Olympic Tech, Emotional Dogs, and Atlantic Currents

Well-researched stories from Smithsonian Magazine, Wired, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

The post Olympic Tech, Emotional Dogs, and Atlantic Currents appeared first on JSTOR Daily.

The Tech Olympics (Smithsonian Magazine)
by Brian Handwerk
The Olympics test human capacities to do amazing things. They also bring out the best in materials science, with suits and equipment engineered to make athletes’ performances just a tiny bit better.

When Dogs Smell Your Stress (NPR)
by Rachel Treisman
Dogs’ sensitive noses tell them when humans around them are stressing out and producing lots of cortisol. New research shows that this changes their own decision-making processes.

Curing Your Emotional Hangover (Vox)
by Anna Medaris
Even if you didn’t drink a drop, the day after an emotional event may be an unpleasant time for your body as well as your mind. The science behind how that happens may also offer ways to cope.

Charting the Atlantic’s Future (Wired)
by Sandra Upson
If the currents running through the Atlantic Ocean stall, it will dramatically affect weather, biological systems, and sea levels. Figuring out when it could happen, and what it would mean, is an incredibly complex problem.

Did Snowball Earth Help Create Complex Life? (Quanta Magazine)
by Veronique Greenwood
A world covered in glaciers might not seem like a great place for complex life to develop. But that may be just what happened on Earth. Clever new experiments suggest one way it might have happened.

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