A new study conducted on nuns has concluded that no individual part of the brain is responsible for religious experiences. Instead, the Montreal based experiment suggests that around a dozen separate areas are involved. It must, however, be noted that brain activity was not recorded during an actual religious experience, but only with the subjects trying to relive previous ones.
Our bodies are built to gain weight
Apparently, “our bodies have strong mechanisms to defend attempts to lose weight but very weak mechanisms to prevent weight gain”. Which kind of makes sense. The EurekAlert! post is here
Thera eruption twice the size previously thought
The volcanic eruption at the Greek island Thera that is the leading candidate for the demise of the Minoan civilization as well as one of the more probable sources of the Atlantis story was twice as powerful as was previously thought, or so yesterday’s National Geographic article reports.
Space station to expand
Now that the shuttle programme is more or less back on the tracks, it has the remaining three and a half years left to service the ISS before shuttles are retired in 2010. This means that the next years will see a large number of shuttle launches, between 15 and 18, aiming to expand the station threefold, as well as possibly maintenancing the Hubble Space Telescope.
The end is nigh
According to Yisrayl Hawkins (link to Youtube), the world will end in a couple of weeks time, or more accurately, September 12, 2006. I especially enjoy the way Hawkins delivers his message, reminding me of someone delivering the weather forecast.
Meanwhile, the skeptical folks at Boing Boing have already started to predict what Hawkins will say on September 13.
