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Efforts to comprehend the universe were once the preserve of art, philosophy and religion. Tom Chatfield reviews a book that considers the lives of nascent scientists ...  read more »

Funerals for medical cadavers have become increasingly common of late. Natasha Lennard investigates the practice ...  read more »

Plenty of today’s scientific theories will one day be discredited. So should we be sceptical of science itself? Anthony Gottlieb explains ...  read more »

Steve Jones, an award-winning writer and broadcaster on evolution, talks to Rebecca Willis about the seven wonders of his world ...  read more »

Studies suggest that many people cannot be the child of the man they know as their father. Now they can get a paternity test over the counter. Catherine Nixey talks to a man who took one ...  read more »

Ed Smith had a theory that sprinters—like greyhounds and racehorses—were not getting any faster. But then came Bolt ...  read more »

Thanks to Lexington for highlighting this article about the relationship between pain and cursing. According to a study published in the current issue of NeuroReport, swearing helps to alleviate pain:

"Swearing has been around for centuries and is an almost universal human linguistic phenomenon," said Richard Stephens of Keele University in England and one of the authors of the new study. "It taps into emotional brain centers and appears to arise in the right brain, whereas most language production occurs in the left cerebral hemisphere of the brain."

Stephens and his fellow researchers proved the neurological efficacy of swearing with the help of 64 undergraduate volunteers. Amusingly, these undergraduates (lured with pocket-change, surely) had to submerge their hands in a tub of ice water for as long as possible while repeating a swear word of their choice; they then repeated the experiment without cursing. (It's hard not to giggle at the image of men in labcoats with clipboards monitoring the blue-mouthed pain of financially insolvent students.) When volunteers swore like sailors, they could keep their hands in the frigid water for longer.  read more »

How much energy do we consume? Does it matter? Robert Butler considers the numbers in his latest Going Green column ...  read more »

Over 60 years, Tony Allison has made two major breakthroughs. Laura Spinney meets a scientist who should be better known ...  read more »

TURNER, JEROME ROBBINS, AND THE EYES HAVE IT, TWICE | July 23rd 2008

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Special to MORE INTELLIGENT LIFE

Our guide to what's on around the world, compiled by Jessica Gallucci and Ariel Ramchandani  read more »