The BrainSnail Blog
Small, practical ideas for learning more with less stress. Study tips, memory tricks and the science of slow and steady.
797 articles · page 4 of 34
Why Do We Get Deja Vu? What the Brain Is Doing in That Moment
Deja vu is a memory alarm going off without a memory. What triggers it, why it is common in the young and in epilepsy, and how a lab produces it.
Why Does the Moon Always Show the Same Face?
The Moon rotates once per orbit, so the same side always faces Earth. How tides locked it in place, what the far side looks like, and why it is not dark.
How Does Film Editing Work? Making an Audience Assemble the Story
Cutting between shots should be jarring and is not, because viewers assemble consecutive images into an event, inferring cause and place.
How Does Sunscreen Work? Filters, Factors and What the Number Means
Sunscreen stops ultraviolet light reaching the skin by absorbing it in molecules or scattering it. What UVA and UVB do, and what SPF measures.
Who Is Quetzalcoatl? The Feathered Serpent of Mesoamerica
Quetzalcoatl was the feathered serpent god of wind, learning and the morning star, worshipped in Mexico for a thousand years. His myths and the Cortes legend.
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.
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.
What Is the Dunning-Kruger Effect? Why Beginners Overrate Themselves
People with little skill in a task tend to overrate their ability, because judging the work needs the skill they lack. What the 1999 study found.
Why Is a Marathon 26.2 Miles? A Legend, a Royal Box and a Committee
The odd distance comes from a Greek legend, a 1908 London course laid out for the royal family, and a 1921 decision to make it standard.
What Is a Blessing? Speech Meant to Accomplish Something
The words are not a description and not quite a request either, since they are uttered in the expectation that saying them does something.
What Was the Bauhaus? The School That Designed the Modern World
The Bauhaus was a German art school that ran for fourteen years and set the look of modern buildings, furniture, type and objects. What it taught.
How Does Pickling Preserve Food? Salt, Acid and the Microbes on Your Side
Pickling keeps food by making it too acidic for the microbes that spoil it, with vinegar or by letting bacteria make the acid. The two methods, and the science.
What Is a Matrix? Grids of Numbers That Rotate, Solve and Rank
A matrix is a grid of numbers that acts on vectors, the machine behind graphics, search rankings and neural networks. How they multiply, and why.
What Is Free Verse? Poetry Without Metre and What Holds It Together
Free verse is poetry that keeps no regular metre or rhyme, and it is the dominant form of the last century. Where it came from, and what holds it together.
How Did Whales Evolve? From Wolf-Sized Walkers to the Largest Animals Ever
Whales are mammals whose ancestors walked on land fifty million years ago, and fossils of every stage on the way back to the sea have been found. The sequence.
What Was Spinosaurus? The Dinosaur That Went Into the Water
Spinosaurus was longer than Tyrannosaurus, carried a sail and a crocodile's snout, and its only skeleton was bombed in 1944. What has been found since.
What Is the Tundra? The Treeless Land at the Top of the World
Tundra is the cold, treeless biome around the Arctic and above the treeline, where summer is too short for trees. What lives there, and why it is changing fast.
How Does Concrete Work? Cement, Water and the Chemistry of Setting
Concrete is the most used material on Earth after water, and it hardens by a reaction that grows crystals, not by drying. What cement is, and why steel goes in.
What Is Hip Hop? Four Elements and the Music That Took Over the World
Hip hop began at Bronx block parties in the 1970s as a culture of DJing, MCing, breaking and graffiti. How rap over beats became the world's dominant pop music.
Who Was Napoleon? From Corsican Officer to Emperor of Europe
Napoleon Bonaparte rose from artillery lieutenant to master of Europe in fifteen years and lost it in three. His rise, his wars, his laws, and the argument.
What Is Negligence? When Carelessness Becomes a Legal Wrong
Negligence is the law's name for harm caused by a failure to take reasonable care. The snail in the ginger beer, and the four things a claimant must prove.
What Is the Milky Way? Our Home Galaxy Seen From the Inside
The Milky Way is the galaxy the Sun belongs to, a disc of a few hundred billion stars. What it is made of, where we sit in it, and how its shape was mapped.
Why Do We Have Blood Types? A, B, O and the Rhesus Factor Explained
Blood types are sugars on the surface of red cells and the antibodies that attack the ones you lack.
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