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It happens to all of us: we suddenly and inexplicably feel cheery or blue, even though our mood was quite different just moments before. Often the culprit is a subliminal cue, or, as psychologists call it, priming. But we do not have to be at the mercy of these unconscious cues. Recent research suggests that simply recognizing the phenomenon can help us take control. Researchers usually test the effects of priming by making participants believe they are taking part in a study of some other variable....

To spank or not to spank? This age-old parenting question elicits fierce debate among parents, psychologists and pediatricians. Surveys suggest that nearly half of U.S. parents have spanked their children as a disciplinary tactic, but many experts argue that this form of punishment—hitting a child on the bottom with an open hand—increases the risk that kids will develop emotional and behavioral problems. Other scientists counter that research on the issue is fraught with problems, making it impossible to draw black-and-white conclusions....

People are incredibly social beings, and we rely heavily on our interactions with others to thrive, and even survive, in the world. To avoid chaos in these interactions, humans create social norms. These rules and regulations establish appropriate and acceptable ways for us to act and respond to each other. For instance, when waiting in line, we expect people also to wait their turn. As a result, we get upset when someone decides to cut in line: they violated a social norm....

From Animal Internet: Nature and the Digital Revolution, by Alexander Pschera (translated from German by Elisabeth Lauffer). Copyright © April 12, 2016, by New Vessel Press. We currently know little more than one percent of the way animals live in the wild. That is to say, little more than nothing at all. We don’t know how little sea turtles behave just after they have slipped out of their eggs on the beach....

Cities are often viewed as environmental wastelands, where only the hardiest of species can eke out an existence. But as scientists in the fledgling field of urban ecology have found, more and more native animals are now adjusting to life on the streets. Take America’s biggest metropolis. As recently as a few decades ago, New York City lacked white-tailed deer, coyotes and wild turkeys, all of which have now established footholds....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. It is a breathtaking flight with dramatic sweeps over fertile valleys and blue pine forests. You fly past Mt. Everest, Mt. Kanchenjunga and Mt. Gangkhar Puensum, which is the highest, unclimbed mountain in the world soaring to almost 7,570 metres. The aircraft wings appear to be almost touching these towering, snow-capped Himalayan mountains....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The gods of ancient Egypt were worshipped as the creators and sustainers of all life. People acknowledged their supremacy and intimacy daily through rituals, amulets, and their labor for the king. Everyone, from farmers to craftsmen to merchants, nobility, scribes, and the king, observed their own specific acts in their own ways to honor the gods but the basic structure, the understanding, of these rituals came from the priesthood....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The ancient Greeks built open-air theatres where the public could watch the performances of Greek comedy, tragedy, and satyr plays. They then exported the idea to their colonies throughout the Aegean so that theatres became a typical feature of the urban landscape in all Greek cities. The Romans continued and expanded on the concept, added a monumental backstage, and generally made the structure more grandiose....

The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We’ve Lost in a World of Constant Connection by Michael Harris Current, 2014 The daily barrage of texts, tweets and e-mails brings us information, connection, entertainment. But it also takes something away, argues journalist Harris. “The loss of lack, the end of absence”—a deficit of silence and solitude—is the price we pay for our plugged-in lives, he writes. His book invites readers, especially those old enough to remember life before the Web, to hold on to downtime, daydreams and stillness....

On July 24, 1911, Yale University lecturer and amateur archaeologist Hiram Bingham completed a steep climb from Peru’s Urubamba River valley through the thin air of the Andes Mountains to one of the most significant and lasting discoveries in archeological history—the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu. Perched about 2,400 meters above sea level and 80 kilometers from the onetime Inca capital of Cusco, the “Lost City of the Incas” remained undiscovered by the Spanish throughout their conquest of Peru in the 1500s....

Your brain is in its 60s, Ryuta Kawashima announced. The disembodied head of the neuroscientist from Tohoku University in Japan wagged on the Nintendo screen and admonished: If your brain is older than you, you should take note! Miffed, this 34-year-old biophysics Ph.D. candidate decided to do something about it. I would train my brain daily. With many studies emphasizing the benefits of mental exercise for cognitive health, I knew I was not alone in my quest for a sharper mind....

In all the bad news about climate change, one bright spot was the forecast that rising temperatures would help plants grow worldwide, especially in the cold, high latitudes. But a new study rips that idea out by the roots. “There is more to climate change than just temperature,” says Camilo Mora, an assistant professor of geography at the University of Hawaii in Mnoa, who led the work. Drought and limited sunlight will undermine any gain from a warmer atmosphere....

A sprawling Capitol Hill debate over protecting U.S. chemical facilities from terrorists has come down to a central question: What should be done about chlorine? At issue is whether water treatment plants can function without chlorine. Chlorine has been used for more than a century to disinfect drinking water and is responsible for a 50 percent increase in life expectancy, according to the American Water Works Association. About 98 percent of North American water treatment systems use chlorine, the trade group says....

Earlier this month, the scientists who altered the H5N1 virus to create a more contagious strain that’s transmissible between ferrets, agreed to a temporary moratorium, due to safety concerns. The NewsHour reported the story here and here. That decision has, if anything, intensified the debate. What began as a question on whether scientific journals should publish the complete research has grown into an argument on whether to conduct these studies, and others like them, at all....

From the moment we emerge into this bright, bustling world, our perceptions and experiences are inscribed on the circuits and structures of our brain. Sights, sounds, tastes, personal encounters of all sorts leave their neural imprint, stamping us as unique individuals. But arguably, it all begins with that most rudimentary of senses: touch. “Touch is the first sense to emerge in utero, and though far from mature, it is the most strongly developed sense at birth,” writes Brooklyn, N....

Dear EarthTalk: What are the prospects for reaching an international agreement to rein in carbon emissions significantly at the upcoming Paris climate talks at the end of the 2015? — Jason Cervantes, Los Angeles, CA All eyes will be on Paris this coming December when climate delegates from around the world gather there for the 21st annual session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)....

The putative start date for what scientists have begun to call the Anthropocene—a newly defined epoch in which humanity is the dominant force on the planet—ranges widely. Some argue that humans began changing the global environment about 50,000 years back, in the Pleistocene epoch, helping along if not outright causing the mass extinctions of megafauna, from mammoths to giant kangaroos, on most continents. Others date it to the emergence of agriculture some 7,000 years ago....

The Brain’s Fix-It Brigade This story about brain-enriching exosomes cites two studies that can be found in the Journal of Neuroimmunology and Glia. The Rain Forest of Alabama Check out the Center for Biological Diversity and this fact sheet (pdf) for more information about the aquatic extinction crisis in the southeastern U.S. Flame Out You can read an extended version of this article about new California regulations that phase out flame retardants in furniture for public health reasons....

The first images from NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft show a planet in the process of losing parts of itself. Streams of hydrogen atoms drift away from the red planet, into the depths of space. The pictures are the first clear look at how crucial elements erode away from the Martian atmosphere, says Bruce Jakosky, a planetary scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder and the mission’s principal investigator....

Archaeologists have unearthed nearly 5,000-year-old shaman’s stones in a rock shelter in Panama. The stone collection may be the earliest evidence of shamanic rituals in that region of Central America, researchers say. The 12 stones were found in the Casita de Piedra rock shelter, in the Isthmus of Panama. The rocks, which carbon-dating of surrounding material showed to be between 4,000 and 4,800 years old, were clustered in a tight pile....