ScienceIQ.com

Nothing Backwards About It

Almost anyone who's seen a picture of the experimental X-29 aircraft will remember it. Its unique wings make it one of the most distinctive aircraft designs ever. Rather than sticking straight out or angling back towards the aft of the plane, the wings on the X-29 almost look like they were put on backwards. They start near the tail of the plane, ...

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NothingBackwardsAboutIt
Biology

Let Go, Gecko!

Geckos are small, insect-eating, noisy lizards that live in many parts of the world. While geckos have become common pets, the way that they manage to stick to smooth ceilings has remained a mystery. ... Continue reading

Geckos
Biology

Why Can't We Really Clone Dinosaurs?

You might think, if you saw the movie Jurassic Park, or read the book, that a real live cloned dinosaur would be on the TV evening news any day now. Not very likely! In the fictional version, the ... Continue reading

CloneDinosaurs
Geology

Earthquake Weather?

In the 4th Century B.C., Aristotle proposed that earthquakes were caused by winds trapped in subterranean caves. Small tremors were thought to have been caused by air pushing on the cavern roofs, and ... Continue reading

EarthquakeWeather
Biology

Ergot, Witches & Rye. Oh My!

Did you know that a disease of rye is connected to LSD and witches? Ergot is caused by a fungus that attacks a number of cereal grains, but rye is most severely infected. The healthy grains are ... Continue reading

ErgotWitchesRyeOhMy

Synchronicity

SinchronicityThere's something called synchronicity that we've probably all experienced at one time or another. Some people prefer the term 'meaningful coincidence.' You're thinking about your friend from high school whom you haven't seen in 20 years, and lo and behold she calls you up the next day. Or you hear Larry King use the word propinquity only a few hours after you looked the word up in the dictionary. What do these kinds of meaningful coincidence mean?

One way to look at synchronicity is to see it as a sign that your mind's unusually energized. The idea is simple: the more alert you are and the more actively you're engaged in the world around you, the more things you'll notice and the more likely it is that you'll find patterns, coincidences, and repetitions. If you're depressed, you won't experience much synchronicity in your life. If you're manic, you'll experience lots of it. Carry it too far, as paranoid-schizophrenics do, and you'll experience so much synchronicity that you'll be considered crazy.