Why Men Mistake Politeness for Flirtation

In the latest of their cute and informative videos, Science of Us explains why heterosexual men often mistake women’s politeness for flirtation—and it’s because of those pesky caveman instincts. Sexual misperception is common (90% of women in the US come across this issue) and has to do with “error management theory” which means men don’t want to risk missing an opportunity to procreate. It doesn’t …

Risky Business: The Teenage Brain

“Nothing—whether it’s being with your friends, having sex, licking an ice cream cone, zipping along in a convertible on a warm summer evening, hearing your favorite music—will ever feel as good as it did when you were a teenager,” says Laurence Steinberg, a professor of psychology at Temple University. From weak frontal lobes to enlarged nucleus accumbens and extra more dopamine receptors, adolescents’ brains are …

It’s Time to Quit Lettuce

Calling lettuce “the bottled water of produce,” Gizmodo has snappily outlined a few very pragmatic reasons why it’s time to quit the Iceberg. Not only is it labor-intensive and comes wrapped in a bunch of unnecessary plastic, it also contains a huge amount of water—and 80% of the USA’s lettuce is grown in drought-ridden California. On top of the environmentally unfriendly facts, it turns out …