Why people enjoy alcohol or are teetotal may come down to a hormone
9 December 2020
Whether you are a happy carouser or a small-time tippler could depend on a hormone produced by your liver that tells your brain to stop boozing
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Premium
Physics might create a backdoor to an afterlife – but don't bank on it
9 December 2020
Quantum information can never be destroyed, so some of the essence of you could live on after death – but it’s not going to help the physical you
If the multiverse exists, are there infinite copies of me?
9 December 2020
According to the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, the universe is constantly dividing and taking you with it – so would you recognise your other selves if you met them?
Why we’re in tune with our emotions – but suck at judging our smarts
9 December 2020
“Know thyself” is a piece of wisdom handed down from the ancients – but a slew of delusions and biases means you might be better off asking someone else
If we can't change the world, does anything we do matter?
9 December 2020
It’s easy to be disheartened by the puniness of our existence – yet perhaps for the first time in human history, everything depends on decisions each one of us makes
Do we have free will or are all our decisions predetermined?
9 December 2020
According to the laws of physics, everything we do follows inevitably from what happened before – and yet we’re convinced we can change the world. Can we?
Why it’s the aliens living inside you that create your sense of you
9 December 2020
Foreign cells within our bodies help determine our mental states and even contribute to our immune defences – making it tricky to define where you end and the others begin
You are not one person: Why your sense of self must be an illusion
9 December 2020
We have a strong sense of continuous, coherent existence – yet from the cells that make our bodies to our defining character traits, we are in a constant state of change
Think your sense of self is located in your brain? Think again
9 December 2020
Most of us instinctively think that our sense of self is located in our head – but experiments show that our brains aren’t working alone in creating our sense of self
How nature, nurture and sheer randomness combine to make a unique you
9 December 2020
We’re slowly beginning to unpick the complex interplay of genes, environment and experience that make you who you are – and like no one else who ever existed
