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Which Direction Now? Just Ask the North-Facing Map in Your Head
You’re driving from work to pick up your kids at school. The drive is familiar; you’ve done it almost every day for years. But how do you know in which direction the school is from
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How Do You Get Doctors to Wash Their Hands?
Huffington Post: The field of medicine has understood the importance of hand washing for almost 200 years. The Hungarian Ignaz Semmelweis found that when people in an obstetric clinic washed their hands, incidence of infections
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Want to Feel Taller? Become the Boss
Science: French president Nicolas Sarkozy (right) is only 5’5” (1.65 meters), but he might not even be aware of it (although his raised heels speak otherwise). That’s because power makes people feel taller than they
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Tall tales: Powerful people tend to overestimate height
msnbc: In June 2010, the Swedish-born Chairman of BP Carl-Henric Svanberg touched off a firestorm of controversy with his remarks about his company’s reaction to the Gulf oil spill. “… we care about the small
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Meet Your Brain
In December, 2.4 millions viewers watched APS Fellow Bruce Hood deliver the Royal Institution of Great Britain Christmas Lectures. The lectures were started in 1825 and target a teenage audience. They have been delivered by
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Confidence Matters Just as Much as Ability
Huffington Post: A bulk of research shows that when people are put in situations where they are expected to fail, their performance does plummet. They turn into different people. Their head literally shuts down, and