Humanity Is Gradually Becoming Less Intelligent, Claim Scientists

Scientists sound the alarm: at the end of XIX century, people were much smarter and more creative than they are now. The fault is on the natural selection, since the more intelligent the person is, the fewer children he has, and vice versa.

Every new century humans become less clever and creative. This assumption was made by British scientists who studied the rate of the perception of people of the Victorian era, and the one of our contemporaries.

As the results of the study showed, the rate of general intelligence has been gradually decreasing. Thus, in 1889 the rate of perception in men was 183 milliseconds, while in 2000 it fell to 253 milliseconds. The similar tendency was observed in women – the speed of their perception has dropped from 188 to 261 milliseconds during the same period.

As said by The Telegraph, the diminished reflexes also indicate a decline in overall intelligence quotient (IQ), which is down by 1.23 points every decade, and since 1880 it has fallen by 14 points.

The researchers said they did not directly compare the IQ level of the representatives of different eras since the opportunities in education, medicine, and food of modern people are much better than the ones of previous generations. Though, according to the study authors, the high rate of perception in people of the Victorian era shows that they were more inventive and creative.

Will It Be Possible to Travel to Distant Stars One Day?

Is it possible to get to extrasolar planetary systems faster than the speed of light? Harold White claims that it is. With his team at NASA, he manufactures a superluminal engine for interstellar travel. For example, such a vessel would arrive in just 2 weeks to the system of Alpha Centauri, which is 4 light years from the Sun.

White’s research is an effort to continue and expand the idea of the Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre, which had caused heated debates in the scientific world in 1994. The scientist suggested that the space should “shrink” in front of the spacecraft and expand behind it. The spaceship should behave as if placed inside a “bubble” of the deformed space and

Do Near-Death Experiences Prove That Consciousness Exists Outside the Brain?

Resuscitation specialist Sam Parnia continues to darken already murky waters of thanatology, by offering his colleagues to carefully examine stories of people returned from the dead. In his view, which will be fully supported by any competent philosopher, these stories shed light on the nature of human consciousness.

“Consciousness does not disappear at death. There is no such discrete point in time. Death is a process,” he claims.

In the middle of the XX century, with the discovery of methods of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the study of death has entered a new phase. Initially capable of resuscitating a person within few minutes after clinical death, now people who “died” more than half an hour ago

How High-Tech Revolution Can Be Detrimental to Humankind

According to a team of philosophers, mathematicians and scientists from Oxford University, who are exploring the future of humanity, there is growing evidence that our reliance on technology can cause elimination of human race.

The media is actively discussing a range of possible disasters that can destroy humanity, but the most “obvious” threats, which include asteroids, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are unlikely to ruin the world’s population in the near future.

This is the opinion of Nick Bostrom, a philosopher and director of the University of the future of humanity, who, together with his colleagues, is trying to determine the actual causes of destruction for mankind.

In their last publication, the experts are pointing out that people are capable of destroying themselves through their technology.

What Is Love According to Science, Philosophy and Religion?

The most popular Google search of last year was the question: “What is Love?” And the Guardian newspaper asked five “experts” to answer it.

A physicist, a psychotherapist, a philosopher, an author of romantic novels and a nun gave their answer to the question about Love, from their personal perspective of the subject.

The Physicist

“Love is chemistry” (Answers Jim Al-Khalili, theoretical physicist and writer).

Biologically, Love is an intense neurological condition, such as hunger or thirst, but more permanent. We say that love is blind or we talk about love being blind or unconditional, meaning that we cannot control it. But again, this is not particularly surprising, since Love, is basically

Can the Human Soul Be Weighed?

The book “The Lost Symbol” by Dan Brown contains a chapter on some amazing experiments. According to the author, our soul is a material substance which can exist outside the body and can have weight. Therefore, it can be weighed. One of the characters in the book, Katherine Solomon, was able to weigh human soul. She placed a dying man (he had donated his body for scientific purposes) in an air-tight capsule, fitted with very sensitive micro weight detectors. While the man was alive, the scales showed a figure of 51, 4,534,644 kilograms. And after the old man’s death, the micro scales showed a decrease in the body weight. Brown does not specify this difference as a number, but makes a general comment: “This difference, though microscopic, is quite measurable.” This experiment allowed Brown to stipulate that the human soul does exist.

Dr. Duncan MacDougall from Haverhill (Massachusetts, USA), was the first scientist to conduct this kind of experiment in 1906, as reported by the New York Times on March 7, 1907. McDougall “detected” the change in the body weight when the person had died. The measurements were performed on a special bed, which was also a gigantic scale with high precision, and have shown that the “soul”

What Would Your Life Be Like with No Internet?

American scientists led by Richard Novatson conducted quite an interesting, but also relevant study which involved 4,000 people (50%-50% of men and women) who were directly connected with the Internet activity, and also spent a lot of time on social networks and other online services.

So, the question was: what would you do if Internet access was forbidden in your country?

The results surprised the scientists. About 67% of people would

10 Mind-Blowing Theories That Will Change Your Perception of the World

Reality is not as obvious and simple, as we like to think. Some of the things that we accept as true at face value are notoriously wrong. Scientists and philosophers have made every effort to change our common perceptions of it. The 10 examples below will show you what I mean.

1. Great glaciation.

Great glaciation is the theory of the final state that our universe is heading toward. The universe has a limited supply of energy. According to this theory, when that energy finally runs out, the universe will devolve into a frozen state. Heat energy produced by the motion of the particles, heat loss, a natural law of the universe, means that eventually this particle motion will slow down and, presumably, one day everything will stop.

Most Incredible and Mysterious People with Superpowers

Some people are really unique due to their incredible and mysterious superpowers.

1. Human Computer

Daniel Tammet from UK suffers from autism, hardly speaks, does not distinguish between left and right, can not insert the plug into the outlet, but easily performs in his mind complex mathematical calculations.

8 Simple Steps to Boost Your Self-Confidence

Self-confidence is not there from birth. It depends on how you were raised, as well as on how you interpret the events taking place around you.

People who believe in themselves can be responsible for their actions, take a reasoned criticism and learn from their mistakes.

However, self-confidence is never too late to be developed. There are a number of steps to help boost self-confidence. Here they are:

Make peace with yourself

The first and most important step is to make peace with yourself. You should not blame yourself for the fact that you have lack of self-confidence. Once you accept yourself for who you are,