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Welcome to 2013! We decided to kick off this new year of Stuff to Blow Your Mind with some BRAIN content, because that’s where the new year happens. That’s where your resolutions live. That’s where your hangover lived. Now let’s get to it.
New Year’s Life Hacks
Want improved focus this year? A better creative flow or stronger decision-making skills? In this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Robert and Julie run through some simple, scientifically-backed ways to maximize your new year.
I Was a Teenage Teenager: The Science of Teen Angst
The teenage brain is a wonderful thing, full of intense rewiring and rapid shifts in priority. In this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Julie and Robert reminisce about the teenagers they were and just what was going on in their brains to fuel all that odd, erratic behavior.
If you are a professional football player, and especially if you are a retired professional football player, the risk of long-term health problems from injuries is high. And one of the most uncomfortable long-term health problems happens inside the brain. Concussions are common in football, and the human brain does not respond well to them. […]
Blow Your Mind: Five-fingered Evolutionary Discount
by Robert Lamb | April 15, 2011
Like most cartoon characters, the Simpsons all have four fingers (except for God, as listener Deming pointed out to us) while us humans have five. Why is that? Why five and not, say, six or two? In this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Julie and I turn our attention to our own fleshy keyboard paddles to ask why so many creatures evolved with a five-fingered discount.
Is it possible to blow your nose so hard your brain bursts?
by Marshall Brain | April 8, 2011
You asked: Is it possible to blow your nose so hard your brain bursts? — Zack (via Facebook) Marshall Brain answers: Can you blow your nose so hard your brain bursts? Probably not. But why not? First, you have this muscle below your lungs called the diaphragm, and it really can’t create very much pressure. […]
This short video clip popped up on YouTube yesterday. Since it was posted in the comedy category with a snide description, it was probably posted as a form or derision. However, most people with medical expertise look at the clip and believe that the woman (Serene Branson) had a stroke just after the camera started […]
Study Pretty Much Irrefutably Shows Cats are Dumber than Dogs(!)
by Josh Clark | November 30, 2010
Having long suspected it, I was heartened to hear that cats are less intelligent than dogs are. Yes. Ahhh. Bask in it.
Far less, actually, at least in relation to the correlation between brain size and sociability. This small brain size is, it appears, why cats are aloof, say researchers at Oxford University’s Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, a group who are not known to be slouches when it comes to compiling reliable and solid data that dog people can reasonably gloat over.
Each week, Robert and Julie bring you fascinating, mind-blowing stories about the strangest things in the natural world — but how could your mind literally be blown? Tune in and learn more in this podcast.
Invention – Boosting memory with electricity on the scalp
by Marshall Brain | August 13, 2010
This article claims that, by placing electrodes on the scalp and adding a little electricity, people can boost their memories:
Skull electrodes give memory a boost
The technique uses transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), in which weak electrical currents are applied to the scalp using electrodes. The method can temporarily increase or decrease activity in a specific brain region and has already been shown to boost verbal and motor skills in volunteers.
The results of the tests? “Those in the first group more than doubled their scores after receiving tDCS, experiencing a 110 per cent improvement in visual memory.”
We have examined a number of compelling optical illusions in previous posts:
- An incredible optical illusion – try to figure it out…
- Two Accidental Optical Illusions
- a simple change to a checkerboard bends the lines
- The Optical Illusion created by perspective, nicely demonstrated
- Bizarre optical illusion – 200 tiny squares bend a checkerboard
- Amazing Animated Optical Illusions – Plus, how to make your own
- Three great optical illusions on video
- A great optical illusion – the diamonds that change colors
- Today’s optical illusion is brought to you by the color Yellow
- Two optical illusions for your viewing pleasure
- A most impressive optical illusion
- Seven great optical illusions
- the perception of images
Here is a new set of illusions, this time with an emphasis on wiring errors in the system…
Recent Postings by Category
BrainStuff
- Thank You and Best Wishes to Marshall Brain
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Keep Asking
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- Hollywood’s First Magical Makeover Movie
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Stuff to Blow Your Mind
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Stuff You Should Know
- “In The Neighborhood” by Jon Stewart Mosman
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The Stuff of Genius
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- What’s your pick for the 2013 Indianapolis 500 pace car?
How-to Stuff
PopStuff
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 152: Final Episodes
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 151: Mailbag!
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 150: Barbie!
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know
Stuff to Change the World
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- Bill Gates Makes For A Pretty Decent Cartoon
