Animal insights into the human mind

From fish driving cars to chimps doing maths teaching animals ‘irrelevant’ skills can reveal a great deal about the inner workings of our own minds.

Brain waves

A trial of an interactive game that trains people to alter their brain waves has shown promise as a treatment for nerve pain – offering hope for a new generation of drug-free treatments.

The six-legged smart phone

Head lice, fleas and tapeworms have been humanity’s companions throughout our evolutionary history. Yet, the greatest parasite of the modern age is no blood-sucking invertebrate. It is sleek, glass-fronted and addictive by design. Its host? Every human on Earth with a wifi signal.

The critical need for critical thinking

Critical thinking skills are more important than ever in an age of online misinformation and AI generated slop, and everyone can improve those skills with a little care and practice.

Heads or tails we hate you

New research from the University of Sydney has found people tend to discriminate in favour of individuals who show a similarity to them, even when the similarity arises from a random event like the flip of a coin.

The gambler’s fallacy

We always want to find patterns in sequences of events – but often they aren’t really there. Understanding randomness can free us from unnecessary worry or false hope, allowing us to focus on decisions grounded in reality.

Mental gymnastics

The brain is a marvel of efficiency, honed by thousands of years of evolution so it can adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing world. Yet, despite decades of research, the mystery of how the brain achieves this has remained elusive.

Sleep on it

John Steinbeck once observed that “It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it” and modern research suggests he was right.

Unknown unknowns

New experimental data support the idea that people tend to assume the information they have is adequate to comprehend a given situation, without considering that they might be lacking key information.

Understanding teen decision making

Teenagers are often characterised as risk-taking and impulsive with poor decision-making skills, but those traits are actually a good thing.

The neuroscience of voting

The current British election campaign highlights the different factors which influence people’s votes, including fundamental aspects of our brain function.

No time to think

The frantic pace of modern life is damaging our innate sense of time, but getting out into the natural world can help us heal it.