The BrainSnail Blog
Small, practical ideas for learning more with less stress. Study tips, memory tricks and the science of slow and steady.
846 articles · page 11 of 36
What Was the Bronze Age Collapse? When Every Great Power Fell at Once
Around 1200 BCE the palaces of Greece, the Hittite empire and the cities of the Levant burned within a generation, writing vanished and trade stopped.
What Is Open Source Software? Code Anyone Can Read, Change and Share
Open source software is published with its source code and a licence letting anyone use, alter and pass it on.
What Is Pi and Why Does It Turn Up Everywhere?
Pi is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, about 3.14159, and it goes on forever without repeating.
What Is the Prisoner's Dilemma? Why Rational People Fail to Cooperate
Two suspects, each better off confessing whatever the other does, both end up worse than if they had stayed silent.
What Is the Blues? Twelve Bars That Built Popular Music
The blues is a form, a scale and a feeling that came out of the American South around 1900. How the twelve-bar pattern works.
What Is Abstract Art? Painting That Stopped Pretending to Be a Window
Abstract art does not depict recognisable things. Where it came from around 1910, what its makers thought they were doing.
What Happens in the Brain When You Sleep?
Sleep is not the brain switching off. It cycles through distinct stages every ninety minutes, files the day's memories, clears waste and.
What Are the Noble Gases? The Elements That Refuse to React
Helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radon barely combine with anything. Why a full outer shell makes them inert, how they were found.
How the Aztec Empire Rose and Fell in Under Two Centuries
The Mexica built a city on a lake, an empire of tribute across central Mexico, and a capital larger than any in Europe, then lost it all in two years.
What Is Flow? The Psychology of Being Completely Absorbed
Flow is the state of total absorption in a task that is hard but manageable. Who named it, what the conditions are, what it does to your sense of time.
What Is Periodisation in Training? Planning the Year, Not the Session
Athletes do not train the same way every week. How a season is divided into phases, why volume and intensity trade places.
What Were the First Mammals? Two Hundred Million Years in the Shadows
Mammals appeared alongside the first dinosaurs, not after them, and spent their first 150 million years small and mostly nocturnal.
How Do Animals See Colour? Dogs, Bees, Birds and the Mantis Shrimp
Colour vision depends on how many kinds of light-sensing cell an eye has. Why dogs see fewer colours than we do, why birds and bees see more.
What Is Shabbat? The Jewish Day of Rest Explained
From Friday sunset to Saturday nightfall, Jewish life stops work and turns to meals, prayer and family.
What Is Defamation? Libel, Slander and the Defences That Matter
Defamation is a false statement that damages someone's reputation. Where the line falls between fact and opinion, what a claimant has to prove.
What Is a Neutron Star? A Sun Squeezed Into a City
A neutron star packs more than the Sun's mass into a ball twenty kilometres across. How it forms, what its matter is like.
What Is a Symphony? How a Four-Movement Form Took Over the Concert Hall
A symphony is a large work for orchestra in several movements. How the form grew from Italian overtures, what each movement does.
How Do Computers Store Images? Pixels, Bytes and Compression
A photo is a grid of numbers, three per dot. Why a phone picture would be 36 megabytes without compression, how JPEG throws detail away.
Why Does Cheese Melt, and Why Do Some Cheeses Refuse To?
Cheese melts when its protein net loosens and its fat liquefies. Why mozzarella stretches, why aged cheddar splits, why halloumi holds its shape.
What Is the Difference Between Rugby Union and Rugby League?
Two sports with one ancestor and a split in 1895 over paying players. Fifteen against thirteen, rucks against tackle counts.
Why Do Birds Sing? Territory, Mates and a Learned Skill
Birdsong claims ground, attracts a mate and, in songbirds, has to be learned from adults like a language.
What Is Zen Buddhism? Sitting, Koans and the Point of Not Explaining
Zen is the school of Buddhism that puts direct experience before scripture. Where it came from, what happens in the meditation hall.
How Do Appeals Work? What a Higher Court Can and Cannot Change
An appeal is not a second trial. Which mistakes a higher court will correct, why new evidence is rarely allowed, what the outcomes are.
What Are Exoplanets and How Are They Found?
Thousands of planets are now known around other stars. How astronomers detect worlds they cannot see, what kinds have turned up, and where the nearest ones are.
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