Do you really know?

A time optimist is someone who is overly optimistic about how much time they have to do something, and therefore often ends up being late or missing deadlines. They tend to underestimate how long tasks will take, overestimate how much they can accomplish in a given period, and ignore potential delays or interruptions. They may also have a distorted perception of time, losing track of how fast it p...

You know the feeling: you’re running, cycling, or doing some other physical activity, and suddenly you feel a sharp pain in your side, just below your chest. It’s like someone is stabbing you with a needle, and it makes you want to stop and catch your breath. Although there is no precise definition of exactly what a stitch is, everyone knows how to recognise it. This pain, which often prevents you...

A matcha in hand… a tote bag slung over the shoulder… black nail polish neatly applied… a carefully styled mullet… and a copy of Sally Rooney peeking from his back pocket. That’s the look of the so-called performative man. In the past few weeks, this character has turned into a full-blown meme, with videos racking up millions of views. On the surface, he checks all the boxes of a deconstructed man...

Cooking is a passion and hobby for a lot of people. They scour Pinterest for hours to pick the best recipe, dice their ingredients finely, let the food cook gently and even reuse leftovers in inventive ways. But for others, cooking is a hassle and a bother. Grocery shopping, the cooking itself and cleaning up all seems like a lot of effort. But maybe those people don't appreciate how cooking can a...

Have you ever heard ot the stairs test? Experts say it’s an excellent gauge of a person’s overall health. The idea is to run up as many flights of stairs as your body allows you to. If you can’t manage two flights at a brisk pace, you may need to consider lifestyle changes to improve your health. Meanwhile if you can climb eight or more, the chances are you’re in excellent health already. But beyo...

How many times have you come across expired pills in your medicine cabinet and wondered  whether they we still safe to use? It’s pretty common, and often we consider using the medicine anyway, because we don’t have a prescription to get more, for example, or simply don’t want to waste what we already have. In early 2022, Censuswide conducted a survey on behalf of online pharmacist Chemist4U. It fo...

It’s been labelled a “marvel of engineering” and a “miracle of convenience” by Harvard Health Publishing. Data published by Statista in July 2022 showed that in 2018, 93% of UK households owned a microwave, a figure which had risen from 67% when the survey started back in 1994. But still some doubts persist about whether microwaving food is bad for your health. Some people even say they cause canc...

There are plenty of ways to get the attention of someone you're crushing on. It might come very naturally to some, but for others, flirting can be an intimidating proposition. Have you ever wondered if someone is flirting with you, because of their somewhat ambiguous approach? Well, they may have been micro-flirting, a technique that dating experts say is used by shy men in particular. And there a...

After the emergence of ‘quiet quitting’, it's now the turn of quiet hiring. And although the term is relatively new, the practice is not. The term "quiet hiring" first appeared in the report "9 Future of Work Trends for 2023" published at the end of 2022 by Emily McRae, a philosophy professor in New Mexico, USA.  She explains that this phenomenon follows on from the quiet quitting craze that emerg...

There’s a lot of popular ideas out there about body hair removal. Shave too much and the hair becomes thicker. Wax, and it will gradually start thinning out. It can be hard to know who or what to believe. Both women and men increasingly spend a lot of their time and money removing body hair, even though it acts as a barrier to bacteria, and sexually transmitted diseases in the case of pubic hair....

Polish-American man Leo Gerstenzang is credited with inventing the humble cotton bud in the 1920s, an item which has since gone on to be used for many different purposes, having originally been thought up as a baby hygiene product. Yougov research from 2019 found that 62% of Brits use cotton buds to clean their ears, and 22% of us only use them for that purpose. That’s particularly true for men, g...

We’ve all got fears. For some, it’s the dark, for others, it’s spiders, heights, or maybe even something as ordinary as a phone call. But when those fears take root and are no longer reasonable; when they take over, that’s when they cross into the territory of phobias. Phobias remind us that our brains, for all their brilliance, aren’t always working in our favor and are flawed. According to a sur...

Fear of the dark is very common for children and usually starts between the ages of 5 and 10. At this age, children become more aware of the dangers around them. However, they often have difficulty correctly assessing just how real these dangers are. Usually, this fear disappears naturally as children gain confidence and grow up, but in rarer cases it may persist into adulthood. Principally, it is...

Halloween is here and if you’re anything like us, you’ll be frantically doing some last-minute pumpkin carving or stocking up on sweets for trick-or-treaters. Maybe you’re going to a Halloween party dressed up as a ghost, witch or any other kind of spooky creature. But have you ever wondered where all these quirky customs came from? While Halloween seems like a very modern celebration, its origins...

In November 2023, a spooky makeup trend took TikTok by storm. Users posted images of themselves with full-coverage, pale foundation for a ghostly vibe, intense grey contouring, hidden eyebrows, and pencil-altered lips. The aim behind those creative efforts was actually to resemble humanoid creatures, and elicit a particular reaction known as “uncanny valley” from viewers. And the trend garnered a...

Ghost stories told around a camp fire, visiting a haunted house or watching a scary film are all common Halloween activities. We clearly enjoy scaring each-other and feeling scared, even though it seems completely counter intuitive. There are a number of reasons for this, which we'll explore in the episode. Fear is an emotional response to danger, both real or perceived. Our body releases a mixtur...

It's not uncommon for sparks to fly in unexpected ways during intimate moments; sometimes literally! You’ve most likely gone in to kiss someone only to get a small shock when your lips touch. You may have also noticed it tends to happen more often in winter. Have you ever wondered what actually causes these jolts of electricity between couples? Let’s unravel the science behind the mystery. Isn’t i...

In economic terms, a speculative bubble refers to a situation in which the price of an asset becomes heavily overvalued. An asset could be anything from company shares and property to cryptocurrencies. But eventually, reality catches up. Investors begin to realise the asset isn’t actually worth as much as they thought, confidence fades, and many rush to sell. When everyone sells at once, prices co...

According to the NHS, approximately 1,600 babies are born every day in the United Kingdom. But what often goes unspoken are the nine months leading up to this event—the periods of anxiety, doubt, and self-discovery that mothers inevitably experience.  A study published in Evolution, Medicine & Public Health journal in April 2023, found that 62% of women grapple with a panic-inducing fear of pregna...

We've all experienced that strange sensation of stepping out of the bath or swimming pool, and noticing grooves which have formed on the tips of our fingers. Have you ever wondered why that happens? It's not just because our skin absorbs water and swells up, as you might think. It's actually also down to our nervous system being at work, causing our blood vessels to constrict. So, what's happening...

In this day and age, it’s common to feel stressed every day, even right through to the evening. Have you ever struggled to lower your stress levels when it comes to bedtime, and taken a long while to fall asleep as a result? The worry of not getting enough sleep then just gets you even more frustrated; it’s a vicious circle. If you’re falling victim to anxiety and fatigue for that reason, it’s tim...

Who are the Red Hot Chili Peppers? With their new album Unlimited Love having been released on 1st April, let’s talk about the famous Californian funk rock group. The band has cited many influences, and they have been associated with a number of musical genres, including funk rock, alternative rock and rap rock. The Red Hot Chili Peppers unique style is precisely one of their distinctive character...

As the sun sets on this rainy Sunday evening, reality sinks in. You didn't quite muster the energy to venture out, and now it's back to the grindstone. Tomorrow's Monday, signalling the return to work, and with it, a familiar wave of anxiety known as Monday morning syndrome, or the Monday blues.  It's not officially recognised by the medical community, but many people identify with those feelings....

What are the latest advances in lung cancer treatment? In April 2022, findings from the large scale CheckMate 816 clinical trial were presented to the American Association for Cancer Research. The trial looked into the effectiveness of immunotherapy drug Nivolumab, combined with chemotherapy to treat lung cancer patients. The findings were promising, showing that this particular treatment combinat...

You’re no doubt familiar with IKEA as the king of flatpack furniture. But you may not be aware that the Swedish company’s name is also associated with a cognitive bias. It’s all to do with how we assign greater value to objects when we make or assemble them ourselves. Now that might seem counterintuitive but it’s become an established marketing tactic over the years. What was their evidence? Why o...