Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley have figured out why shoelaces seem to come untied at the worst moments, like when you're running.
Unlike food — which gives us sensory cues like crunchy and hot, as well as tasting, say, salty — with wine, it's all about tiny differences in taste and smell. The danger is in getting too poetic.
Savoring the flavor of wine activates more gray matter than solving a complex math problem, according to neuroscientist Gordon Shepherd. His new book, Neurenology, explores your brain on wine.
The image of the "sad clown" can seem like a cliche. But for Kevin Breel, it's very real. He describes how he struggled with depression while performing as a stand-up comedian.
Rocky wowed scientists when he showed he could control his vocal cords much the way people do. His abilities suggest that early humans might have spoken words 10 million years ago.
Getting kids to eat veggies through subterfuge — say, spinach smoothies -- sets the bar too low, researchers say. Your child must actually learn to like veggies, weird textures and all. Here's how.
One choice isn't always better than the other. Philosopher Ruth Chang says, once we realize that, it's easier to embrace the hard work of decision-making.
We often think that our decisions are our own. But Behavioral Economist Dan Ariely explains how our environment — even something as simple as how a question is framed — can affect what we choose.
To feed their cheese habit, the author and her father took a crash course in mozzarella on a Pennsylvania farm. The experience offered valuable insight into the science and history of cheese-making.
Honeybees are a critical part of agriculture, pollinating many of our favorite crops. But bee deaths are on the rise. In Japan, scientists are testing whether insect-sized drones can help do the job.
In school, we're taught we should trust science because the scientific method leads to measurable results and hard facts. But Naomi Oreskes says the process of inquiry doesn't end there.
Former Bennington College President Liz Coleman believes higher education is overly-specialized & complacent. She says we need to encourage students to ask bigger questions and take more risks.
It's gruesome, but from a scientific standpoint, there's a predictable calculus for when humans and animals go cannibal, a new book says. And who knew European aristocrats ate body parts as medicine?
Scientists have created addiction-resistant mice by altering the reward system in their brains. The findings shed light on the biochemistry of addiction.
Truffles are a culinary delicacy that sell for big bucks — and some dogs have long been bred specifically to sniff them out. But could any old dog be trained to pick up this lucrative new trick?
Jonathan Ellis, a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Santa Cruz, talks about confirmation bias and its impact on our daily lives.
Santiago Ramón y Cajal's drawings of nerve cells changed scientists' understanding of the brain. Now, 80 of those drawings are going on display at an art museum in Minnesota.
It's in our nature to idolize the rich and famous. But this week on Hidden Brain, we explore the other side of our nature: the part of us that wants to see the rich and powerful fall from grace.
Young people have always used language in new ways, and it has always driven older people crazy. But the linguist John McWhorter says all the LOLs are part of an inevitable evolution of language.
From birth through age 30 or so, our ability to recognize faces keeps improving, research shows. At first, kids discern adult faces better than other kids' mugs. Not so after adolescence.
Anthropologists in Germany say they may not need old bones to recover ancient DNA. They just analyze dust from the floor of caves where Neanderthals and other now-extinct human relatives once resided.
