The Friday Five

Highlighting some of the coolest science news we’ve seen lately.

1. Ever get the feeling that your brain is slowing down? When people say, “Think fast!”, you usually respond in a day or two? Perhaps you’ve been infected by an algal virus (especially if you live in the Baltimore area where this study was conducted). A virus (ATCV-1) that typically infects green algae can also infect human brain tissue, and now a study has shown a link in those who are infected with slowed brain activity.

This algal virus can infect people too, and may make them slower on the draw with shorter attention spans.

 

2. Do you think you know the primary colors? How about the number of senses that we have? You might be surprised at the true answers. Read on to learn the truth about five things we were taught in science class.

3. Everyone’s favorite attraction at the fair is the daring performer who eats and breathes fire. In the video below, you can learn the chemistry behind fire eating and why the performers don’t melt their faces off.
 

4. Thanks to lessons from computer science, it may be possible to “debug” our brains in ways that parallel how programmers edit bad code. Read it now before you get distra---oh, look, a squirrel!

 

5. And now…5 of the craziest science stunts that teachers won’t show you in school. Except maybe this teacher.

 

Science quote of the week:

“Exploring the unknown requires tolerating uncertainty.” –Brian Greene

Contributed by:  Bill Sullivan

Follow Bill on Twitter: @wjsullivan

Yolken, R., Jones-Brando, L., Dunigan, D., Kannan, G., Dickerson, F., Severance, E., Sabunciyan, S., Talbot, C., Prandovszky, E., Gurnon, J., Agarkova, I., Leister, F., Gressitt, K., Chen, O., Deuber, B., Ma, F., Pletnikov, M., & Van Etten, J. (2014). Chlorovirus ATCV-1 is part of the human oropharyngeal virome and is associated with changes in cognitive functions in humans and mice Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1418895111