Weird Science // Current TV

Woman’s size-D cup boob job stopped a bullet

A Calif. woman’s size-D cup breast implant saved her life, after it deflected a... more

knowandtell
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3 years ago
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5 comments

Miracle Fruit Tablets Turns Sour into Sweet

Thats right, eat something that is sour and these tablets will turn it into a sweet... more

JClem
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3 years ago
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0 comments

Do some birds have magnetic eyes?

Scientists have discovered that birds like the European robin are able to navigate... more

richjm
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3 years ago
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Mind Control Advertising?

Trolling down the street in Manhattan, I suddenly hear a woman's voice.... more

jcwelker
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5 years ago
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6 comments

Solitude contributes to a person's imagined intimacy with a TV character

If your best friend is a guy from "The Office" or a young doctor on... more

pjacobs51
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3 years ago
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25 comments

Science's 25 extreme research experiments

Science has, and still does, conduct some of the most extreme experiments -- some... more

Skyscraper08
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3 years ago
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Unicycling clown fails to distract mobile phone users

This is my kind of science experiment. Researchers who wanted to explore the... more

richjm
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3 years ago
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1 comment

US city of Houston to be shielded from extreme weather by giant dome?

With extreme weather conditions affecting the city of Houston, TX, scientists are... more

Skyscraper08
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3 years ago
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8 comments

The Earth and Jupiter in the same picture - humbling or boring?

The thumbnail isn't much but click the link and you'll see this photograph... more

richjm
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3 years ago
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2 comments

Did Evolution of Human Imagination 50,000 Years Ago Trigger Belief in God?

French-British anthropologist, Maurice Bloch, of the London School of Economics believes that humans alone practice religion because they're the only creatures to have evolved imagination. The development of imagination occurred at the time of the Upper Palaeolithic 'revolution' 40-50,000 years ago. Bloch challenges the popular notion that religion evolved and spread because it promoted social bonding, as has been argued by some anthropologists (Image is prehistoric rock painting from south of Spain).

According to Bloch's theory, initially humans had to develop the essential brain architecture to imagine things and beings that don't exist physically, and the possibility that people somehow survive on after their death.

Once this was acquired, we had access to a form of social interaction unavailable to any other creatures on the planet. Exclusively, humans could use what Bloch calls the "transcendental social" to unite with groups, such as nations and clans, or even with imaginary groups such as the dead. He explained that the transcendental social also permits humans to follow the idealized codes of conduct linked with religion.

"What the transcendental social requires is the ability to live very largely in the imagination," New Scientist magazine quoted him, as saying.

"One can be a member of a transcendental group, or a nation, even though one never comes in contact with the other members of it. Moreover, the composition of such groups, whether they are clans or nations, may equally include the living and the dead," he added.

He argues that no animals, not even our nearest relatives the chimpanzees, can do this. Instead, he says, they're restricted to the routine and Machiavellian social interactions of everyday life.

The reason for this, he says, is that they can't imagine beyond this immediate social circle, or backwards and forwards in time, in the same way that humans can.

Bloch believes our ancestors evolved the essential neural architecture to imagine before or around a time called the Upper Palaeological Revolution, the final sub-division of the Stone Age.

"The transcendental network can, with no problem, include the dead, ancestors and gods, as well as living role holders and members of essentialised groups," he said.

"Ancestors and gods are compatible with living elders or members of nations because all are equally mysterious invisible, in other words transcendental," he added.But Bloch argues that religion is only one expression of this exceptional ability to form bonds with non-existent or distant people or value-systems.

"Religious-like phenomena in general are an inseparable part of a key adaptation unique to modern humans, and this is the capacity to imagine other worlds, an adaptation that I argue is the very foundation of the sociality of modern human society," he said.

"Once we realize this omnipresence of the imaginary in the everyday, nothing special is left to explain concerning religion," he added.French-British anthropologist, Maurice Bloch, of the London School of Economics... more

Quiggles
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3 years ago
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28 comments

Brain-to-brain communication over interweb!

This is, quite frankly, nuts. We truly are living in the 21st Century now, are we... more

FreshPlastic
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3 years ago
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1 comment

Autopsy? There's a multitouch table and app for that...

Introducing 'Virtual Autopsy' - the world's first er, virtual autospy... more

FreshPlastic
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3 years ago
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0 comments

New ring discovered around Saturn

A massive new dust ring has been discovered around Saturn by the Spitzer Space... more

richjm
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3 years ago
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1 comment

Wi-Fi used as X-ray vision

Researchers at the University of Utah are using Wi-Fi to see through walls. Since... more

Skyscraper08
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3 years ago
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0 comments

Half of babies born in developed world will live to 100

More than 50% of babies born in rich countries today will live to be 100 years old,... more

richjm
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3 years ago
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6 comments

Mind-control makes robot follow his thoughts

Things seem to be getting more and more serious when it comes to robot and human... more

Skyscraper08
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3 years ago
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0 comments

Microchip-eyeball: Giving blind people sight

Technology involving an eyeball and computer chip is being formed to provide blind... more

Skyscraper08
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3 years ago
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0 comments

Gay men "can be indentified based on their Facebook friends"

Boffins at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology think they've discovered a... more

richjm
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3 years ago
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7 comments

How many people are in space right now?

Six, apparently. And all on the International Space Station. So now you know.

richjm
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3 years ago
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0 comments

Pearl Dreams: the toothpaste that knocks you out (literally)

If your finding it hard to sleep, then it's because your not brushing your teeth... more

Skyscraper08
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3 years ago
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