In the Beginning All human beings begin life as a fertilized egg, called a zygote, which is a single cell about one-fifth the size of the period at the end of this sentence. By adulthood, the human body has grown to more than a hundred trillion cells, most of which are highly specialized for particular…
How Do We Learn Language? Most new moms and dads know a lot about language acquisition because they witness it first-hand. They can tell you that babies start to babble around six to ten months of age, and that not long afterward they say a few words like “no” or “uh-oh.” At around two years,…
Introduction: Piaget and His Ideas A young child passes a fence with a cow standing nearby and gleefully exclaims: “Dog!” Another child examines a row of seven checkers. When the seven checkers are spread out to form a longer row, the child claims that there are now “more” checkers. Children have very different ideas about…
I just spent several days talking with scientists and lecturing in Australia. The summer months (our winter months) are a wonderful time to travel Down Under. The cities are lively, the sun is out, and people are in cheerful mood—which is amplified just a little more in Australia than I most places in the world.…
When it comes to what you bite, chew and swallow, your choices have a direct and long-lasting effect on the most powerful organ in your body: your brain. So which foods cause you to feel so tired after lunch? Or so restless at night? Mia Nacamulli takes you into the brain to find out. Looking…
We have reported before about how important sleep is for good brain function and long-term cognitive health, as well as some proven ways to improve your sleep. But what happens when your brain doesn’t sleep? Here is a fun, in-depth infographic from .Mic to break it down for you. (To enlarge the image and read…
