SCIENCE: Your brain actually doesn't suck at passwords

Illustration via Motherboard.

"Last year, two researchers asked a group of volunteers to log into a website 90 times over the span of ten days, using whatever password the volunteers chose.
After entering their password, the website showed the volunteers a short security code, made of either four random letters or two random words, and asked them to type it. Throughout the ten-day experiment, the site added more letters and words to the code—up to 12 random letters or six random words—and the security code would take just a little longer to be displayed, prompting the participants to remember it themselves before it appeared.
At the end of the experiment, and three days after the last login, a whopping 94 percent of the test subjects were able to remember from memory their random code word or phrase, which were seemingly nonsensical strings of characters like “zljndjjgjana” or meaningless phrases like “gaze sloth laugh grace relic born.” Without the volunteers knowing, the researchers had tricked their minds." Read full article by Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai in Motherboard. E.T.P. 3'

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT: The Science Behind Pixar's Inside Out

Movie still via Vulture.

"Ever since Pixar began showing previews of Inside Out, critics have been raving about its stunning animation, beautiful soundtrack, and creative portrayal of protagonist Riley's inner world. Daphna Shohamy, a researcher at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, appreciates Pixar’s latest movie for a different reason: She believes it has potential as an educational tool.
“I’m excited that people will learn from this movie about how malleable memories are,” she said. Shohamy was part of a group of scientists the filmmakers consulted during the making of the movie, and she explained a few things Inside Out can teach us about memory and the brain." Read full article in Vulture. E.T.P. 4'

SCIENCE

Image via The Guardian.

Why it's time for brain science to ditch the 'Venus and Mars' cliché. "As hardy perennials go, there is little to beat that science hacks' favourite: the hard-wiring of male and female brains. For more than 30 years, I have seen a stream of tales about gender differences in brain structure under headlines that assure me that from birth men are innately more rational and better at map-reading than women, who are emotional, empathetic multi-taskers, useless at telling jokes. I am from Mars, apparently, while the ladies in my life are from Venus." Read full article in The Guardian. E.T.P. 7'

Photo via Gizmodo.

Genetically modified bees can make concrete instead of honey? Apparently so. "Spiders, silkworms, and honeybees are already 3D printers—and bioengineering is rapidly making that more than just a poetic metaphor. These creatures are organic examples of depositional manufacturing, and they have been domesticated and used throughout human history for specific creative ends". Read full article in Gizmodo. E.T.P. 15'