Can electricity cure our ills?
Our nervous impulses are conditioned by subatomic electrical particles that travel through neurons and flow through each of our cells
LSD: The bike ride that changed the course of cultural history
The discovery of this hallucinogen was a fluke, and it started a journey in which science, the CIA, music and medicine all played a role
Dolphins also have their dark side
Dolphins have a hidden side that is rarely talked about, whose history dates back millions of years when their ancestors walked on land
Invented memories: From psychiatric disorder to tricks for writing novels
There is a type of amnesia that prevents the formation of new memories, its place taken by confabulations. The writer W. G. Sebald used this illness to relate the story of a family member who ended his days in a psychiatric hospital
The paint tube that revolutionized the world of impressionism
The tin tube with a screw cap forever changed the way artists worked, as it allowed them to get away from their studios to paint outdoors
The wormhole that changed a novel
One day in the spring of 1985, Carl Sagan telephoned his colleague Kip Thorne at his office in the Norman Bridge laboratory at Caltech in order to do research for the novel he was writing
We can only take flight if we keep our heads in the clouds
The human desire to fly is as old as time. But trying to imitate storks or bats has led to broken bones, at best
(i∂+m)Φ=0 Is this really the formula for love?
Paul Dirac developed an equation that integrates aspects of special relativity and quantum physics, but never imagined it would one day be associated with romance
Face blindness and the life stories that are etched in bone
Prosopagnosia occurs when the world is lost as a representation and we stop recognizing the faces of our relatives and those close to us
The parallel universes of a sci-fi visionary named Philip K. Dick
Scientists scoffed when physicist Hugh Everett published his Many-Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics in 1957, but a certain science-fiction author took note
Werewolf syndrome–myth and reality
Hypertrichosis is a rare genetic alteration that causes the fine, soft hair of newborns to remain on the body and grow throughout life
‘Higgs Boson Blues’: between science and pop culture
In order to define the Higgs field, it was necessary to find the associated particle, also known popularly as the Holy Grail of the quantum world, the secret melody or the particle of God