Are narcissists born or made? Colloquially, narcissism often refers to the pursuit of personal gratification through the admiration of others, often for pretty superficial or vain reasons. Narcissism becomes a pathology when it disrupts relationships, work, financial affairs, or other parts of your life. Narcissistic Personality Disorder, then, is defined as “mental condition in whichContinue reading “How Does Someone Become a Narcissist?”
Category Archives: Biology
Are Some Animals ‘More Conscious’ than Others?
In recent years, debates about animal consciousness have moved on from the question of whether any non- human animals are conscious to the questions of which animals are conscious and what form their conscious experiences take. How can we make sense of variation in consciousness across the animal kingdom? Animal consciousness research rests on theContinue reading “Are Some Animals ‘More Conscious’ than Others?”
Why Do Humans Experience Time Elastically?
Why does time fly when we’re having fun? Our sense of time may be the most basic foundation for all of our experience, but it’s an unsteady and subjective one, expanding and contracting, speeding up and slowing down. Emotions, music, everything in our surroundings, and shifts in our attention, all have the power to changeContinue reading “Why Do Humans Experience Time Elastically?”
Size Does Matter: The Case for American Population Explosion
In his new book One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger, Vox co-founder Matthew Yglesias identifies one of the few areas left where there is broad bipartisan agreement: China is challenging the U.S.’s place in the world and “America should aspire to be the greatest nation on Earth.” His solution, however, is not soContinue reading “Size Does Matter: The Case for American Population Explosion”
COVID “Super-Spreader” Events are Ridiculously Expensive
How the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally generated over $12 billion in public health costs: “There are some really good estimates out there that suggest that between 10% and 20% of cases are responsible for about 80% of transmission events,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead for the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Program, at a press conference.Continue reading “COVID “Super-Spreader” Events are Ridiculously Expensive”
Is a Spider’s Web Part of its Brain?
With the help of their webs, spiders are capable of planning, learning, and other complex cognitive tasks, challenging our ideas of intelligence. Earlier this year, biologist David Robson published an essay explaining a new extraordinary king of consciousness. A consciousness found in spiders that allows their minds to extend beyond their bodies. Spiders are basicallyContinue reading “Is a Spider’s Web Part of its Brain?”
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