A Bunch of ‘Kayactivists’ Blocked a Pipeline Expansion in the Most Creative Way
Dozens of colorful kayaks and canoes dotted the water, while hundreds of sign-bearing protesters marched to the Seattle waterfront on May 15th. Although they came from differing backgrounds and activist groups, they all shared a...
10 Psychological Exercises That Will Challenge What You Believe In
Sometimes we encounter people, places, and things that challenge our perspectives and make us question everything. This is a healthy part of life that makes us think, and open up to new ideas. These ten...
These Prisons Are Experimenting with Ayahuasca. Is it Working?
Brazil has one of the highest rates of intentional homicide in the world, and its prison system includes over seven hundred thousand people in incarceration. It’s a place where violent prison revolts are common, and...
Changing History: CT Scans Help Unravel Mystery of 2000-Year-Old Scrolls
Rising from the ashes of an ancient volcanic eruption, 21st-century technology is helping to uncover the mystery locked inside scrolls that are over 2,000-years-old. When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D, it destroyed the ancient...
Tons of Guns, But No Mass Shootings: What We Can Learn From the Swiss
Switzerland has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the world, with over 2 million firearms in circulation of its 8.2 million citizens. Swiss citizens regularly learn to shoot when they are still...
Scientists Say Exercise Should Be Prescribed To Some Patients Before Depression Meds
If you ask most Americans what the greatest country on Earth is, most would emphatically say “The United States!” But there’s a troubling statistic that cuts to the heart of that sentiment: Americans take more...
This Eleven Year-Old’s Invention is Why We Need More Women in Science
Recently, the Young Scientist Lab named Gintanjali Rao America’s Top Young Scientist, a remarkable achievement for an eleven-year-old. Selected from a group of ten finalists who spent three months working in collaboration with scientists to...
Should We Redesign Our Hospitals to Improve Staff and Patients’ Lives?
A visit to the hospital is certainly far from pleasurable. In addition to the burden of pain, discomfort and embarrassment that is associated with our ailment, we are further troubled by the prospect of spending...
San Diego Has an Unusual But Effective Way to House its Homeless Vets
On any given night in the United States, around 40,000 homeless veterans are left without a roof over their heads. Homelessness is a global issue with a cycle that has proven difficult to break. However,...
Early Data Shows The Coronavirus Is Awful For Humans But Great For the Planet
If there’s a silver lining to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s the effect it has had on the environment. In Italy, people have been on lockdown since March 9 and the lack of human activity has...
Study Shows Elephants Avoid Cancer with ‘Zombie’ Gene
Our giant mammalian cousin the elephant has a weirdly long life span. Simple logic says that cancers should be developing more frequently in elephants, given the sheer number of cells they have in their body....
This Breathing Exercise is Supposed to Get You High Without Drugs
In recent years you may have encountered the term ‘Holotropic Breathwork’, most likely in an article about altered states of consciousness that has all the empirical fortitude of a Goosebumps book. Holotropic Breathwork (or HB...
New VR Therapy Helps Kids in the Hospital Cope With Stress and Pain
Physicians at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Stanford, USA are addressing the challenge of pain and anxiety management in the most innovative of ways— distraction-based virtual reality (VR) therapy. Pediatric anesthesiologists Sam Rodriguez and Thomas Caruso...
10 Everyday Habits That Are Actually Bad for You
It’s now common knowledge that smoking is bad for your health, but of course, that wasn’t always the case. Most of us would like to try and live healthier lives, but might be sabotaging ourselves...
How One of the Driest Countries Now Makes More Freshwater Than it Needs
The desalination age is officially here. With new advances in the technology, Israel – one of the world’s driest countries – is making enough drinking water to supply 1.5 million people. The country is proving...
Discovery Shows Hidden System in the Brain Doctors Didn’t Know About
Back in 1816, an Italian anatomist by the name of Paolo Mascagni thought he found something peculiar. He claimed that he saw lymphatic vessels – which function like a waste drainage system for the rest...
60,000 Year-Old Indigenous Healing Techniques Make Their Way Into Hospitals
For thousands of years, people around the world have used traditional healing methods to heal the sick and wounded. Before the advent of modern medicine, indigenous healers used natural therapies, and plant and animal-based remedies....
Antibody Effective Against 99% of HIV Strains Could Finally Eradicate the Virus
A major breakthrough from collaborating scientists at the US National Institutes of Health and the pharmaceutical company Sanofi means that we could be just a few years away from the worldwide eradication of HIV. HIV...
