ScienceSeeker Editor's Selections: Synaesthesia, Assumptions, Happiness, and The Olympics

Here are my Science Seeker Editor?s Selections for the past two weeks:

?Can You Learn To Be Synaesthetic?? asks the Neuroskeptic. Errr, maybe? In a way.

All scientific fields rest upon a set of more-or-less mutually agreed-upon assumptions. Sometimes, those assumptions can be wrong, though. Musing about his own field, Micah Allen at Neuroconscience wonders, What are the critical assumptions of neuroscience?

?Marriage is like a sweater. A yellow sweater you bought, and couldn?t return.? This, according to Dan Gilbert, via Thomas Hayden, at the excellent group blog Last Word on Nothing: You?re Not as Happy as You Think You Are, Behavioral Scientists Report.

At Psych Your Mind, blogger Maya notes that ?we may have ideas of what typical French or German or British people are like relative to typical Americans.? She asks, ?are these ideas just oversimplified stereotypes, or are they rooted in actual country-level differences in personality characteristics?? As you might expect, opinions are varied. National Personality Types: Fact or Figment?

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=1411e91ae521c89f51d4a930b75bd7ef

dingo nba all star weekend malin akerman jeff carter chomp national enquirer kate gosselin