Author: Lori Jia
The New York Times, April 8, 2016
Misconception: It’s just a theory.
Actually: Theories are neither hunches nor guesses. They are the crown jewels of science.
One day, it’s Megyn Kelly who has a theory about why Donald J. Trump hates her.
Another day, the newly released trailer for the next Star Wars movie inspires a million theories from fans about who Rey’s parents are.
The New York Times, December 28, 2015
Throughout the day, a clock ticks inside our bodies. It rouses us in the morning and makes us sleepy at night. It raises and lowers our body temperature at the right times, and regulates the production of insulin and other hormones.
The body’s circadian clock even influences our thoughts and feelings. Psychologists have measured some of its effects on the brain by having people take cognitive tests at different times of day.
As it turns out, late morning turns out to be the best time to try doing tasks such as mental arithmetic that demand that we hold several pieces of information in mind at once.
The Evolution Institute, January 4, 2015
The vinegar worm (officially known as Caenorhabditis elegans) is about as simple as an animal can be. When this soil-dwelling nematode reaches its adult size, it measures a millimeter from its blind head to its tapered tail. It contains only a thousand cells in its entire body. Your body, by contrast, is made of 36 trillion cells. Yet the vinegar worm divides up its few cells into the various parts you can find in other animals like us, from muscles to a nervous system to a gut to sex organs.
Continue reading “Can Hermaphrodites Teach Us What It Means To Be Male?”
Discover, December 4, 2014
The great philosopher Immanuel Kant believed that nothing matters more to our existence than space. Every experience we have—from the thoughts in our heads to the stars we see wheeling through the sky—makes sense only if we can assign it a location. “We never can imagine or make a representation to ourselves of the non-existence of space,” he wrote in 1781.
Try it yourself: A world without space just does not seem to make sense. But for some people it is everyday life. Strokes can rob us of space. So can brain injuries and tumors.
Discover, December 4, 2014
Whenever I lose my watch, I take my sweet time to get a new one. I savor the freedom from my compulsion to carve my days into minute-size fragments. But my liberty has its limits. Even if I get rid of the clock strapped to my wrist, I cannot escape the one in my head. The human brain keeps time, from the flicker of milliseconds to the languorous unfurling of hours and days and years. It is the product of hundreds of millions of years of relentless evolution.