It's kind of weird, but it happens to almost everyone. We take a long, relaxing bath. After a couple of minutes our hands start to look different and we can notice some changes. First, some small wrinkles start to appear on our finger pads and later on you can tell that they are on the whole palm. It shouldn't be a surprise for anyone that they remain for some time, but there's no reason to be worried about it. But why does it happen? And what is more curious, is there any purpose of this change? Even if that's quite funny, and maybe for some of you a little bit disgusting, from the scientific point of view there may be a purpose of the wrinkles that we can see on our fingers. The biologists claimed that it could be one of the evolutionary traits that help us adapt to the wet conditions. Just think about trying to grab a shampoo with wet hands while having a bath. Much easier if you have those wrinkles, don't you think?

Now, when Christmas is over and we start preparing ourselves for the New Year's Eve, we also start thinking about the promises for the New Year. The most common one regards changing a bad habit, like quitting smoking, starting a diet or more generally introducing a healthy lifestyle. But on the other hand, it may be also an excuse to start learning a new language or travel to a place when we have never been before. We may promise to spend more time with the family or dedicate our free time to a voluntary organization. But where did this tradition of New Year's resolutions come from?  From what I've known, it is due to the Romans and their mythical god named Janus. He has two faces: one looking forward and one looking backward, what symbolically means that he can see the past and the future at the same time, that he is looking backward into the past year and forward into the new year and that is why Romans start reflecting about their resolutions. And th...

In almost every restaurant if you order a fish, you will probably get it with a quarter or a few slices of lemon. And it's not only about a fish, because if you think of shrimps or other seafood, it's also accompanied by this sour fruit. But have you ever wondered why? Well, there may be few reasons and not all of them are positive, like for example: some restaurants may want to mask or cover the fact that the food they serve is not very fresh. It seems disgusting, but unfortunately in many cases it's true. But not all of the restaurants do so, right? Of course it is right. Generally, the lemon adds a little bit of sourness and citrus taste to the meal and it simply improves it. There's also another reason, treated as the more scientific one, that considers the fish bones. Many people think that if you incidentally swallow a fish bone, the acid from the lemon juice dissolves it, and there's nothing to be worry about. It's not entirely true, because the l...

  Maths was never my favourite subject at school. I had some problems with it, especially when it comes to the exercises that begin with Prove that... But generally, if I put enough effort into it, I was able to solve them. However, some friends of mine couldn't make it. Some of them complained that it is not their fault that they have bad results. Maths is simply too hard to understand.  Why many people find it so difficult? There are many reasons, but first of all: in mathematics you have to find the exact answer. One mistake and the result won't be correct. A plus sign instead of a minus, four instead of three and you're wrong. It is quite demotivating for everyone. You have to practise a lot, if you want to get comfortable with the type of exercise. You need to understand the basics if you want to deal with some more advanced maths equations. So, don't get discouraged and keep practising!

Is it just me or every meal tastes much better when someone else prepares it? And it doesn't matter if it's mum making spaghetti, granny cooking soup or fiancé preparing romantic dinner. Literally, it can be anyone cooking anything. A simple ham and cheese sandwich that my boyfriend makes for me, in one moment becomes the best sandwich ever, a perfect one. But why? When it comes to the sandwich I usually make, using the exact same ingredients, it tastes completely normal. Where is the problem? Well, according to the psychologists, when we make a meal ourselves, we already see all the ingredients, we see all the process, we anticipate its taste and we become less hungry. When we are exposed to stimulus, the sandwich becomes simply less desirable. This rule refers to every meal and that's why even frozen food, put in the oven by someone else, tastes better. So remember, the next time you buy a frozen pizza - ask your roommate to cook it. In exchange for a slice, it ...

It seems like we don't dream every time we sleep. We wake up and we don't remember anything, so we assume that we weren't dreaming at all. But is it true that we just don't have dreams sometimes? Why is that?  The answer is quite surprising as everyone dreams every night or even a couple of times during the sleep. The large part of the dreams comes from the fourth phase of sleep, the REM phase that repeats every 90 minutes. The problem is that some remember more than others. Certain people are able to describe their dreams with all the details while the others don't remember anything. The easiest way to explain it is to understand what one of the scientists has claimed: "the sleeping brain is not capable of memorizing new information; it needs to awaken to be able to do that". If you often wake up during your sleep, you probably remember a lot of your dreams. If not, there's nothing to be worry about. It just shows that you are a heavy slee...

Have you ever seen these funny videos of cats being affraid of cucumbers? If not, watch some of them and then try to answer the question: why do they act this way? Maybe it's not about the cucumber? Maybe it could be any other object with the same shape? There are two possible answers. The first one is the fear of the unknown. Let's make it clear, normally cats wouldn't see a cucumber on the floor. It's not a part of they everyday life and that's why they might be affarid and try to run away as fast as possible when they see a new, wierd object. Especially, when it appears form nowhere, right next to their bowl. The second option assumes that the cucumber closely resembles the snake as both of them are green and oblong. It seems like a natural reaction to be scared, jump and escape in front of the danger. Who wouldn't do that?