Posts by Archit Tripathi

Sex, drugs, and religion: one of these kids is not like the others… or is it? While religion tends to be at odds with sex and drugs most of the time, you may be surprised to learn that your brain can respond to all three of these things in the same way (more on this...

If you’ve watched scary movies and/or occult-themed TV shows anytime over the last 30 years or so, there’s a good chance you’re already familiar with the Ouija board – a board printed with the alphabet, numbers 0-9, and “Yes” and “No” in two opposite corners. It’s accompanied by a small, triangular piece of wood or plastic...

A nice job, a beautiful family, and a nice little house with a white picket fence – this is the stuff the American Dream is made of. Owning a little piece of land out in the suburbs, where the grass is green and the neighbors are friendly, where kids grow up playing baseball into the...

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: a major snowstorm or blackout blankets a city. Hundreds of thousands of people are told to stay indoors and hunker down for a day or two until things return to normal. Nine months later, newspapers report that local maternity wards are seeing an unusual spike in births, complete...

Successfully decoding the human genome is easily one of the biggest advances in modern science. It’s allowed for a number of exciting advances, but perhaps one of the best-known innovations has been personalized genetic testing which allows people to learn more about their ancestry as well as detect health anomalies and risk factors for genetically-carried diseases....

When it comes to exercising and staying fit, there’s so much conflicting information out there. Cardio in the morning or in the evening? Intermittent Fasting or lots of mini-meals throughout the day? Machines vs. free weights vs. calisthenics? What’s really the right move? The one thing that popular wisdom does seem to agree on, however, is...

If I asked you to name a few of the essential accessories for summertime, I’m willing to bet that somewhere at the top of that list is a pair of sunglasses. If I were to then ask you to name a few brands of sunglasses, how many could you name? Ray-Ban, Oakley, maybe a few...

Some people seem to have no trouble shedding pounds and keeping them off, while others (like myself) have to work hard every day just so we don’t go from “kinda chubby” to “fat as a house.” Diet is a huge part of weight loss, and just about everyone knows that cutting down on sugar is...

We’ve all been there – it’s been a busy day and you’ve skipped lunch. It’s been hours since you last ate anything. You get home, your partner says something mildly provocative and… BAM! You’re a full-blown rage monster. Eventually, you grab a bite to eat, have a moment to decompress, and you realize “Whoa! I really...

There are few things in this world quite like owning a car. Just about everyone remembers buying their first car – whether you were fortunate enough to get a brand new one or had to settle for a junker with no AC and only one functional door (R.I.P. Leona). Having a car allows you to...

Chances are you’ve heard the term “GMO” before, probably in some debate about the future of food. There’s also a good chance that wherever you heard the term, it was used as a negative – indicating some kind of Franken-food that really shouldn’t be consumed by humans. “GMO” stands for “Genetically Modified Organism,” sometimes also...

Sleep: we all need it, and most of us never feel like we got enough of it. The average person spends nearly a third of their lives sleeping, and for good reason – sleep is critical for the body and the mind. It’s when the body and brain both get a chance to recover from...

Music soothes the savage beast and delights the hearts of men. We have music for just about every possible human experience – from serious ceremonial pieces to good ol’ party jams and everything in between! It’s fairly common knowledge that music can have profound effects on our feelings. This effect has long been utilized in...

Thanksgiving has got to be one of the biggest holidays of the year, a time for parades, travel, family, and of course, tons and tons of food.  But, as is the case with many major holidays, it seems that the true history of the holiday has been lost over the years. Today’s Thanksgiving celebrations are...

The world we live in today is a complicated one. Almost daily, it seems that some long-held notion about life is being challenged in some way. Sometimes, this is relatively easy to accept and adopt into our existence. Other times, the change is met with resistance – sometimes bordering on extreme intolerance and hatred. One...