10 things science still hasn’t figured out about you

 Posted by on 8 August 2009  Modern Life
Aug 082009
 

While there’s lots to learn about the human body and mind, some of the things that science can’t fully explain are surprisingly commonplace. From kissing to blushing to pubic hair, New Scientist has rouded up 10 human mysteries that we just can’t solve yet. Of course, there are some interesting speculations:

Dreams

One idea is that REM dreams allow us to relive powerful emotional memories, but without the rush of stress hormones that accompanied the real experience. In this way, we keep the memory but the emotion accompanying it gradually lessens.

REM dreaming also helps other types of memory and problem solving. People are better able to recall lists of related words and the connections between them after a night’s sleep than after the same time spent awake during the day.

Grant Hamilton

  • http://www.absurdintellectual.com Amy Breen

    I’ve heard that about dreams before. It’s like our brains are working on memory and problem solving while we sleep, but it comes out in such bizarre ways you wouldn’t even know it.

  • http://www.absurdintellectual.com Amy Breen

    Oh, and I just looked at the list, and the altruistic one caught my eye. No, it doesn’t make evolutionary sense if we were fighting to be the dominant species, but what if it’s something that developed *after* we came out on top? Same with blushing or kissing, they were all social adaptions instead of biological?