Katja Keuchenius

For those of you who think robots always act according to a programmed plan and therefore aren't flexible: read on. Robots, already working alongside humans in factories or hazardous locations, are constantly adapting their behavior to their environment. Human colleagues actively train them, literally saying: 'good robot' or 'bad robot'. But this type of team work is so outdated, researchers now say. Just as is the case with humans, there are more effective ways to make robots fit well into

Are you a shy person that wants to seem more extravert? No problem. But if you're a stubborn and stern one posing as someone agreeable, it's a different story. A new study shows you you can fool your Facebook audience, but there are limits. In an age where it's more and more common to look someone up on the internet, it's more and more important to make a good impression in photographs. That's why psychology researchers of the University of

In this video co-founder of OkCupid Christian Rudder explains the mathematics behind his successful dating site. What counts is how you answer a question, how you would like your future partner to answer the question and how important the question is to you. As a passionate mathematician he also convinces you that math is actually quite simple. Gepubliceerd op United Academics

The meteorite that hit the earth in Russia today was probably a piece of rocky material about the size of a minivan, astrophysicist Vincent Icke explains. “It’s nonsense that the Russian army had something to do with it”, he adds. “But it could very well have harmed hundreds of people, which is rare. A meteorite this big only reaches the earth once every ten or twenty years and then mostly lands far away in the ocean.This meteorite instead shocked the

You probably know from experience that an unfulfilled task lies heavy on the brain. In science this is a known phenomenon, called the Zeigarnik effect. What to do about it? Plan, plan, plan. Thinking ahead in little steps really takes away your sorrows. The human brain is a true pessimist when it comes to tasks. The ones you fullfilled quickly leave the brain and the ones that remain keep swarming around. Even when you’re focused on something else the subconscious

The new scientific field of music cognition challenges computer nerds, opens the eyes of cognitive scientists and even makes evolutionists very uncomfortable. Professor Henkjan Honing knows from experience. As the winner of the Distinguished Lorrentz Fellowship he will spend the following year investigating different aspects of our cognitive ability to listen to music. What is so interesting about music, other than that it just sounds good?“I like music, but I’ve never been really fascinated by its history or the biographies

Laughing about a comedian or your friend’s clever remark might feel as if you’re using some highly evolved part of your brain, but actually you’re behaving like a monkey. The brain area controlling laughter is older than the part that controls memory and speech. We even share this social ability with other primates, like bonobo’s and orangutans. But why? As opposed to what you might think, we don’t really laugh when things are funny, noted neuropscientist and psychologist Robert Provine