This challenges your sensory and cognitive abilities, according to a review. As a result, playing a musical instrument may help increase your cognitive and neural functioning. You can find plenty of free how-to videos online to get you started. Research shows that reading may also help boost your intelligence. According to a review , reading stimulates every part of your brain, along with the neural connections between them.

A study also determined that reading enhances connectivity between brain regions involved with comprehension. This effect can last a couple of days after reading, suggesting long-term benefits. A longer duration of education is linked to higher intelligence, according to a review. Another review found that continuing education also increases cognitive function and protects your brain. Since humans are social creatures, staying social may also enhance your mental fitness.

If you find it difficult to meet new people or create relationships, you may want to consider the following:. By staying curious and following the tips outlined above, you may be able to boost your brain health and enhance your intelligence over time. Some people are born with the gift of emotional intelligence, but others have to learn it. The ability to know yourself and understand the emotions of…. Abstract thinking is what lets you create and problem solve.

People with certain conditions like autism or dementia may struggle to understand…. A high IQ might give you a leg up in certain situations, like getting the job you want.

Concrete thinking is a literal way of understanding things. It's common in young children and older individuals with autism and other conditions…. A police investigation resulted in the arrest and conviction of the robbers and the recovery of the body, which was later reburied in a concrete grave.

It's probably best not to get on a crow's bad side. According to one study by wildlife researchers at the University of Washington—plus tons of anecdotal evidence from wildlife biologists—the highly intelligent birds are capable of remembering individual human faces , even if those who have wronged them wear a disguise.

So how do crows show their distaste? They scream. They were upset with me. Some fonts are pleasing to the eye while others irk readers for one reason or another. But it turns out that the fonts we like and don't like influence us more than we may know.

In an experiment for The New York Times , readers who were shown an essay in Baskerville were more likely to agree with the argument than if it was presented in any other font. Readers were least likely to agree with statements made in fonts like Comic Sans and Helvetica. Every day, the average human breathes around 22, times and, according to the Lung Foundation of Australia, no matter how hard a person exhales, their lungs will still have about one liter of air lingering inside, which makes the organ buoyant enough to float on water.

No other organ in the human body has the same ability. There are days when you're not in the mood to cook for yourself, which is why grabbing takeout is such a great option. And apparently, the residents of ancient Pompeii felt the same way. Before the city was destroyed by the disastrous eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A. And in the same way we can peruse menus on the walls of McDonald's or Burger King, Pompeians could check out painted frescos that featured the meals that they could order.

You may have heard that Venice is sinking, but so is Chicago—and it's going down just as quickly. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Illinois city is getting one to two millimeters lower every year that's four to eight inches every century.

For comparison, Venice is sinking at a rate of two millimeters per year. The phenomenon is due to a glacial melt that happened around 10, years ago. It led to some areas rising after the weight of the ice was gone consider what would happen if you squeezed one end of a tube of toothpaste; the other end would pop up.

Now, the ground is settling again, which means it's sinking back down. Cats apparently appreciate music as much as we do, but they don't necessarily like the same tunes as humans. That's why in , scientists from both the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the University of Maryland worked together to compose " cat-centric music. As you already know, planet Earth is divided into four hemispheres: north, south, east, and west. But only one of the seven continents can lay claim to being located in all four , and that's Africa.

Think of it like your mind glitching and opening the same web browser twice. If you run through the list of elements found on the periodic table—hydrogen, helium, oxygen, magnesium, titanium, copper, and all of the others—there's only one letter missing : "J.

Back in medieval times , shoes were basically thin strips of leather that covered the foot and didn't provide much protection at all. Because of this, people walked the same way we naturally do when we're barefoot: toe first, which allows us to test the surface in front of us and puts less stress on our knees. Frankly, it's how humans walked for millennia before modern-day shoes came along, which keep our feet much safer so we can step down harder with our heels first.

The natural smells of any two family members are similar, according to research out of Wayne State University. Researcher Glenn Weisfeld believes that shared scent could explain why stepchildren are often treated differently than children living with their biological parents. It's hard to imagine icebergs as anything other than gigantic snow-white mini-islands floating around the coldest places on Earth. But for years, scientists have been baffled by the occasional "emerald iceberg.

So glacier ice contains numerous bubbles, and icebergs are bright and cloudy. When the flash of a camera goes off, the eye isn't prepared for the sudden influx of light, and the pupil doesn't have time to restrict. You're likely using flash in dark lighting, so your eyes have dilated to adjust to the dark room. When the flash goes off and the photo is taken, your eyes are still dilated, so the light reflects off of the red blood vessels of the choroid , which is the layer of connective tissue in the back of the eye that nourishes the retina.

Star Wars may have taken place "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away," but the movie-makers responsible for coming up with Princess Leia's iconic hairstyle for the film were inspired by some very real-life warriors. It's believed that director George Lucas based Leia's double buns on a picture of Clara de la Rocha , who was a colonel in the Mexican Revolution. Kicking back with a pint isn't as modern as you might think. In , archaeologists in the Central Plain of China discovered "beer-making tool kits" in underground rooms that were built between and B.

The equipment included funnels, pots, jugs, and a pottery stove. Scientists used the residue they found inside of the tools to deduce the 5,year-old beer recipe , which they published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences. While astronauts are floating around in space, they aren't subjected to the pressure of Earth's gravity. As a result, the vertebra in their spines can expand and relax, which means their bodies stretch up to three percent taller.

That means that someone who's six feet tall could grow up to two inches while they're in space. However, the additional height is only temporary. When astronauts return to Earth, they shrink back down to their normal size within a few months.

As far as national security goes, songs are typically fairly harmless. But back in the s, parents across the country became upset by a rumor that claimed the song "Louie Louie" by The Kingsmen contained inappropriate subliminal messages. The FBI stepped in and spent more than two years putting the tune through various audio tests.

And despite producing a page report, the feds merely concluded that the song is " unintelligible at any speed. Humans come in all shapes and sizes, but in general, women tend to be smaller than men in various ways—and that includes the tongue.

While the average length of men's tongues is around 3. You know about identical twins when two babies result from the same fertilized egg and fraternal twins when a women releases two eggs and they're both fertilized , but did you know that semi-identical twins also exist?

Only two pairs have ever been identified and the most recent pair was a boy and a girl born in Brisbane, Australia, just a few years ago, according to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine in In July , underwater cinematographer Dan Abbott and wildlife biologist and presenter Lizzie Daly were diving in the U. Abbott was able to capture a video of the creature. These jellyfish are not even as big as the lion's mane jellyfish Cyanea capillata , which can float around the ocean at a full length of feet.

In Brazil, doctors lacking the supplies medical professionals in the United States might use are instead utilizing tilapia skin to bandage and treat second- and third-degree burns. The fish skin reportedly cuts down on healing time , reduces the need for pain medication, and helps with scarring, due to the abundant amount of collagen proteins. In , scientists from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore also discovered that, in general, fish scale-derived collagen can help heal wounds.

In , a man in Texas tried to shoot an armadillo that he found wandering around his yard and got quite a surprise: Armadillo shells are bulletproof. The unlucky fellow made this discovery when he fired his gun and the bullet ricocheted off of the animal only to hit the man in the jaw, which he had to have wired shut when he was taken to the local hospital. If you like to enjoy the classic combination of milk and cookies, but hate when your cookie gets too soggy, you're not alone. That's why researchers at Utah State University in conducted tests to determine the ideal length of time you should let your cookie soak in milk.

Their findings? Four seconds. That timeframe is backed up by a professor of physics at the University of Bristol who came up with a complicated equation in the s that determined that the ideal length of time for dunking a British biscuit was three-and-a-half to five seconds.

It's easy to get a kick out of kangaroos thanks to their impressive hopping abilities, but Australia is facing a problem when it comes to the multiplying marsupials. In recent years, the number of kangaroos has nearly doubled down under , from about 27 million in to almost 45 million in In order to deal with the population that's quickly gotten out of control, experts are encouraging residents to eat the kangaroos.

Speaking of eating odd animals, the "Father of Evolution," Charles Darwin , always had a taste for unusual cuisine—he was even a member of The Glutton Club while a student at Cambridge University. And according to io9 , "He ate the iguanas he studied on the Galapagos. He ate armadillo, which he claimed tasted like duck. He ate puma. The lesser rhea, known to scientists as Rhea darwinii , got its name because Darwin sent the few bits of it he hadn't eaten to London.

The bark of older Redwood and Sequioa trees builds up over time to protect them from the elements. The bark, which can grow up to one foot thick, contains tannin, which provides protection against fire and fungus.

Tannin solutions are actually used regularly in contracting wooden buildings to mitigate any potential for fire damage. Picasso is one of the most famous names in the art world. But it turns out his real name was actually a little longer than what we're used to hearing.

In fact, it was a lot longer. Fort Knox is one of the most secure places in the United States, which is why it shouldn't shock anyone that visitors aren't welcome at the guarded facility. However, it may surprise you to learn that even our country's leaders aren't given permission to visit. In fact, only one president— Franklin D. Roosevelt —has ever been inside the vault; that was way back in In May , the Australian National University announced that " mysterious jars of the dead " had been "unearthed" in Laos.

While researchers and scientists aren't quite sure what the curious containers were originally meant for, they "believe they were related to [the] disposal of the dead. A bruise is caused by bleeding under the skin; tiny capillaries blood vessels are crushed, which expel blood that's trapped under the skin.

Initially, the bruise will just look red because the blood is still oxygen-rich. Within one to two days , the blood begins to lose its oxygen, turning purple. Then, after three or more days, bruises will start to turn green, yellow, or grey thanks to compounds called biliverdin and bilirubin that break down the hemoglobin to absorb vitamins and minerals like iron for the body to use.

The rest of the waste is eventually purged from or absorbed by the body. If you text "OMG" to your friends, you might think that you're using a modern acronym. But it turns out that the first appearance of the three-letter expression was in a letter to Winston Churchill in Lord Fisher , an admiral and naval innovator, wrote to the British prime minister and was obviously excited about a possible honor for himself and those in his line of work. He wrote,"I hear a new order of Knights in on the tapis—O.

My God! Before archaeologists decided that a cactus spine tool was, in fact, the earliest evidence of tattooing in the U. Made from prickly pear cactus spine needles and a handle carved from lemonade sumac, the item was then bound with yucca fiber and the tips dipped in dark pigment in order to produce body art around 2, years ago.

That's 1, years earlier than historians previously thought that the art had first been practiced in the Southwest. Snuffleupagus—or Mr. Picking up an instrument will not only impress your friends, it will make you smarter. When you play an instrument, you employ a vast area of your brain at once. Consider the senses. You use your visual, auditory, and physical capacities all while playing an instrument. Your experience of playing music uses tons of cognitive processes simultaneously, for instance:.

Scientists frequently employ magnetic resonance imaging MRI technology to study the brain during tests. When participants in one study played an instrument, many different parts of the brain lit up on the MRI scan. Getting into the habit of practicing an instrument daily, even for a short period, will improve your brain function and intelligence. You need to eat, so why not power your intelligence with brain-booster super foods? Certain foods contain qualities proven to enhance brain power.

No need to order any fad food online — the best foods line the shelves of your local grocery store. The best foods for brain function all contain high levels of fat. Historically, fat has a bad reputation. People generally believe that eating fat makes you fat. Some fats do affect your body negatively, but not all.

The foods to avoid contain trans fats. Often labeled on packages as partially hydrogenated oil, trans fat contributes to high cholesterol, inflammation, diabetes, stroke, and other health problems. Instead of trans-fat rich items like potato chips, choose a food high in monounsaturated fats, like fish or nuts.

Your brain will thank you. After all, the human brain consists of 60 percent fat. The famous TV scientist Bill Nye suggested in the s that the next time someone calls you a fathead, you should take it as a compliment. The brain needs fat to run properly. Despite its small size, about 2 percent of our body weight, the brain sucks up 20 percent of our energy. To keep your mind in peak condition, pack your fridge with these supercharged, brain accelerating wonder foods:.

Almonds and hazelnuts are vitamin E champions. Essential for cognitive function, vitamin E improves memory and verbal functions. Pack some nuts in your granola bar, salad, or trail mix: They contain tons of protein, which is also valuable for brain health and stamina throughout the day. Other foods like olive oil, eggs, small amounts of red wine, dark chocolate, blueberries, and coffee also assist brain activity.

For now, your best starting point involves the heavyweights: avocados, salmon, and nuts. Incorporate these foods into your daily diet and feel your intelligence sharpen. Establishing a short, daily meditation practice can beef up your concentration, alertness, creativity, and intelligence.

Numerous studies show a direct link between meditation and increased brain activity. Many prominent university researchers claim meditation benefits the brain:. At this point, several options present themselves. The most effective method of mediation for beginners involves a mantra.

Ideally, a mantra is a nonsense word or phrase which you repeat, silently, to yourself. The mantra can sound like anything. People who read literature also have an edge when it comes to interpersonal skills. Aside from the fact that reading will give you something to talk about in conversations with other people, studies have shown that people who read have more emotional intelligence than those who don't.

Reading improves your ability to pick up on other people's facial cues because it provides you with a larger reference point to decode another person's expressions. Also, reading gives you a chance to subconsciously practice empathy. So not only does reading make you smarter, it can also make you a better person.

To learn more, here are 17 benefits of building the reading habit and here are 47 great books you can grab for free through the Kindle Unlimited program.

A lot of people think they have to be up-to-date with all of the latest news—usually to feel like they know about everything that is going on. However, any knowledge that is acquired through chaotic consumption when your brain is on information overload rarely adds value to your intelligence.

Subscribing to filtered news services gives you a better perspective on current events and topics only in areas of your interest. Don't waste your time taking in irrelevant information just so you don't suffer from FOMO.

Make sure you are spending your time learning material that you can apply and benefit from in the long run. There is an advantage to surrounding yourself with like-minded people. But if you want to get smarter, hang out with people who are more intelligent than you are. Create connections with people who inspire you, and those you deem to be exceptionally successful. The diversity of opinions and expertise sharpens your brain.

In order to improve yourself, you have to be exposed to environments that are challenging for you, and that give you the opportunity to grow and learn. Stop wasting your time with people who hold you back or make you feel bad about yourself.

Being selective about who you spend your time with becomes increasingly strategic with age, as it has been said that you are the sum of the five people you spend the most time with. If the people who surround you impact you so deeply, you should learn to attract others you admire, and phase out toxic relationships in your life. You can implement this idea by finding people online who share a mutual desire for self-improvement.

To get started, here are three articles you can check out:. Doing something new every day will give you a wide range of perspectives to pull from in your small, everyday areas of specialization. For example, people with naturalist intelligence like to analyze, and manipulate the things in their environment. Doing new things helps you learn, which then makes you more readily adaptable to new circumstances. Having a wide range of knowledge of unconventional situations promotes innovation by inspiring you to think outside of the box and giving you examples to follow.

Doing new things deepens your character and makes other people look up to you as being an inspiring person. Knowing you have the ability to do more things will also make you more confident. Doing unfamiliar tasks will stimulate your brain and make you smarter. Here is a list of over things to learn beginning today. From to , a pair of researchers studied 31 middle school special needs students. Sixteen of the students were given their typical math instruction, while the remainder of the students went through a week chess training program in addition to their regular math instruction.

This suggests that playing games keeps your brain sharp and helps you comprehend new information better. This type of list-making boosts your happiness and confidence, which are two components of intelligence. Intelligence is often seen as a predetermined trait, which limits people's motivation to try to change their own level of intelligence.

However, studies have shown that there is a link between IQ and happiness beginning in childhood and spanning across one's life.

When it comes to confidence, if you have a healthy self-esteem, you will be more accepting of yourself. Other people will be able to see this confidence, and will give you more credibility when you are talking about any given subject. Making a list of the things you have completed can act as a reminder of how far you have already come in whatever you are working on.

This can keep you motivated to keep moving forward with your work and continue to learn. Scientists have proven that being bilingual boosts your intelligence.

This means that learning a new language will improve your cognitive abilities. It can have a significant effect on your brain, even improving your intelligence in areas that are not related to language and shielding you from dementia in old age.