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23 articles
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    Psychology

    To Persuade Someone, Look Emotional

    Asked at the start of the final 1988 presidential debate whether he would support the death penalty if his wife were raped and murdered, Michael Dukakis, a lifelong opponent of capital punishment, quickly and coolly said no. It was a surprising, deeply personal, and arguably inappropriate question, but in demonstrating an unwavering commitment to his […]

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    Health

    Braces Have Made Snoring a Modern Health Problem

    Over the ages our teeth and our tongue have become ever more crowded by the shrinking of the human jaw. Not only is this an aesthetic disaster, but it compromises our breathing, which in turn can disrupt sleep. And there, our problems really begin.Photograph by Lisa S. / Shutterstock The apotheosis of my five-year orthodontic […]

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    Psychology

    The Psychological Challenges of Just Getting to Mars

    Life outside Earth has its own Hobbesian description: isolated, confined, and extreme—or I.C.E. “Space is the quintessential ICE environment,” according to a new paper, published in American Psychologist. Space includes inhospitable planets like Mars, whose arresting vistas, canyons, and mountains beckon. But only humans sealed inside cumbersome suits, trained to weather such nerve-racking circumstances, can […]

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    Communication

    How to Talk About Vaccines on Television

    What one scientist has learned from years of media appearances.

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    Sociology

    Does Theranos Mark the Peak of the Silicon Valley Bubble?

    John Carreyrou talks to Nautilus about the lessons of a $1 billion fraud.

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    Neuroscience

    How Brain Waves Surf Sound Waves to Process Speech

    Reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine’s Abstractions blog.When he talks about where his fields of neuroscience and neuropsychology have taken a wrong turn, David Poeppel of New York University doesn’t mince words. “There’s an orgy of data but very little understanding,” he said to a packed room at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in […]