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Thursday

New Language Discovered: Prairiedogese
Charlie Riedel/AP

Opinion

New Language Discovered: Prairiedogese

Deep in the Arizona desert, one man has been deciphering the chatter between rodents, hoping to prove that communication among highly social animals is more sophisticated than we think.

Listen To Prairie Dogs Talk

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Tuesday

Why A Brush With Death Triggers The Slow-Mo Effect
Tim Schapker/Flickr

Why A Brush With Death Triggers The Slow-Mo Effect

Time seems to slow down when we fear for our lives. A neuroscientist believes he has figured out what's going on in our brains that makes us feel this way.

Listen To A Life Nearly Flashing By

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Tuesday

Agatha Christie And Nuns Tell A Tale Of Alzheimer's

A question: can you predict Alzheimer's by a careful analysis of someone’s writing? An English professor has suggested there are tell-tale signs of early Alzheimer's in Agatha Christie’s book, Elephants Can Remember. AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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AFP/Getty Images

Agatha Christie And Nuns Tell A Tale Of Alzheimer's

One of Agatha Christie's last novels apparently contains not only a messy plot, but signs of undiagnosed Alzheimer's.

Listen To What Your Writing Might Reveal

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Friday

Tuesday

Seeing Impostors: When Loved Ones Suddenly Aren't

Magritte's 1964 painting The Intimate Newspaper gets us thinking: Who is this? A familiar friend or a complete stranger? Rene Magritte/Corbis hide caption

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Rene Magritte/Corbis

Seeing Impostors: When Loved Ones Suddenly Aren't

Two different patients. Two different stories. But a shared delusion. Each is convinced that someone they love dearly is >not that person, but an impostor. A curious disorder known as Capgras delusion involves the distinct feeling that the people around you have been replaced. And no one is certain what causes it.

Seeing Impostors: When Loved Ones Suddenly Aren't

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Friday

Carl Sagan And Ann Druyan's Ultimate Mix Tape

The 12-inch gold-plated records contain greetings in 59 languages, samples of music from different cultures and eras, and natural and human-made sounds from Earth. One record is currently 16.89 billion km from Earth, the other is over 13 billion km away. NASA Center: Jet Propulsion Laboratory hide caption

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NASA Center: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Carl Sagan And Ann Druyan's Ultimate Mix Tape

Floating through space right now is a golden record carrying sounds of Earth: a mother's first words to her baby, the sound of a kiss, and music from all over the world. Ann Druyan helped to create the NASA project as a guide to Earth for aliens. And like any good mix tape — interstellar or not — it led to the man of her dreams.

Carl Sagan And Ann Druyan's Ultimate Mix Tape

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Tuesday

Willpower And The 'Slacker' Brain
iStockphoto.com

Willpower And The 'Slacker' Brain

The reason for a lack of willpower may be that you're working your prefrontal cortex too hard. If you give it too many jobs to do, it gets tired, calls it a day and gives into temptation.

Listen to Cake Topple Your Brain

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Tuesday

Wednesday

How Do You Amputate A Phantom Limb?

In one experiment, Ramachandran used a mirror and a cardboard box to perform the first "successful amputation of a phantom limb." The Center for Brain and Cognition, UCSD hide caption

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The Center for Brain and Cognition, UCSD

How Do You Amputate A Phantom Limb?

Many amputees say they can still feel the presence of a missing limb, and often what they feel is intense pain. But how does a doctor treat pain in an arm or a leg that no longer exists? Oddly enough, one researcher used a cardboard box and a $2 mirror.

How Do You Amputate A Phantom Limb?

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Monday

Golden Rule Develops Early But Doesn't Come Easily

A 2-year-old, it turns out, knows the difference between right and wrong. And by age 4, children are getting the grasp of empathy. While the seeds of morality may be at least partially built into our genetic makeup, for children, developing a moral sense can still be a battle of impulses.

Golden Rule Develops Early But Doesn't Come Easily

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Tuesday

Minty E. Coli And Other Bioengineering Feats

Scientists all over the world are matter-of-factly amending, changing and rearranging living creatures for all kinds of reasons, some silly, some profound. Take the case of the MIT team that made the icky-smelling bacteria E. coli and gave it a wintergreen-scented twist.

Minty E. Coli And Other Bioengineering Feats

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Thursday

Radio Lab: Into the Brain of a Liar

We all lie — once a day or so, according to most studies. But a few of us make a habit of it. Researchers have found evidence of structural differences in the brains of people with a history of persistent lying.

Radio Lab: Into the Brain of a Liar

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