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9 Brain Quirks You Didn't Realise You Had

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 22:59:58 GMT

clipped by: sohil

1) Your short-term memory has a max capacity of seven.

Humans have three forms of memory: sensory, long-term and short-term. Long-term memory is like hard-drive space, while short-term memory works like a very small RAM. This short-term memory can hold only about five to nine (average is seven) items at a time.

2) Chartreuse is the most visible color.

Your eyes have receptors for blue, green and red. Being in the middle, yellow-green triggers the most of these receptors to fire

3) Your subconscious is smarter than you are.

Or at least more powerful

4) You have two nervous systems.

One set controls excitation and the other controls inhibition

5) Your brain is awful at probability.

6) Your memory isn’t great either.

people are highly likely to misremember past events

it is incredibly easy to suggest a memory that never happened

7) You can perceive depth with one eye.

8 ) Long-term memory shuts down during sleep.

9) You have an instant playback feature.

Tags: brain, pyschology, quirks, interesting, human mind, dreams

baby mammoth to be cloned

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 21:58:35 GMT

clipped by: mona

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Baby mammoth discovery unveiled

A baby mammoth unearthed in the permafrost of north-west Siberia could be the best preserved specimen of its type, scientists have said.

The six-month-old female calf was discovered on the Yamal peninsula of Russia and is thought to have died 10,000 years ago.

The animal's trunk and eyes are still intact and some of its fur remains on the body.

"In terms of its state of preservation, this is the world's most valuable discovery," he said.

Some scientists hold out hope that well preserved sperm or other cells containing viable DNA could be used to resurrect the mammoth.

Despite the inherent difficulties, Dr Agenbroad remains optimistic about the potential for cloning.

Tags: mammoth, cloning, siberia

When not to hyphenate your name

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 09:42:11 GMT

clipped by: Moonowler

Clip Source: linuxnotes.blogspot.com

Tags: surname

No Joke: Age Makes Things Less Funny

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 11:41:57 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A new psychology study at Washington University was no laughing matter: It found that older adults may have a harder time getting jokes because of an age-related decline in certain memory and reasoning abilities.

The research suggested that because older adults may have greater difficulty with cognitive flexibility, abstract reasoning and short-term memory, they also have greater difficulty with tests of humor comprehension.

Researchers tested about 40 healthy adults over age 65 and 40 undergraduate students with exercises in which they had to complete jokes and stories. Participants also had to choose the correct punch line for verbal jokes and select the funny ending to series of cartoon panels.

Findings were published earlier this month in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society.

Elderly study participants had a harder time completing the punch lines to jokes and funny stories than did their younger counter-parts. Credit: stock.xchng

Tags: psychology, brain, mind, age, humor, cognitive ability