Surprising Science — March 7, 2014

You Are a “Planet Earth” for Microbes

Think you’re human? Think again. You’re more microbe than human according to this animated video by NPR. Before any germaphobes jump into a bath of sanitizerknow that the kingdoms of germs that cover our bodies are good for us. Without them, we would get sick. Microbes also help us regulate our bodily functions.

Watch this video from It’s Okay to Be Smart about your countless microbes and make peace with being a host:

Image credit: Filter Forge/Flickr

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.

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