Category: Social Sciences
Social Sciences
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Aroma Chemistry : What Causes the Smell of Old & New Books?
Are you a Bibliophile, someone who loves books? If you are you’ll know the joy of buying, collecting, owning, (smelling?), touching and of course reading these textual marvels. As a bibliophime, is one of your favourite pecadillos the scent of a new book or the musky thrill of an old books smell? In this article we look at the chemistry behind that guilty little pleasure otherwise known as Bibliosmia.
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Swearing – The Science Behind Why We Do it
Why the #*&! do we swear? We all let one slip occasionally-or maybe you express your expletives loud and proud. But does swearing serve any biological purpose, or is it simply a cultural taboo?
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Take Control of Your Dreams for Real : Lucid Dreaming
No this isn’t one of those infomercials or self-help articles saying “you too can achieve your dreams & life goals if you follow our 10 step programme … blah blah blah”. This is about lucid dreaming – the ability to conciously control your dreams whilst you sleep.
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Why Does Time Seem to Go Faster as We Get Older ?
As you get older does it sometimes feel that time is passing much more quickly than when you were younger? Why does our perception of time change so drastically with age? And is there anything we can do about it?
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What is Love ? (Scientifically Speaking)
What is Love ? : A very deep and involved question. However in this article we will restrict ourself to the scientific point of view. What is going on in our bodies, and brains when we fall in love or see the object of our inner most desires.
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Procrastination – The Science of ‘putting it off’
Let’s face it, we all procrastinate. We can put in a huge amount of effort in trying to avoid some other task. Sometimes more effort is put into avoiding something than just actually doing it.
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Predicting the social future – How do our Brains use Behavioural Social Clues ?
How do you know you’ll get a kiss? The cells that let brains predict the social future.
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Play it Again Sam – What is Déjà Vu ?
Déjà vu is French for ‘already seen’ and describes the sensation many of us experience from time to time when we are sure a certain situation has happened before. But is there any explanation as to why we should experience this ?
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Is there any scientific basis to the idea of “brainwashing” ?
If true, then the idea of “brainwashing” – that is convincing someone to do or behave in some way that they wouldn’t normally – has terrible consequences. It means people can claim they were under this infuence when they committed a crime and would mean that we are all vulnerabe to manipulation.
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Why do we blush?
Blushing is rather an odd physiological and psychological response to embarrassment or awkward social situations. Could there be any rational or logical explanation for this? What possible evolutionary reason could there be for such a strange phenomenon.
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How did Farming Arrive in Europe ?
The first modern humans in Europe were hunter-gatherers who arrived around 40,000 years ago. But around 9,000 years ago the first farmers arrived. These farmers came from the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East – but how ?
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Do Animals have a sense of Fairness or Equity ?
Have you ever wondered whether animals have any sense of fairness or inequality? Many dog-owners believe their pets are almost human. In this article we look at some of the research into this with dogs.
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How long has Antarctica been frozen over ?
Almost a century ago, the expeditions of both Robert Scott and Ernest Shackleton found evidence, in the form of fossil ferns and coal, that Antartica has not always been a frozen wilderness. So what is it’s history ?
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Can Our Bodies Can Predict The Future ?
Following on from our earlier “Is free will an illusion ?” we look here at a new study that claims that “Our Bodies Can Predict The Future!” – or at least people’s bodies know a big event is coming just before it happens.
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Why do we dream?
This is one of those knotty questions that has many potential answers but tantalisingly eludes scientists. Nobody really knows why we dream; it may be a way to rehearse dealing with difficult problems, or it may be linked to learning.
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Inside the head of a trainspotter
So here’s a question … Is there a brain region that makes someone a trainspotter? Just...
Read MoreDoes the Birth Order in Your Family Influence Your Personality ?
If you have siblings then you’ll be well aware of the pleasure and pain of growing up with both rivals and playmates. But does your order of birth affect your personality ? In this article we look at how birth order may shape your personality, behaviour and outlook on life.
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