|Z|E|B|R|A| |C|R|O|S|S|I|N|G|

A great deal of medicine and thoughts that astronauts take to space addresses the unusual and confined environment of microgravity in which they have to work. When you are at home, sitting on a divan or standing near a window,…

Was a 2003 movie right about the weight of the human soul? A rolling pun and some statistics. When you throw a die in a game, you expect that rolling any number (1 through 6) would occur one out of…

Alfred Adler, who developed the theory of “inferiority complex”, was a middle child. He could see, all along, how the non-numero-unos were geared to inferiority complexes. Someone said sibling issues have been around since about page 3 of Genesis, but…

If you unearth an artefact with the same shape and used for the same purpose in two or more differentregions, it could be the bespoke result of cultural diffusion — but not necessarily. Archaeologist Sue O’Connor studied five fish hooks…

In a thought experiment of historian Yuval Noah Harari, a hypothetical government insists that every citizen should wear a biometric bracelet. This device monitors body temperature and heart-rate, 24 hours a day. The big data hoarded this way is analysed…

Iron replaced bronze as the prime material for tool and weapon production during the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. The replacement was gradual — at different times in different regions. There were things made of iron…

If you look at an MRI scan of the brain, you will see a wave pass through the entire brain like a heartbeat once every few seconds! It’s an ultra-slow rhythm recognised decades ago, but no one did quite know…

“The Ministry of Silly Walks” is a sketch from a Monty Python comedy troupe’s TV episode. It is a jibe at the inefficiency of government bureaucracy, and it opens with the Minister walking in a rather peculiar manner to his…

The year 2020 would go into history as the “no hugs” year — a year in which people were forced to limit the opportunities for physical contact, so as to protect themselves. There is a paradox in it because physical…

A condenser turns a substance from its gaseous state to its liquid state — by cooling it. Historically, condensers were always oriented vertically so as to allow water to drain by gravity. But then, about five years ago, Virginia Tech…

Around 43,000 years ago, the first frontmen of Homo sapiens colonised Europe. They replaced the Neanderthals in the region approximately 3,000 years later — violently, per French palaeontologist Marcellin Boule (the first person to analyse a Neanderthal). One hypothesis about…

The human immune system has always been evolving and it is still evolving, but lifespan continues to increase with each generation. In addition, lifestyles and ecologic natures can really differ and influence immune responses. A malaria parasite has infected Africans…