Jim Davies

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    Finding the Perfect Amount of Creativity in Cars & Religion

    There is only a certain level of novelty that most people are willing to tolerate.

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    Why Are You So Smart? Thank Your Mom & Your Difficult Birth

    Our inability to care for ourselves as babies is a key to the genius of our species.

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    New Year’s Resolutions and the Science of Willpower

    The “marshmallow experiment” has become a famous way to measure the self-control of children. (This is a version of the test made for entertainment, not research, purposes.)Every year since 1988, my friend Lou and I have picked a New Year’s resolution together. We meticulously keep to each promise for exactly one year. The 2014 resolution […]

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    Is Santa Claus a God?

    Father Christmas bears some striking similarities to the divinities of many religions.

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    How Your Brain Gaslights You—for Your Own Good

    Nailia Schwarz via Shutterstock Runners can tell you that sometimes the last mile of a run seems to feel dramatically longer than the first. This perceptual distortion isn’t limited to brains addled by exercise—it’s a consistent feature of our minds.   Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . When we […]

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    San Francisco Is Smarter Than You Are

    The city is a big brain that can solve big problems.

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    San Francisco Is Smarter Than You Are

    The city is a big brain that can solve big problems.

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    How a Mental Disorder Can Disappear from the World Overnight

    The dinosaur long ago renamed “Apatosaurus” is still often called “Brontosaurus.” stevegeer via iStock Over the past few decades, autism and Asperger syndrome have become prominent in the public consciousness, and that prominence has been reflected in popular art and entertainment. Autism, a mental illness characterized by repetitive behaviors and impaired social interactions, was brought […]

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    What Do Blind People Actually See?

    To try to understand what it might be like to be blind, think about how it “looks” behind your head.

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    Mutation Helps Create the Most Durable Religions

    Traditional performers at the 2007 Mt. Hagen Cultural Show in Papua New GuineaIan @ ThePaperboy When people think of religions, they tend to turn to of the big five: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Although these are the most popular religions in the world, they are a minuscule sample of the thousands of religions […]