United Academics

Whales are one the most fascinating and intelligent creatures we know and we certainly want to protect these biggest fishes, or actually mamals, in the sea. But luckily whales are not helpless against the latest ecological changes. A new study found they work together in adapting to their environments, just like us. For a period of 27 years a team of researchers monitored the fishing habits of a community of American humpback whales. The dimishing of their usual prey in

If you're vulnerable to depression it doesn't necessarily mean that you have certain unlucky genes or just experienced a traumatic event. What also makes you vulnerable to themental disorder is the way you think. And even if you don't yet have this style of thought, you could pick it up from your roommate, a new study suggests. It's about the way you interpret stressful life events.If you see these events asresults of factors you can’t change and as a reflection

You can probably guess that organized people are more likely to eat healthy and have a low BMI score. But did you also know that people who are less open to experiences more often like sweets? These findings, published in the new Health Psychology, may sound pretty random, which some of them may actually be, but they're interesting food for thought. A group of researchers looked at 1091 70-year olds that already participated in a study in 1936. They asked

‘Do you trust me?’ Aladdin asked the still hesitant Jasmine. It was an important question in different ways. Her trust not only enabled him to organize the flying carpet journey of a lifetime, it could also make Jasmine forget about Aladdin’s prior mistakes. The way you trust your partner is the way you remember him or her, American scientists at the Northwestern University and Redeemer University College found out. Just like you expect your lover to behave in the future,

A genetic link is found between five common psychiatric disorders: autism, ADHD, bipolar disorder, depression and schizophrenia. Although they have so far been seen as very distinct, because of different symptoms, they now seem to be biologically alike. After an extensive study, researchers from different parts of the world came to this conclusion. They analyzed genetic data from 33,000 people suffering from one of the five disorders and compared them to 28,000 unaffected subjects. They found that variants in four

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