United Academics

Spiders not always act according to their own will. When they are infected by a certain kind of wasp they become real life zombies. A spider then suddenly doesn’t build his web for himself. He uses a radically different design, so that the wasp larva inside him can comfortably use it. When the spider dies, the larva crawls out and settles in his new home. It sounds like sciencefiction but it’s actually old knowledge to scientists. For years they have

We all know certain smells can bring memories back to life. A christmas tree, your grandma’s baking scents or your first brand of deodorant can take your mind straight back to other times. But these smells can also help us to predict the future, science shows. Marijn van Wingerden has found the part of the brain that makes this possible. You found out how we can predict the future with smells, how did you do that?We introduced rats to a

We all believe that to be successful at something, you have to keep on practicing. It just seems fair that people who give up easily aren’t getting as far as those holding on. But new research of the University in New South Wales suggests otherwise. People with too much persistence may actually be less likely to turn their enduring training efforts into skills. Researchers Soren Ashley and Joel Pearson found this paradox by letting students practice a new skill, keeping