Negative emotions that are evoked by past memories can be removed, according to new research from the University of Amsterdam. Dr Merel Kindt discovered that administering a beta-blocker called propanolol while patients were thinking of a negative emotion caused the emotion to disappear when the memory was recalled later. The principle behind it is called […]

How many times in history have people claimed God to be on their side? A recent study by Nicholas Epley at the university of Chicago might explain why. He asked Christian volunteers their views on a series of controversial topics, such as the death penalty and abortion. They were then asked what they thought the […]

Chocolate activates a part of the brain that blunts pain and makes it difficult to stop eating. A study by the University of Chicago gave rats chocolate chips to eat while a heat source under their cage warmed its floor. Normally this would cause them to lift their paws, but while they ate their pain […]

In 1983 an experiment by Benjamin Libet seemed to indicate that our unconscious was responsible for behaviour that we attributed to our own free will. This isn’t something that we as humans take kindly to – after all, you’re in charge of your decisions, aren’t you? His experiment seemed to say no, so it will […]

In one of his last speeches John F Kennedy spoke about how Frank O’Connor the Irish writer, spoke in one of his books, how, as a boy, he and his friends would make their way across the countryside, and when they came to an orchard wall that seemed too high and too doubtful to try […]

In a fascinating article you can read in full by clicking on the link at the end of this blog Sharon Begley relates some recent research that shows that, despite it being six million years since apes and humans split from our common ancestor, they are still able to understand our emotional expressions. even more […]