Human Behavior, features and articles | Educational Science

Feb 28, 2009

Obama's Energy Plan Faces Tough Road, History Suggests

How much should we spend? Vote below. A national need for clean energy may require a U.S. government response rivaling the Manhattan Project or Apollo Program, but history suggests that tackling an energy crisis remains more difficult than building an atomic bomb or going to the moon. Those historical analogies...

Feb 28, 2009

Religious People Work Harder to Stall Death

When you're near death, how hard do you want doctors to work on keeping you alive? Would you want cardiopulmonary resuscitation in what might be your final days of a cancer death sentence? Is a ventilator the right way to go? Researchers recently posed these sorts of questions to 345...

Jan 31, 2009

Small Farms Sprout in Economic Drought

When the economy gets tough, it seems that the tough get farming. Tens of thousands of small farms were created since 2002, according to new data from the Census of Agriculture. The farming forecast isn't entirely sunny. But packed with a cornucopia of surprise findings — such as large increases...

Jan 31, 2009

Teens Crank Up iPod Volume, Risk Hearing Damage

Teens asked by their peers to turn their iPods down actually turn them up, finds a new study that reveals other odd habits. Among the most disconcerting revelations: Teens who express the most concern about the risk for and severity of hearing loss from iPods actually play their music at...

Jan 31, 2009

Women More Religious Than Men

A new analysis of survey data finds women pray more often then men, are more likely to believe in God, and are more religious than men in a variety of other ways. The reasons, analysts say, could range from traditional mothering duties to the tendency of men to take risks...

Dec 31, 2008

Where Words Come From

I want to tell you something. Wait, wait, I'm searching for the right word to begin. I just can't remember it. Oh, there it is ... We all fumble around for the right word, and once you get to a certain age, that fumbling often ends with, Ah, another senior...

Dec 31, 2008

Study Reveals Why First Impressions Count

Getting off on the wrong foot can doom a relationship before it begins, as we all know. Now scientists have studied one reason why this is true. When a person makes a bad first impression, the negative feelings are harder to overcome than a betrayal that occurs after ties are...

Dec 31, 2008

Ancient Walls Covered With Powdered Animal Bones

Scientists have discovered a 14th century brick oven made to bake animal bones for a strange purpose. The burned bones were made into a powder, then mixed with other material to make a protective coating to strengthen the grand medieval walls of a Muslim structure in what is now Granada,...

Dec 31, 2008

How Ancient Greeks Chose Temple Locations

To honor their gods and goddesses, ancient Greeks often poured blood or wine on the ground as offerings. Now a new study suggests that the soil itself might have had a prominent role in Greek worship, strongly influencing which deities were venerated where. In a survey of eighty-four Greek temples...

Nov 30, 2010

Are the Newly Found Picasso Paintings Real?

An elderly French couple has come forward with 271 paintings and sketches by Pablo Picasso that they claim the artist gave them as a present. But are they the real thing? The collection of watercolors, lithographs, portraits, cubist collages and sketches have been authenticated and their combined valued is set...

Nov 30, 2010

Why Do We Send Christmas Cards?

A Christmas card designed by John Callcott Horsley. (Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)There's a reason that Christmas is the busiest holiday season for the U.S. Postal Service everyone is mailing out their holiday greeting cards. But from where did this tradition originate? People have been sending each other letters and cards...

Nov 30, 2010

Senate: Gays Can Serve Openly in Military

The U.S. Senate voted 65 to 31 today (Dec. 18) to repeal the Don't Ask, Don't Tell act, sending President Obama legislation to overturn the policy and allow gays to serve openly in the military. By ending 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,' no longer will our nation be denied the service...

Nov 30, 2010

Why Do We Hang Stockings For Christmas?

Those hanging up their stockings by the chimney with care in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there may not know that the tale that inspired the cheerful Christmas stockings tradition is pretty dark. The story begins with a nobleman who lost his wife after she died from a...

Oct 31, 2010

What's Net Neutrality, and Why Should You Care?

One of the hot issues discussed during the midterm elections was whether to continue to protect the current status quo of net neutrality. Under net neutrality, all content, users and devices are treated the same by broadband carriers such as AT&T, Verizon and Time Warner. That means that streaming video,...

Oct 31, 2010

Is Quidditch a Real Sport?

Yes and no. It depends on how you define quidditch and how you define sport. In the Harry Potter universe, quidditch is a game played by wizards and witches. Each team consists of seven players, each flying on a broomstick. Players attempt to throw soccer-ball-size balls, called quaffles, through three...