A dozen travelers gather around Martin Schaffner’s 16th-century painting “Christ in Limbo,” and take a deep breath. Thanks to hand-held scent diffusers these tourists are getting a whiff of smoke and sulfur to evoke the fiery gates of hell depicted in the Renaissance artwork. It’s all part of a “Follow Your Nose” tour at Museum Ulm, in […]

A confession, first: I love clutter. The horizontal surfaces in my family room are covered with newspapers, magazines, books I’ve started, books I intend to read, books I want to read but never will, erasable pens, a sweatshirt or two, a soccer ball, a bucket of toy cars, and wayward Legos that gouge my stockinged

One of my greatest pleasures is to be what the French call a “flâneur”—someone who wanders randomly through a big city, stumbling on new scenes. The flâneur has a long and honored literary history. The surrealists used to choose a Paris streetcar at random, ride to the end of the line and then walk around.

The holidays are a time for joy and togetherness, but for many they can also spur feelings of loneliness. There aren’t comprehensive statistics for how many people feel starved for connection this time of year, but there are clues: A 2017 AARP survey, for instance, found that 31 percent of adults aged 18 and older have

To find mirth in the world is to be human. No culture is unfamiliar with humor, according to Joseph Polimeni, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Manitoba. For someone who analyzes humor, Polimeni tells me he’s still surprised by its complexity: How words and phrases and jokes have different meanings to everyone, but we

In early 2021 emergency room physician Torree McGowan hoped the worst of the pandemic was behind her. She and her colleagues had adapted to the COVID-causing virus, donning layers of protection before seeing each patient, but they’d managed to keep things running smoothly. The central Oregon region where McGowan lived—a high desert plateau ringed by

The title of “How Do We Know Ourselves? Curiosities and Marvels of the Human Mind” suggests that Hope College psychologist David Myers will, in this brief book, focus primarily on the process of self-discovery. But a better title might have been “How Well Do We Know Ourselves?” The answer that emerges, over 40 charming and clear-eyed chapters

The Matilda White Riley Early Stage Investigator Paper Competition recognizes emerging scientists whose research reflect Dr. Matilda White Riley’s vision of research excellence in health-related behavioral and social sciences.

Photo above: Neuroscientist Jessica Cantlon, one of four 2022–2023 James McKeen Cattell Fund Fellowship recipients, explains a math game to a participant. Photo credit: Carnegie Mellon University The James McKeen Cattell Fund has recognized psychological scientists APS Fellow Kenneth Bollen, APS Fellow Jessica Cantlon, Kevin Myers, and APS Fellow Kristin Shutts as recipients of its

The monkey in the popular animated American series Curious George has been a subject of debate worldwide – many believe the monkey has a tail; however, it actually does not. Those who believed the monkey had a tail say they saw him with a dangling tail hanging from trees. Tails are distinctive characteristics of monkeys,