Symmetry
26 articles-
Mirror Neurons Are Essential, but Not in the Way You Think
A “brainbow”: neurons labels with fluorescent tags, in this case, from a mouse.Stephen J. Smith via Wikipedia Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . In his 2011 book, The Tell-Tale Brain, neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran says that some of the cells in your brain are of a special variety. He […]
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The Most Symmetrical Objects in the World
If you’ve ever tried to give yourself a haircut, you know just how hard it is to make something precisely symmetrical. We value symmetry so highly in part because it’s really hard to achieve. Here are five of the most symmetrical objects humans have ever crafted, and why they were so hard to make. Nautilus […]
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How the Big Wrong Fat Message Got So Widely Accepted
Nutritional advice about eggs, naturally high in cholesterol, has been scrambled over the past 50 years.Jag_cz via Shutterstock Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . The practice of nutritional science faces some significant problems, and they are mainly of its own making. For decades, starting in the 1950s, a consensus […]
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You Can “Catch” Stress Through a TV Screen
Your heart rate speeds up, your breathing quickens. Your muscles tighten. Your stomach ties itself in knots. All of these changes are symptoms of the condition called stress. Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . When animals, including humans, are under acute stress, their bodies respond with a powerful neurochemical […]
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Evolution May Be Drunk, But It’s Serious About Making Brains
Our brains, perched atop a network of nerve cells that ascend the length of our bodies, are thought to have arisen once in an animal hundreds of millions of years ago and then evolved over time. However, new findings suggest instead that brains and nervous systems originated multiple times from scratch. Nautilus Members enjoy an […]
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Forest for the Trees—Why We Recognize Faces & Constellations
A Ganado-style Navajo rugNational Park Service Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . For many thousands of years, and across cultures around the world, symmetry has been seen as beautiful. The mirror-image accuracy of the Parthenon is seen also in the Taj Mahal and the geometric patterns of traditional Navajo […]