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In his last interview, Carl Sagan warned that America will be taken over by a 'charlatan' political leader

Sagan never would have believed in a fortune tellers but dang this is prescient.

via PBS

Astronomer Carl Sagan was the original host of "Cosmos" back in 1980 and it became most watched show in public television history. Few science communicators have been able to match his talent for stoking wonder about the universe.

Shortly before his death in 1996, he appeared on "Charlie Rose" and made a dire warning about how the average Americans' lack of skeptical, scientific thinking could lead to disastrous consequences.

Today, we can see the problems that are happening due to America's anti-science streak whether it's anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theories or climate change deniers.

Sagan was right, America will suffer due to a lack a lack of scientific skepticism.


Carl Sagan and Government_ Charlie Rose.wmvwww.youtube.com


"We've arranged a society on science and technology in which nobody understands anything about science and technology, and this combustible mixture of ignorance and power sooner or later is going to blow up in our faces," he told Rose. "I mean, who is running the science and technology in a democracy if the people don't know anything about it?"

He then warned that our lack of critical thinking leaves us vulnerable to those who wish to exploit our ignorance.

"Science is more than a body of knowledge, it's a way of thinking," he says. "If we are not able to ask skeptical questions to interrogate those who tell us something is true to be skeptical of those in authority, then we're up for grabs for the next charlatan political or religious who comes ambling along."

Sagan believes that a democracy cannot function without an educated populace.

"It's a thing that Jefferson lay great stress on. It wasn't enough, he said, to enshrine some rights in the Constitution and the Bill or Rights, the people had to be educated and they have to practice their skepticism and their education," he says. "Otherwise, we don't run the government, the government runs us."


This article originally appeared five years ago.

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Surprising 16-year-long ADHD study reveals opposite of what researchers expected

The findings shed new light on how we might one day understand and manage ADHD.

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There's still so much to learn.

Our understanding of ADHD has come a long way in just a few short years. Though it wasn't even formally recognized as a medical condition until the 1960s, by the time the 90s rolled around, diagnoses and stimulant prescriptions were extremely prevalent. Today, diagnoses and treatment are a lot more thoughtful and individualized, and there are more options for treatment and therapy. Even with all these advancements, though, we still have more to learn.

A new long-term study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry has proven to be an excellent next step in getting a better understanding of the disorder.

Researchers studied 483 participants who were diagnosed with ADHD in childhood and continued to assess them for a period of 16 years. The study's authors wanted to get a sense of how ADHD symptoms might change over time.

What the researchers found surprised them. In most participants, symptoms of ADHD fluctuated greatly over the years. What surprised them even more were the environmental factors that seemed to play a role in those fluctuations.


a close up of a human brain on a white backgroundUnderstanding our brains is an ongoing process. Photo by BUDDHI Kumar SHRESTHA on Unsplash

Researchers expected that greater life demands—like more responsibility at work, a heavier workload at school, major life changes, etc.—would exacerbate ADHD symptoms. What they found was the opposite.

It makes sense that a person that struggles with inattention or hyperactivity might have more trouble focusing when they have more "going on" and more distractions to pull them in different directions. It was a huge surprise to the researchers that, actually, people's ADHD symptoms seemed to ease up when life got hectic.

“We expected the relationship between environmental demands and ADHD symptoms to be the opposite of what we found,” study author, professor, and clinical psychologist Margaret H. Sibley explained. “We hypothesized that when life demands and responsibilities increased, this might exacerbate people’s ADHD, making it more severe. In fact, it was the opposite. The higher the demands and responsibilities one was experiencing, the milder their ADHD.”

I have a 4-year-old with ADHD and the findings totally track for me.

We find it's actually easier to be in perpetual motion sometimes—out running errands, doing activities, visiting friends and family—versus staying put too long. When we're just relaxing at home, that's when she tends to start bouncing off the walls!

Doing nothing or doing very little is not often a restful state for people with ADHD. Typically, people with ADHD experience more background noise than neurotypical brains—so a quiet, seemingly restful environment can sometimes amplify racing thoughts, negative self-talk, and impulsive behavior versus dampening it. Of course, as always in science, you have to be careful assuming causation from the findings.

a boy doing schoolwork at wooden deskQuiet can make it hard to focus. Annie Spratt/Unsplash

It's important to note that the results of the study don't definitively prove that being busy causes a decrease in ADHD symptoms. “This might mean that people with ADHD perform their best in more demanding environments (perhaps environments that have stronger immediate consequences, like needing to put food on the table for a family or pay rent monthly). It also might mean that people with ADHD take more on their plate when their symptoms are relatively at bay," Sibley says. Either way, the correlation is certainly strong and worthy of more study.

In the meantime, the study's authors think the results could be viewed in a hopeful light for people just learning to manage their ADHD. “If you’re a doctor talking with a patient who is first getting diagnosed with ADHD, it’s a huge help for that person to hear the message that, ‘You’re going to have good years and not-so-good years, but things can go really well for you if you can get the right factors in place,'” Sibley said.

We're learning more and more about what those factors are—what might exacerbate symptoms and what types of things can help—and we're starting to get a clearer picture of how people can manage this challenging disorder.


This article originally appeared last year.

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Women's Health

Women's brains are more intuitive than men's and there's scientific backing to prove it

Size matters.

Photo by Falaq Lazuardi on Unsplash
a woman standing in a field of sunflowers

A man and his wife go to a party. They gallivant around, interact with various people, and have a few cocktails. On the car ride home, the wife (we'll call her Heather) says something like, "I can't believe Gemma is so annoyed with John." The husband (we'll call him Doug) is perplexed. "What are you talking about?" Heather persists, "What are YOU talking about? She can't STAND him."

Now, taking out all possible outside factors (like their alcohol intake, etc.), this might be a scenario you've seen before. (Of course, those genders can always be switched. Similarly, in same-sex couples, there's a spectrum of personality traits that are far from absolute.) But very often, we hear the trope of the extremely perceptive woman versus the less-than-perceptive man.

man and womanFile:Man-and-woman-icon.svg - Wikimedia Commonscommons.wikimedia.org

There are actual reasons for this. The idea of a physical difference between the male and female brain is nothing new. Numerous self-help books likeMen Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus,You Just Don't Understand: Men and Women in Conversation, and Brain Sex: The Real Difference Between Men and Women have flooded our bookstores for ages. They’ve sought to teach us how to be understood through clearer communication and empathy. Of course, this doesn’t refute the fact that upbringing and societal constructs also play a role in how we process information or behave in different scenarios.

It's a complex issue and far from black and white. That said, numerous studies continue to show how differences in brain structures (though tiny they may be!) really make all the difference.

brain Photo by Milad Fakurian on Unsplash

Dr. Judith Orloff, author of The Genius of Empathy: Practical Skills to Heal Your Sensitive Self, Your Relationships, and The World, wrote a piece for Psychology Today entitled"The Neuroscience of Women's Intuition." She shares, "A woman’s corpus callosum, the connective white matter that connects our left and right brain hemispheres, is thicker than a man’s. This gives women better and faster abilities to access each hemisphere, further integrating their emotions and gut feelings with the more logical decision-making functions of the left hemisphere. Women’s brains are optimized for rapid, intuitive decision-making."

What's even more fascinating is that our actual "gut" has connective neurons. Orloff also shares, "Scientists believe intuition operates through the right side of our brain, the brain’s hippocampus, and through our gut (the digestive system has neurons as well)."

So, there’s an actual reason we use the term "gut instinct."

Dr. Kayla Osterhoff often posts fascinating findings on this matter on Instagram. To name a few of the brain physical factors that help make intuition stronger in the female brain, she mentions a "larger mirror neuron system." She explains, "With more active anterior cingulate cortex and superior temporal sulcus areas, women can more accurately interpret nonverbal cues, better anticipate the needs of others, and navigate complex social dynamics."

She also brings up the aforementioned "enhanced communication between the brain's hemispheres" and "higher gray matter volume in the anterior cingulate gyrus, insula, and hippocampus," which help heighten women's empathy and awareness.

woman in white and black polka dot shirt holding blue and white book Photo by No Revisions on Unsplash

And though the science is ever-changing and will hopefully include more studies that differentiate between biological sex and gender identity, the studies consistently back up how different the "male vs. female" brain is. In an even more recent piece by Scott Barry Kaufman called "Male and Female Brains Can Be Classified with Striking Accuracy" , he discusses a scientific study published in PNAS that supports these findings. Their results suggest that, at the group level, male and female brains can be distinguished with a high level of accuracy, and there are particular features of intrinsic organization in these brains that are significant and most likely evolved over the course of human evolution for adaptive purposes." He adds, "All brains don’t have to be equal for there to be equality. Brains can be complementary with equal opportunities for contribution."

In other words, if you're reading this with a confused expression on your face, Heather may more likely pick up on that than Doug.

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Science

Health experts created a patch that can repair damaged hearts

German scientists found a way to fix a broken heart—literally

Photo credit: Canva

A new patch made of human cells could help repair damage from heart failure.

Scientists at the University Medical Center Göttingen in Germany have found a way to mend hearts. Not the metaphorical version, but literal flesh-and-blood hearts! Through cell manipulation they have successfully tested a patch that can strengthen heart tissue for those with heart disease and advanced heart failure.

“We now have, for the first time, a laboratory grown biological transplant available, which has the potential to stabilize and strengthen the heart muscle,” said co-author of the study, Prof. Ingo Kutschka to The Guardian.

In this study, the researchers took blood cells from a donor and “reprogrammed” them into mimicking stem cells. This allowed those cells to further change into heart muscle cells and connective tissue cells. After combining these cells with collagen, the scientists were able to create a graftable patch that could be implanted onto a damaged area of the heart to increase its strength. In fact, the completed heart muscle patches have the characteristics of a heart that is only four to eight years old.

Doctor checking a person's heart with a stethoscopeThese patches could help many people with heart problems.Photo credit: Canva

The reason for this experiment was two-fold. First, it was done to explore other health care options for people who need a donated heart, which is typically a very long waitlist. Secondly, because previous methods of injecting heart muscle cells into the heart have led to patients experiencing tumors or an irregular heartbeat, both of which could be fatal.

Initial trials of this heart patch have been promising. After successful trials with macaque monkeys, the researchers approached a 46-year-old woman with advanced heart failure to treat her with patches made with human cells after a minimally invasive procedure. Three months afterward, the patient received a transplant and the scientists were able to study her discarded heart that they had patched to see how effective their treatment was. They found that not only did the patches survive but they had developed their own blood supply.

While this is definitely great news for heart patients, there still needs to be further testing. As of now, it takes three to six months for these patches to fully benefit the patient, meaning that transplants would be prioritized for patients that urgently need a new heart. However, fifteen patients have been approved for the procedure and are currently being monitored with their new heart patches.

Surgeons with a box that says "Human Organ for Transplant"While this heart patch is an option, it cannot fully replace human heart transplants.Photo credit: Canva

While advances in heart medicine are great news overall, further research is needed to make sure this and other advances are viable in the long term. In the meantime, it’s best for everyone to take steps to ensure maximum heart health. This may sound like an afterschool special or a basic lesson in health class, but according to American Heart Association nearly half of American adults have a cardiovascular issue, so it might be good to have a refresher.

Woman checking her heart rate outside.Running and other cardiovascular exercise helps keep your heart rate up and helps keep your heart healthy.Photo credit: Canva

Make sure your diet is rich with heart-healthy foods like vegetables and fish, with little to no added fat, sugar, or salt. Exercise at least 150 minutes per week to keep your heart rate strong. Visit your doctor with regular check-ups to keep track of your overall health, so you can both create a treatment plan if something comes up.

Over time, more and more medical breakthroughs will occur, but it’ll be better to do what you can to ensure you’ll be around to see them.

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