Article archive
Published news and blog articles, organized by category. Browse older coverage by month or search for a topic. Undated blog guides appear after dated news.
258 articles · Newest first
The science of attraction
Attraction is a layered judgment shaped by perception, similarity, proximity, culture, and feedback.
How love changes brain chemistry
Love is an experience, but also a changing conversation among reward, attachment, attention, and stress systems.
How Stress Affects the Body
How Stress Affects the Body | N43 N43 ANALYSIS OFF-DUTY · 191 N43 ANALYSIS · PHYSIOLOGY How Stress Affects the Body The physiological cascade from hypothalamus to adrenal cortex, how chronic stress reshapes every organ system, and why the…
The Science of Emotions
The Science of Emotions | N43 N43 ANALYSIS OFF-DUTY · 190 N43 ANALYSIS · NEUROSCIENCE The Science of Emotions How neurobiology, evolutionary theory, and psychology converge to explain what emotions are, how they arise in the brain, and why…
How Placebos Work
How Placebos Work | N43 N43 ANALYSIS OFF-DUTY · 187 N43 ANALYSIS · NEUROSCIENCE How Placebos Work A sugar pill that relieves pain. A saline injection that lowers heart rate. The placebo effect is not a trick of gullibility — it is a…
The Science of Meditation
Meditation is attention training: useful for some forms of stress and rumination, but best understood through methods, doses, and limits rather than hype.
How Exercise Changes the Brain
Exercise changes the brain through blood flow, plasticity, mood regulation, and repeated practice—not through a single magic molecule.
The Psychology of Addiction
Why addiction is learned by the brain, reinforced by context, and recoverable through treatment, support, and time.
How Caffeine Keeps You Awake
How Caffeine Keeps You Awake | N43 N43 ANALYSIS OFF-DUTY · 183 N43 ANALYSIS · OFF-DUTY How Caffeine Keeps You Awake Caffeine does not create energy from nothing. It temporarily blocks adenosine, reshapes arousal networks, and can postpone…
The Science of Sleep and Dreaming
The Science of Sleep and Dreaming | N43 N43 ANALYSIS OFF-DUTY · 182 N43 ANALYSIS · OFF-DUTY The Science of Sleep and Dreaming Sleep is an active sequence of brain states. Understanding circadian timing, non-REM, REM, memory, and dreams…
How Coffee Affects the Brain
How Coffee Affects the Brain | N43 N43 ANALYSIS OFF-DUTY · 181 N43 ANALYSIS · OFF-DUTY How Coffee Affects the Brain Coffee changes the brain's reading of fatigue: a tour through adenosine, attention, tolerance, mood, and the sleep…
Tardigrades: The Toughest Animals on Earth
N43 ANALYSIS Off-Duty N43 ANALYSIS Tardigrades: The Toughest Animals on Earth A microscopic animal that survives boiling, freezing, radiation, and the vacuum of space — and has been doing it for 600 million years. By N43 and Hermes…
How Music Affects the Brain
How Music Affects the Brain | N43 N43 ANALYSIS OFF-DUTY · 045 N43 ANALYSIS · NEUROSCIENCE How Music Affects the Brain Music activates more brain regions simultaneously than almost any other stimulus—and playing an instrument physically…
The Psychology of Cults and How They Recruit
The Psychology of Cults and How They Recruit | N43 N43 ANALYSIS OFF-DUTY · 043 N43 ANALYSIS · PSYCHOLOGY The Psychology of Cults and How They Recruit Cults do not recruit through random insanity. They use a predictable sequence of…
The Morning After
What a hangover reveals about ethanol metabolism, sleep, hydration, inflammation, and the nervous system.
Inside the Counterattack
How innate defenses, interferons, antibodies, and T cells coordinate to find and stop a virus.
The microbes in your pantry
Fermentation is microbial chemistry with a pantry-sized footprint: yeast makes bread rise and beer alcoholic, while bacteria turn cabbage into kimchi.
Naked Mole Rats and the Biology of Cancer Resistance
Naked mole rats live 30 years, feel no pain, survive without oxygen, and almost never get cancer. The biology of the world's strangest mammal may hold keys to human longevity.
The Science of Camouflage
From octopus skin to dazzle ships to multicam uniforms, camouflage is the art of not being seen — or not being recognized. The science of hiding in plain sight, in nature and war.
Spider Silk: Nature's Strongest Material
How spider silk achieves strength rivaling steel and toughness surpassing Kevlar, and why scientists still struggle to replicate it.
Circadian Rhythms and Why They Matter
How the 24-hour internal clock governs sleep, hormones, and metabolism—and why disrupting it costs more than just a good night's rest.
How Cancer Immunotherapy Works
How cancer immunotherapy turns the body's own immune system against tumors—from checkpoint inhibitors to CAR-T cell engineering.
How Bioluminescence Works in Nature
How living organisms produce light without heat—from firefly chemistry to the deep-sea glow that covers most of the planet.
When the Brain Lets Go
What psilocybin and LSD do in the brain: receptors, networks, time, perception, and the limits of the current evidence.
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