Hypnotism science: Why some people are more susceptible to hypnosis than others?

Science of suggestion: Why are some people more susceptible to hypnosis than others?

Conor Feehly | Nautilus | 
Hypnotherapy is used to provide therapeutic remedies but many still consider it more of a cheap magician’s trick than clinical ...
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Viewpoint: Evolutionary trap — ‘Forces that encouraged our ancestors to compete for resources fueled early human success but now threaten to end it’

Kristen French | Nautilus | 
Evolution has led us into a dark corner, as the scale and impact of human groups has kept growing, and ...
‘Sending a Trojan horse into cancer cells’ Can this genetically-engineered bacteria stop tumors in their tracks?

‘Sending a Trojan horse into cancer cells’ Can this genetically-engineered bacteria stop tumors in their tracks?

Linda Zeldovich | Nautilus | 
Scientists know cancers have an uncanny ability to travel through the body by slipping in and out of blood vessels ...
Viewpoint: 'We are despoiling our planet'. Can we rescue humanity before it’s too late?

Viewpoint: ‘We are despoiling our planet’. Can we rescue humanity before it’s too late?

Charles Kennel, Martin Rees | Nautilus | 
Our Earth has existed for 45 million centuries; and humans for a few thousand. But this century is the first ...
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Whales reproduce into their 90s and elephants into their 60s. Why do humans hit menopause so much younger?

David P. Barash | Nautilus | 
There is no reason to suppose that age and reproduction are necessarily incompatible. Female African elephants breed into their 60s, ...
‘Cognitive evolution’: How our brains learned to quickly adapt to jarring new environments

‘Cognitive evolution’: How our brains learned to quickly adapt to jarring new environments

Chantel Prat | Nautilus | 
I am positive that every person reading this is fundamentally different from when the pandemic started. Because that's how our ...
One geneticist's quest to crack autism's code

One geneticist’s quest to crack autism’s code

Lina Zeldovich | Nautilus | 
Without knowing what causes autism, physicians had—and still have—no means of preventing it or reducing its severity, or risk of ...
What unique characteristics of the human brain distinguish us from other animals?

What unique characteristics of the human brain distinguish us from other animals?

William Harris | Nautilus | 
The brains of human beings are different from those of every other species of animal, because all species’ brains have ...
Can we ‘cure’ cancer by reprogramming our cells?

Can we ‘cure’ cancer by reprogramming our cells?

Lina Zeldovich | Nautilus | 
Most cancer patients don’t die from their so-called primary tumor—the spot where it first develops. Once detected, surgeons cut it ...
Neuroscience’s big question: What is consciousness?

Neuroscience’s big question: What is consciousness?

Kristen French | Nautilus | 
While we may all be intimately familiar with what consciousness feels like, explaining why it exists or how it arises ...
How does chronic noise exposure impact our health?

How does chronic noise exposure impact our health?

Nina Kraus | Nautilus | 
A noisy environment has many underrecognized negative impacts that have little to do with hearing per se. Chronic noise exposure, ...
How our brains reward us during sleep to reinforce positive experiences

How our brains reward us during sleep to reinforce positive experiences

Jim Davies | Nautilus | 
Memory’s function is to store information that will be useful. Because of this, our mind prioritizes remembering some things over ...
Why is life genetically programmed to die?

Why is life genetically programmed to die?

Aaron Hirsh | Nautilus | 
Epidemics have a way of making one wonder about death. To put it plainly, in the raw form it takes ...
How did humans transition from saber-tooth tiger prey to masters of the planet?

How did humans transition from saber-tooth tiger prey to masters of the planet?

Kevin Berger | Nautilus | 
Do you picture our hominin ancestors as hunters? I did. Not so much. “They were the hunted,” [paleoanthropologist Jeremy] DeSilva ...
Brain fMRIs can provide critical information — but they reflect human bias more than biological fact

Brain fMRIs can provide critical information — but they reflect human bias more than biological fact

Kelsey Ichikawa | Nautilus | 
Functional magnetic resonance imaging has transformed medicine. It allows non-invasive mapping of a patient’s brain regions to enable more accurate, ...
3 myths of how the brain works dispelled

3 myths of how the brain works dispelled

Lisa Feldman Barrett | Nautilus | 
As a neuroscientist, I see scientific myths about the brain repeated regularly in the media and corners of academic research ...
Evolution of literacy: How Protestantism and the Bible rewired Medieval brains

Evolution of literacy: How Protestantism and the Bible rewired Medieval brains

Joseph Henrich | Nautilus | 
Of course, writing systems are thousands of years old, found in ancient Sumer, China, and Egypt, but in most literate ...
Methusalah dogs are pushing the boundaries of cognitive science

Methusalah dogs are pushing the boundaries of cognitive science

Gareth Wilmer | Nautilus | 
Living with people means dogs experience near-identical social and environmental influences on a daily basis. They show off a host ...
Statistics’ dark past? History of eugenics still haunts American universities

Statistics’ dark past? History of eugenics still haunts American universities

Aubrey Clayton | Nautilus | 
[University College London] was an epicenter of the early 20th-century eugenics movement—a precursor to Nazi “racial hygiene” programs—due to its ...
Could electromagnetic fields be the seat of human consciousness?

Could electromagnetic fields be the seat of human consciousness?

Tam Hunt | Nautilus | 
What if the electromagnetic fields generated by, but which are not identical to, the neuroanatomy of the brain, are in ...
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Evolution and the downsides of being so smart

Diana Fleischman | Nautilus | 
With misinformation and disinformation about the pandemic, “cheap” and “deep” fakes of elected officials, and targeted ads and emotionally exploitative social media algorithms, ...
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Evolution’s unpredictable dark side: Everything ‘natural’ is not always good

David Barash | Nautilus | 
Given a choice, most people gravitate toward the natural over the artificial. After all, natural environments are preferable to garbage ...
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Nature vs nurture? Why humans are the only animal that has genders

Cailin O’Connor | Nautilus | 
As gender theorists like Judith Butler and Anne Fausto-Sterling have pointed out, sex and gender cannot be fully pulled apart. Facts about our sexed ...
When the brain adjusts what we see, is it distorting reality?

When the brain adjusts what we see, is it distorting reality?

Jim Davies | Nautilus | 
[From a few feet away, a manhole cover] looks circular, but this is because of some impressive perceptual machinery in ...
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Interstellar evolution: Why life could emerge anywhere in the universe

Caleb Scharf | Nautilus | 
[T]he impetus to go interstellar might have nothing to do with dreams of exploration or empire, but all to do with ...
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‘There’s so much going on.’ Why human brains may be too complex to be ‘understood’

Grigori Guitchounts | Nautilus | 
The question of how we might begin to grasp the entirety of the organ that generates our minds has been ...
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Do humans have free will? Neuroscientists seek solution to this ‘philosophical puzzle’

Brian Gallagher | Nautilus | 
Clinical neuroscientists and neurologists have identified the brain networks responsible for this sense of free will. There seems to be ...
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Searching for the origins of male aggression: Nature, nurture or both?

Steve Stewart-Williams | Nautilus | 
Most men are not especially violent, but most people who are especially violent are men. … Now, there’s no real doubt that ...
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