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Common sense, often seen as universal knowledge or beliefs that are obvious to everyone, is actually more idiosyncratic than previously thought. A study conducted by Duncan Watts and Mark Whiting at the University of Pennsylvania found that common sense is not common at all, with very few statements being agreed upon by the majority of people. The study also revealed that demographic factors such as age, education level, and political leaning were not linked to an individual's common sense. The findings have implications for various areas, including artificial intelligence and public health, where common sense plays a significant role. [Extracted from the article]

Neuroscientists and psychologists are exploring the field of dream engineering, using sensory stimulation to influence the content of people's dreams. By manipulating sounds, smells, touch, and movements, researchers have achieved benefits such as improving sleep quality, mood, learning, and creativity. Dream-induction devices are being developed for home use, but concerns about potential misuse and ethical implications have been raised. While the potential for dream engineering is exciting, caution is urged to ensure the protection of sleep and prevent unwanted manipulation. [Extracted from the article]

Today's leaders are very different from those who led humanity for most of its existence. Emma Young finds out why [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our grins and frowns may just be tools to manipulate others, discovers Emma Young [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at research on why some people have a better sense of direction and navigation than others. Topics covered include gender differences, the influence of migration patterns on navigation abilities in humans and animals, and mental mapping.

The author examines how to use the unconscious for personal benefits and advantages in daily life. Topics covered include inspiration, pain relief, and memory.

The article reports on the invention of a machine detecting ghosts at the haunted places by the researchers of the U.S.

The article provides information on the impact of hormonal changes on the behavior of every individual. Particular focus is given to the love hormone Oxytocin which is released during childbirth and breastfeeding, menstrual cycle of women, stress hormone Corisol. Other topics addressed include testosterone in men.

The article discusses the side effects of empathy not just its good side, to understand more the distinction between what individual's feel according from the research conducted by Tania Singer, psychologist of Max Planck Society. Topics discussed include the impact of social networks, particularly Facebook and Twitter to publicize emotions, the physical effects of emotional contagion through observation and looking for other people with compassion.

The article discusses the importance of vitamin D from sunshine for the human body, highlighting several studies on vitamin D. Topics include the complications of vitamin D deficiency, the protective effects of vitamin D, and ways to get more vitamin D aside from sun exposure. Also explored are the factors affecting people's vitamin D needs and the correlation between multiple sclerosis and vitamin D deficiency.

The article presents several successful techniques for older adults who want to learn something new. It states the need to learn the proper time when to learn and self-testing. It suggests active learning and using distractions while learning. It mentions playing action video games when trying to learn a new type of sport or instruments.

The article reports on the views of psychologists on the different personlities of people and the changes to the personalities as the person ages and gains experience.Genetic and temarament and Experiences in childhood are also thought as factors affecting personality. Psycholists view on the big five model are also presented.

The article discusses reading speeds in relation to the amount of content people read due to internet and social media text. Topics include research on purported speech reading techniques in relation to comprehension, comments from cognitive psychologist Elizabeth Schotter, and the use of computer screen reading in relation to the educational technology industry.

The article discusses the prevalence of honor culture in the U.S. south and other Western countries. Topics covered include the characteristics of honor cultures such as a deep concern for reputation and contrasting gender expectations, differences between honor cultures and dignity cultures, and the likelihood of people in honor cultures to react violently to insults. Also mentioned are ways in which an honor culture can cause problems such as higher murder rates.

The article focuses on research into the role inflammation may play in fatigue and how fatigue may not be related to sleepiness. It comments that fatigue may be related to problems with circadian clocks which regulates mental alertness through the day and evening. It mentions the role of inflammation and a possible relationship with elevated levels of the inflammatory marker interleuken-6. It talks about how exercise and changes in food habits and lifestyle can help alleviate fatigue.

The article discusses a study which identifies the benefits of the narcissism personality trait. Topics include ways that parents cultivate narcissism and self-esteem in their children, differences in the levels of self-confidence between vulnerable and grandiose narcissists, and associations between moderate grandiose narcissism and the tendency to become an effective leader.

The article focuses on the risks of too much empathy and how people might be able to control how much they let others' emotions affect them. Topics discussed include the goodness in empathy, how social networks such as Facebook and Twitter indicate just how sensitive people's emotions are to outside influence, and how much one has to care about someone to be infected by their stress. It also explains how empathy overload can happen in the workplace and how to avoid empathy burnout.

The article discusses the concept of cognitive impairment associated with pregnancy and motherhood. It examines the contribution of postnatal depression to the healthy brain ageing of pregnant women and new mothers. It also notes that the stressful situations show less activity in brain regions that regulate fear and anxiety to motherhood.

The article discusses the use of music therapy for mental health and to treat stress, diseases and anxiety, referencing several studies on music therapy. An overview of music's physiological impact on the brain, including in regard to neurons' firing synchronously with music tempo, is provided. The impact that sound frequency has on psychology is discussed.

The article discusses the possibility of the existence of viruses that are just a few mutations away from becoming capable of killing half the human race. Topics include four factors that determine the severity of any disease outbreak, the 2014 Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa, the 2002 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in China, and the closely-related 2012 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in Saudi Arabia. The high mutation rate of influenza viruses, such as 2009's H1N1, and their ability to reassort and research by Ron Fouchier and colleagues investigating whether mutation, reassortment,or both could create a form of flu capable of killing on a catastrophic scale are also discussed.

The article discusses the results of various recent studies on learning, learning techniques and memory. Topics include a study indicating that older adults over age 60 have most active brains in the morning, while teenagers have superior factual memory in the afternoon, and physical memory at night; a study by researcher Jeffrey Karpicke that found that self-testing, and the act of repeated recall, improved memory retention; and a study by researcher Beverly Wright on the effectiveness of passive learning for new skills.

The article discusses the alleged importance of vitamin D in human health. Topics include ways the body is exposed to vitamin D, how the body converts it, and various reports on how much the body needs. It also mentions how low levels of vitamin D during the winter causes susceptibility to infection, and what quantity of sun exposure may be safe.

The article discusses various efforts in exploring the possibility that modern disease did afflict humans in ancient times. It elaborates on the investigation of cardiologist Randall Thompson in proving that Egyptian pharaoh Merneptah had atherosclerosis. It also details the findings of David Frayer of the University of Kansas about the prevalence of malignant tumors. It examines the prevalence of other afflictions such as depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and autism.

The article discusses how anger, when used in the right way, can be constructive. Topics include society's view of anger as a destructive emotion, the physiological aspects of anger, when and how anger can be constructive, and a study by Harvard University researcher Jennifer Lerner and colleagues that found people made angry by a stressful situation exhibited a lower biological response, in terms of blood pressure and levels of stress hormones, than those who were fearful.

The article discusses research exploring the role of the enteric nervous system (ENS) in the regulation of behavior and mood. The ENS is a neuron network in gut tissues which is part of the autonomic nervous system, regulating digestion and preventing the invasion of pathogens from food by triggering gut immune cells. Like the brain, the ENS produces neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin. Other topics include the effect of eating fatty foods on mood, the increased production of the gut hormone ghrelin under stress, and evidence of brain disorders such as Parkinson's disease in the ENS. INSET: MENTAL ILLNESSES OF THE GUT.

The article discusses the potential health benefits of fasting. The author relates her experience of what it feels like to fast, such as the pain of hunger pangs, discusses the controversial nature of fasting, and explains the physiologically effects of fasting on the body, including the conversion of glycogen in the liver and muscles into glucose for energy. Also discussed is the potential of fasting to prevent cancer. INSET: HOLD THE PROTEIN.

The article discusses charisma. The author argues that charisma is not a personality trait that individuals are born with, but is an attribute that can be learned and lost. Topics include the social aspects of charisma, the importance for individuals in leadership roles of being perceived as charismatic, and social development research by Nathan Fox at the University of Maryland in College Park, investigating what makes some individuals charismatic or not. INSET: CULT OF PERSONALITY.

The article looks at the mental abilities of various animals, focusing on a study by Joanna Wimpenny which considers the thought processes of crows. The environmental awareness of fruit flies is discussed, noting that they are able to use their attention selectively based on memories rather than reacting randomly to things around them. The author also looks at metacognition in monkeys. INSET: You¿ve got me feeling emotions.

The article discusses what dreams reveal about individuals. According to the author, the interpretation of dreams was considered by some psychoanalysts, such as Sigmund Freud, to be a window into an individual's unconscious mind. An overview of neuroscience of dreams and research that suggests that dreams are more than an window into the hidden self, but instead help individuals consolidate memories, make sense of experiences, and keep emotions in check is presented.

The article discusses the tropics in the context of biodiversity, calling the location a hotspot of biological activity. The article discusses land- and marine-based biodiversity and likely differences in rules that apply to their numbers and growth. The article notes the Yasuni National Park in the Amazon and a publication by researcher Matt Finer and team indicating that the park may have the greatest amount of biodiversity in the world. Scientist David Jablonski and colleagues are noted for their research on living and fossil marine bivalves. Rapoport's rule is noted as offering a traditional explanation of marine biodiversity.

This article explains that poor sleep might actually cause some psychiatric illnesses or lead people to behave in ways that doctors mistake for mental problems. It says that sleep treatments could help or even cure some of these patients. Scientists are still trying to know how many people might fall into this category. It emphasizes the importance of knowing what percentage of the population are diagnosed with psychiatric problems that are simply suffering from sleep abnormalities. It presents information on sleep-deficit disorder.

The article discusses the changes regarding the discourse about heredity and evolution as well as epigenetic inheritance. It talks on several factors influencing an individual's genetic make-up such as diet and stress and the implications of these for public health education. According to Russell Bonduriansky of the University of New South Wales, the issue would reintroduce development in a direct and strong sense into heredity and evolution.

The article focuses on the protection of ocean diversity. A rash of research projects that probe everything from life under the Arctic ice to the global movement of marine mammals is providing the information that conservationists badly need. Identifying diversity hotspots at sea could revolutionize conservation in the way that it has on land.

The article provides information on the fundamental function of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. It cites an idea that REM sleep is important for consolidating memories and extracting themes and rules from everyday experiences. It notes that dozens of published studies suggest that REM sleep could provide 15% improvement in memory and ability to extract rules and patterns from learned behavior. Moreover, it stresses that REM sleep is vital for brain development.

The article discusses archaeological discoveries made by Carlo Bergmann and colleagues that are forcing Egyptologists to reconsider the origins of the ancient Egyptian pharaonic civilization. Discoveries made in the Sahara desert west of the Nile River show that the ancient Egyptians had strong links to the region, suggesting that their civilization may have originated there.

The article presents information on the ecological disaster at Easter Island. For years the inhabitants of one of the most remote islands on Earth competed with one another to build the most impressive statues, pillaging their resources to feed their obsession. The ecological disaster was inevitable. The events on Easter Island should act as a dark warning to the entire planet. There is painfully little archaeological evidence to support the self-destruction theory. INSET: Mysteries of the moai.

The article presents information on how studying storms that occurred hundreds or even thousands of years ago could provide information to predict rare events, like hurricanes. Palaeotempestologist Jon Nott, director of the Australasian Palaeohazards Research Unit at James Cook University, is part of a growing band of scientists worldwide dedicated to studying ancient storms. To spot long-term trends, one needs to extend the record of cyclones--or hurricanes or typhoons, as these tropical storms are known in the Atlantic and north-west Pacific--back as far as possible.

The article reports that global emissions of this greenhouse gas are about 23 billion tonnes a year and rising. John Topper, director of the International Energy Agency's Clean Coal Centre in London, says that countries are serious about stabilising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere they just have two options. The first is to build lots of new nuclear power plants. The second is to develop technologies similar the one being trialled in Silesia in southern Poland, collectively known as carbon capture and storage. INSET: What if it escapes?.

The article presents information related to the A-bomb survivors. The long-term effects of the bombs are still unclear, as doctors try to pin down how radiation causes disease. More than 150,000 people are thought to have died when the bombs fell on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and on Nagasaki three days later. Studies show that unborn children exposed to radiation grow up to be on average smaller and less intelligent than their peers, that the increase in their risk of leukaemia peaks after 10 years, and that radiation appears to hike the risk of other diseases. INSETS: TREATING THE VICTIMS;TWO BOMBS, SAME EFFECTS;CHERNOBYL CONTAMINATION WORSENS.

The article informs that a 18th-century wooden statue of the Virgin Mary, the Immaculada has been damaged in an art gallery in Caracas, Venezuela. And it is in danger of being turned to sawdust by an infestation of beetles. This statue is part of the estimated one-third of Venezuela's cultural artifacts that have become a feast for bugs. Heat and humidity make tropical countries an ideal breeding ground for these pests, but the problem is not confined to equatorial regions. Across the globe, insects, bacteria and fungi are ripping into old masters, turning statues to dust, and ruining paintings and historical documents. INSET: An electronic nose for trouble.

This article highlights the existence of mysterious creature, what is called as lion-killer. The origins of this particular mystery stretch back more than a century to a time when European hunters published pictures of dead gorillas from the forests around the towns of Bondo and Bili. In 1898, a Belgian army officer returned from the region with three skulls. They looked like they belonged to gorillas — and in recent years have been identified as such — but were deemed sufficiently unusual by taxonomists at the time to be classified as a separate subspecies.

This article presents information on the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (NITD), which opened up shop in Singapore in 2003 and moved into Biopolis in July 2004. The NITD is plugging into the country's strengths in infectious disease research by concentrating on developing new treatments for dengue fever and tuberculosis. On another floor is Paradigm Therapeutics, which plans to extend the genomics-driven research on the central nervous system and metabolic diseases that it does at its British home in Cambridge. Apart from Ian Gray, Paradigm Singapore's director of research, there are five researchers at Biopolis, with another three being trained in Great Britain. INSETS: THE PUBLIC RESEARCH SECTOR;CAN YOU MAKE THE BIOTECHS BLOOM?.

Say New Zealand and think 40 million sheep, 4 million people—and scenery fit for a film epic. But beyond the sheep and the "Lord of the Rings" geography, there's a big surprise. For a country with half the population of London, New Zealand punches way above its weight, with world-leading research in a range of fields including nanotechnology and materials science, fetal development, animal cloning, visual effects and volcanology, as well as the more traditional agricultural and farming. New Zealand's universities have a reputation for top-quality science and technology research. INSETS: LET'S GET VISUAL;UNDER THE VOLCANO.

At the end of April 2004, hidden away among the high-rise hotels and beaches of Australia's Gold Coast, 85 top biotechnology company bosses from all over Australia and New Zealand came together for the first time. Their mission: to work out how to hot-house the fledgling Australian biotechnology industry. The timing could hardly have been better. The week after the meeting, the CEOs heard the details of the federal government's revamped programme of aid for the sector. To the delight of the CEOs, and AusBiotech, the main industry body, the new cash on the table amounts to $5.3 billion to invest across the board in research and innovation. INSETS: THE POSEIDON MISADVENTURE;THE STATES VERSUS GM;HOW THEY LINE UP.

With a degree in microbiology and genetics under her belt, and on the hunt for a master's thesis subject, Adele Whyte's interest was drawn to the Maori oral history, being from that decent herself. She quickly realised that there are several conflicting stories. Some describe a single mass migration, others say that more than 100 canoes brought colonisers over a period spanning a few hundred years. Whyte's study is one of many in recent years that aims to unravel the mystery of New Zealand's earliest settlers, as well as those of the other Pacific islands.

Australia is battling to turn scientific strengths and excellent natural resources into major biotechnology bucks as of December 2003. It's been a hot few months for Australia's young biotechnology industry. About half of Australia's 280 or so biotechs are in the medical sector, with core strengths in stem cell research, immunology, medical devices and neuroscience. Australian drug discovery is certainly in its early days, but there have been important breakthroughs. When the New York-based Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation was looking for a site for the world's first type 1 diabetes vaccine research centre, there was only one choice which was Australia. INSETS: DIABETES: THE FIGHT IS ON;BIOPROSPECTING: A NATURAL ADVANTAGE.

Focuses on efforts made by the government of Singapore to make country as a biomedical center for research as of September 20, 2003. Overview of the Biopolis, Singapore's science city formally inaugurated in October 2003; Estimations regarding the economic development of Singapore by the year 2005; Role of various pharmaceutical industries in the rapid growth of Singapore as a biomedical center. INSETS: GROWING A FUTURE FOR STEM CELLS;VIRUS ATTACK.

The article discusses whether consciousness can be detected in the brain. Topics covered include progress in understanding which brain regions and networks are involved in consciousness, role of prefrontal cortex (PFC) in cognitive processes, and integration of activity in different regions as key for various aspects of consciousness.

The article identifies the number of states of consciousness that humans have. Topics discussed include argument of neuroscientists and philosophers about the number of states of consciousness, a study led by Anil Seth in 2017 which reported that people who had taken LSD or psilocybin experienced a higher level of consciousness, and description made by researcher Adrian Owen on consciousness.

The article reports on various research reports into alternate causes of obesity and suggests preventative actions that people can take other than diet and exercise. An overview of factors linked to weight gain is given that includes the effects of the common cold virus, normal everyday psychological stress, and the leaching of endocrine disrupting chemicals from food and beverage packaging.