Cholesterol — a waxy substance the liver mainly makes. The body needs it to build cells and produce hormones, but there are different types. High levels of LDL, or low-density…

Watermelon can satisfy your sweet tooth — a single slice has just 46 calories and about 9 g of sugar. Its red flesh packs plenty of lycopene, an antioxidant that…

People often confuse social isolation with loneliness — but they aren’t the same. Social isolation is measurable: you can count how many people live with you or how many social…

What direction do you pick when you enter an art gallery, museum, or shopping mall? Most people, without thinking, head left! In the film “Zoolander,” Ben Stiller’s character comically struggles…

Sugar isn’t a poison — at least not the way people claim, says Dr. Emily Liming of King’s College London. When people cut out sweets they often feel better, but…

Healthy eating can lower your risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers — and it can also help protect against depression and other mental-health problems. But for…

For many people, appearance, especially hair, signals youth, attractiveness, and how they think others see them. Why hair matters so much Fabio Zuckelli says this comes from our need to…

Money and status don’t tell the whole story. The authors looked beyond material factors (income, personal achievements) to behavioral tendencies — how patient people are, how willing they are to…

We don’t have an instant “erase and move on” switch for painful memories—yet. But researchers already know how to tinker with memory: they can dull the emotions tied to a…

Compared with other primates, our population-level right-hand bias really stands out. Chimpanzees, gorillas, and monkeys may favor one hand for specific tasks, but no other species shows the kind of…

AI is already reshaping everything—from how we work to how we live—and no one can fully predict how far those changes will go. At the same time, conversations about the…

Our voices can change in an instant: an adrenaline rush tightens the muscles around the larynx, making the voice higher and shakier, while talking with someone close tends to make…

First — a bigger brain doesn’t automatically mean higher intelligence. Brain size only weakly correlates with measures of intelligence in humans. Albert Einstein’s brain, for example, was relatively small —…

People who sing, paint, or regularly visit exhibitions and museums show a slower pace of aging, a new study from University College London (UCL) found. The study’s lead author, Professor…

A new study from researchers at Yale University in the U.S. found that attitudes toward aging can substantially alter the course of aging. Psychology professor Becca Levy and Dr. Martin…

It turns out people with emotional instability and mood swings report the most vivid sexual fantasies. That’s one conclusion from a study by researchers at Michigan State University (USA). The…

An astonishing finding from Israeli scientists at Reichman University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem shows that a person’s name really affects their appearance. The scientists call this the “face-name…

Who would have guessed—young people think artificial intelligence gives better answers to mental-health questions than psychiatrists. At least, that’s what participants in a study carried out by researchers from the…

Not everyone can sleep through the roar of traffic or someone else’s noise. If you can, consider that a small victory. Researchers Kelly Sansom and Peter Eastwood from Murdoch University…

A new study from a team at University College Cork, part of the National University of Ireland, found that both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee positively change the gut microbiome —…

Researchers at Seven Seas surveyed 2,000 British adults about what age people consider someone to be old. Answers varied by respondent age, but on average respondents said someone becomes “old”…

A study by University of Kansas researchers found that people with chronic pain are more likely than others to smoke tobacco and use electronic cigarettes. They based their conclusions on…

Don’t put off pleasure until the last possible minute. Remember what thrills you, and make an effort to feel that joy again. Any day can become a happy day if…

Maybe you’ve long convinced yourself you absolutely hate small talk — those empty, “about nothing” conversations. But a new study from the University of Michigan says this boring chatter can…

About three percent of people on our planet barely sleep at night and still feel perfectly healthy. How is that possible? Researchers have finally gotten closer to solving this mystery.…

Spring is nettle season. That’s when the young stinging leaves are richest in vitamins, and that’s when people start harvesting them, steeping them, adding them to food, and using them…

Scientists from the International Pediatric Sleep Association, the World Sleep Society, and the University of Copenhagen warn that hotter nights are already disrupting sleep for billions of people. As the…

A new study from linguists and psychologists at the University of Missouri–Kansas City (UMKC) and Arizona State University (ASU) tracks a steady decline in everyday spoken language. They found the…

Overall, people pay little attention to how odor pollution affects health and quality of life. Unpleasant smells are often treated as ordinary and insignificant. Researchers say people value their sense…

Sometimes new species get their names from geography, a beloved grandmother, or even the length of an animal’s tail. But some famous people clearly won the hearts of taxonomists: their…

A team of psychologists at Cornell University says you shouldn’t be ashamed of your mistakes — you should laugh at them. When you laugh at your mistakes, people treat you…

Two studies from leading U.S. research centers — MIT and Stanford — found that AI chatbots regularly give overly agreeable answers. That ingratiating behavior does users more harm than good.…

That’s the conclusion of a team of scientists from Stockholm University in Sweden. In their new study, the researchers found that people who carry the APOE4 variant — a version…

Do you see that woman with bright red lipstick or that guy in the colorful shirt? They’re probably fans of spicy curry. A new study from Nankai University in China…

People looking for romantic relationships can improve their chances if they present themselves the right way in their profile photos. A team of psychologists at the Open University of Catalonia…