Surprising Science — April 14, 2010

Stress Cases

Stress hormones may indirectly promote the spread of cancer in the body by hurting the immune system’s anti-tumor mechanisms and encouraging new blood vessels to form.

bigthinkeditor

The hormones associated with chronic stress may indirectly promote the spread of cancer in the body by hurting the immune system’s anti-tumor mechanisms and encouraging new blood vessels to form. Researcher Anil Sood says he now hopes to find ways to interfere with these tumor-feeding stress hormones with cognitive-behavioral therapies or drugs like beta blockers and anti-depressants.

a computer generated image of a human brain.

Thinking

The great free will debate featuring Michio Kaku and Steven Pinker

Who — or what — really controls your mind?

Building destroyed by the Halifax Explosion. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

The Past

The largest accidental explosion of all time

More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

a collage of photos of a man with a hat and a book.

High Culture

6 great books with wildly unreliable narrators

Dive into the twisted truths and concealed realities told by literature’s most unreliable narrators.

a group of five matches on a pink background.

The Well

Signs you’re burned out — and how to bounce back

If you don’t feel better after the weekend, the “burnout paradox” could explain why.

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7 min

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with

Laurie Santos

Starts With A Bang

The trick to instantly identifying JWST images

If you can identify a foreground star, the spike patterns are a dead giveaway as to whether it’s a JWST image or any other observatory.

Up Next

Politics & Current Affairs

A Good Kill?

Does assassinating top terrorists really make us safer? Robert Wright looks at research suggesting that “decapitation doesn’t lower the life expectancy of the decapitated groups.”