EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY Are Today’s Youth Really More Narcissistic? Key Takeaway: A recent study examining narcissism in youth found that all three dimensions of the trait declined across the lifespan. The decline was attributed to changing social roles throughout life, such as assuming significant responsibilities and taking on significant responsibilities. However, some individuals may still be more narcissistic than others, and age alone doesn’t […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE Secrets Of The Queen Bee Key Takeaway: Bees, including honey bees, are important pollinators of many crops and plants. However, most bees do not have queens, and most live without them. Instead, a single female lays eggs in a simple nest, providing pollen and nectar. Bees have a social structure with thousands of workers who support the queen. Bee queens […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE Is Insomnia Actually Bad? Key Takeaway: Insomnia, a major health issue, affects around a third of people, with women and older individuals more affected. Sleep deprivation can lead to increased risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and mental illness. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the risk of insomnia, which has led to a rise in mental health […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK Why Are Most Robots White In Colour? Key Takeaway: Racial and gender bias in artificial intelligence algorithms and language models has been a concern in social robots, which are designed to interact with diverse groups of people. Socially assistive robotics aims to create machines that will help people help themselves, but these robots often do not reflect basic aspects of society’s diversity. […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN EDITOR'S PICK The Secret Recipe Of Studio Ghibli Movies Key Takeaway: Studio Ghibli, a Japanese animation studio, has been a global phenomenon since 1985, with its debut feature Laputa: Castle in the Sky. The studio gained international recognition with the releases of Princess Mononoke (1997) and Spirited Away (2001), which won the Academy Award for best animated feature. The founders, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY The Philosophy Of Parenthood Key Takeaway: Anti-natalism is a philosophical view that it is ethically wrong to bring anyone else into being, focusing on worries about suffering and choice. It is not an exclusively modern attitude, but it is based on ancient Greek playwright Sophocles’ belief that life contains far more suffering than good. Contemporary arguments focus on the […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE What Animals Can Teach Us About Attraction Key Takeaway: A new study from Florida State University suggests that female animals learn from other females to prefer distinctive males as mates. Sexual selection involves the evolution of traits such as the long, elaborate tail of the peacock, which have evolved to enhance an animal’s chance of attracting a mate, rather than to enhance […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY The Concept Of Beauty In The Middle Ages Key Takeaway: Standards of beauty have been embedded in different cultures since time immemorial, often based on binary notions of idealised forms of femininity or masculinity. Eleanor Janega’s book explores medieval women’s social roles to consider the ways that women’s roles have and haven’t changed. Religious women in the middle ages used weaponised beauty to […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE How Ants Could Inspire Solutions For Human Problems Key Takeaways: There may be new wisdom to gain from what scientists have learned about ants’ biology. Ant farmers face many of the same challenges as human farmers do, including the threat of pests. Ant pesticides are produced by bacteria they allow to grow in their nests, and in some cases even on their bodies. […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY The Biggest Lessons From Social Psychology Last spring, I took a class on social psychology. It was one of the most useful classes I’ve ever taken, so I figured I’d share some of the more interesting findings. Each paragraph has a citation to its right so you can get more information or read the original study. 1. Reciprocity has a strong […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Future Merging Of Mind And Machine Key Takeaway: Brain-computer interface (BCI) technology is rapidly redefining human potential, with breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and machine learning enabling the translation of thoughts into action. The brain is a complex network of over 80 billion neurons, processing thoughts, memories, emotions, and sensory inputs. Advances in AI, miniaturized electronics, and neuroimaging have led to the […] Written by Empirics Asia April 16, 2025April 16, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Hard Problem Of A.I. Key Takeaway: AI systems are often portrayed as human, but they are not sentient, conscious, or feeling. They lack the interoceptive feedback that shapes human cognition and are not able to understand the content they produce. This disconnect creates a gulf between real consciousness and synthetic simulation. The illusion of humanity projected by AI becomes […] Written by Empirics Asia April 15, 2025April 15, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Future Tech Of Music Is Space-Bending Key Takeaway: Researchers have developed a technology that creates “audible enclaves” in open air, creating highly focused, localized zones of sound. These isolated audio pockets allow sound to materialize only at a precise point in space, unheard by others nearby. This breakthrough could revolutionize public communication, entertainment, military applications, and office design. The process, known […] Written by Empirics Asia April 9, 2025April 9, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Promise And Peril Of A.I. Therapy Key Takeaway: AI-powered mental health tools, such as chatbots and self-help apps, offer immediate emotional support to those in need. However, these tools cannot replace the complexity, depth, and ethical safeguards of human therapy, especially when dealing with serious mental health issues. AI lacks emotional understanding, cultural context, and real-time adaptability, which can be dangerous […] Written by Empirics Asia April 8, 2025April 8, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Humanity’s Greatest Threat Might Come From Above Key Takeaway: The discovery of asteroid 2024 YR4 has reignited fears about cosmic threats, highlighting the need for a global planetary defense system. Political scientist Daniel Deudney warns that unchecked expansion into space, especially with geopolitical rivalries, could be a recipe for global disaster. The fear of space, its vastness, and existential indifference is deeply […] Written by Empirics Asia April 7, 2025April 7, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How Cereal Sparked The Plant Based Revolution Key Takeaway: John Harvey Kellogg, a controversial doctor, played a significant role in the development of the plant-based movement. He combined the Progressive Era with “biologic living” and established an experimental kitchen to develop alternatives to meat. In 1896, the U.S. Department of Agriculture asked Kellogg to create a plant-based protein that could rival meat […] Written by Empirics Asia April 4, 2025April 4, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Are Viruses Alive? Key Takeaway: The question of whether viruses are alive or not has become increasingly complex due to the lack of a universally accepted definition of life. Viruses are neither truly alive nor completely inanimate, as they cannot replicate on their own and have no metabolism or self-contained cellular structure. They can, however, hijack a host […] Written by Empirics Asia April 3, 2025April 3, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Rethinking Education Key Takeaways: The Industrial model of education that fueled the modern era and its dizzying reach did its job incredibly well. In his writing, Flynn illustrates study after study, spanning nations and decades, in which modern educational gift of abstraction — a transcendent sign of intelligence, as we saw in Raven’s Matrices — has been […] Written by Anthony Fieldman March 2, 2022October 19, 2022 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How China Is Transforming Its Economy Through Learning I highly recommend reading the McKinsey Global Institute’s new report, “Reskilling China: Transforming The World’s Largest Workforce Into Lifelong Learners”, which focuses on the country’s biggest employment challenge, re-training its workforce and the adoption of practices such as lifelong learning to address the growing digital transformation of its productive fabric. How to transform the country […] Written by Enrique Dans February 1, 2021February 1, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why You’re Not Seeing Success With Influencer Marketing With the new year around the corner, now is a good time to re-evaluate your past marketing strategies and gear up for the year ahead. For some businesses, influencer marketing has simply not seemed to live up to its lofty promises of genuine engagement, credibility, and transparency. Some have claimed that it has been failing […] Written by Michael Tan January 14, 2021January 15, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
A New Philosophy of Business I’m about to ask you to take a mental leap. For the next 8 minutes, suspend your notions of what a business is, and I’ll propose a new lens for you to look through. There are a lot of questions asked around what “community” means for business. “Where should community fit in my organization?” and […] Written by Empirics Asia September 5, 2018September 5, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked