D茅j脿 vu clue
Feel as if you鈥檝e read this before? Brain scans of 87 people who say they experience d茅j脿 vu showed less grey matter in an area of the brain responsible for memory, compared with 26 who didn鈥檛 experience it. This anatomical difference is likely to be a consequence of altered connectivity in the region, which might also be the cause of the faulty recall (Cortex, ).
Ancient inequality
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Blame the Stone Age for the 1 per cent. Unequal distribution of wealth dates back at least 7000 years, to the first European farmers. Archaeologists found that males buried with stone tools had access to the best land, suggesting property and land were passed down through families ().
A useful donation
Blood donation is good for your health as well as your conscience. A group of 33 overweight adults who gave blood twice, a month apart, saw their risk of stroke fall by 40 per cent and heart attack by 20 per cent through decreased blood pressure, compared with those who didn鈥檛 give blood (BMC Medicine, in press).
Italian quake
Just nine days after a , the country has experienced two more quakes, killing at least seven people. The , a magnitude-5.8 quake, struck at 9 am local time on Tuesday. The region is tectonically active because the African plate is pushing north into Europe.
Roots of denial
Whatever motivates climate sceptics, it isn鈥檛 ignorance of science. People who don鈥檛 believe in global warming are just as scientifically knowledgeable as people who accept it (Nature Climate Change, ).
