Word: explainer
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Chimps are smart, but humans are a lot smarter. Until now, there have been two competing ideas to explain why. The general-intelligence theory says that our bigger and more complex brains give us an overall edge. The cultural-intelligence hypothesis, by contrast, says that humans have specific areas of intelligence where we excel; our brains are not just bigger, but also better than those of our nearest evolutionary relatives...
...expanding economic influence of the Guard helps explain Washington's reported plan to name them a "specially designated global terrorist" organization. The designation would would enable the Bush Administration to press European corporations and banks to curb business activities in Iran, so as not to run afoul of U.S. banking regulations. Though European allies have been reluctant to accede to Washington's demands for sanctions, the limited measures adopted thus far have, nonetheless, made a dent in the Iranian economy, affecting both imports and domestic manufacturing, according to Iranian businessmen and analysts...
...that many researchers believe NDEs occur. "Many near-death experiencers describe heightened perceptions and clear thought processes, and form memories, at a time when the brain is incapable of coordinated activity," says Greyson, director of the University of Virginia's Division of Perceptual Studies. "Our current neurophysiological models can explain NDEs only if one ignores much of the empirical data...
...Dutch team found little about the NDErs that distinguished them as a group from those for whom clinical death was a blackout. Factors such as psychological profile, medications, religion and previous knowledge about NDEs all appeared to be irrelevant. To this day, Van Lommel can't explain why some people have NDEs and most don't. But the fact the experience isn't universal undermines, to his mind, a purely physiological explanation: if lack of oxygen were the cause of NDEs, then all survivors of cardiac arrest should have...
...What science has lacked until recently is an overarching theory that might explain why NDEs seem so coherent. In two articles published in Neurology, the second in March, a team of University of Kentucky researchers led by Nelson proposed that NDEs occur in a dream-like state brought on when crisis in the brain trips a predisposition to a type of sleep disorder. It's an hypothesis that's quickly gathered heavyweight support: "I think Dr. Nelson's REM-intrusion theory to explain NDEs is the actual physiologic explanation," says Minnesota sleep expert Mahowald...