high precision, and have shown that the “soul” (more…)
What Would Your Life Be Like with No Internet?
American scientists led by Richard Novatson conducted quite an interesting, but also relevant study which involved 4,000 people (50%-50% of men and women) who were directly connected with the Internet activity, and also spent a lot of time on social networks and other online services.
So, the question was: what would you do if Internet access was forbidden in your country?
The results surprised the scientists. About 67% of people would (more…)
10 Mind-Blowing Theories That Will Change Your Perception of the World
Reality is not as obvious and simple as we like to think. Some of the things that we accept as true at face value are notoriously wrong. Scientists and philosophers have made every effort to change our common perceptions of it. The 10 examples below will show you what I mean.
1. Great glaciation.
Great glaciation is the theory of the final state that our universe is heading toward. The universe has a limited supply of energy. According to this theory, when that energy finally runs out, the universe will devolve into a frozen state. Heat energy produced by the motion of the particles, heat loss, a natural law of the universe, means that eventually this particle motion will slow down and, presumably, one day everything will stop. (more…)
Does Free Will Really Exist or Is It Just an Illusion?
Experts from Harvard claim to have ‘crystallized’ the exact moment when the brain decides to perform an action or desire. This moment is not the same as the one when we think we have taken the decision. So does it mean that someone else ultimately take the decisions before we do?
In fact, the decisions are taken by the parts of the brain which “host” the subconscious, which has already made up its mind and announced it to the consciousness, located in another brain area. That is we learn later what our brain has decided for us. (more…)
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