Turkish communities living in the mountains in the north east of the country use a remarkable whistling language to communicate. Around 10,000 people use the bird-like whistle, which researchers suggest is the first known form of language to use both sides of the brain.

Whistlers usually speak Turkish when talking near each other, but switch to whistling when they want to convey a message over longer distances, which can be up to five kilometers. The whistling language has the same vocabulary and grammatical structure as Turkish, it’s just a different format. Scientists have previously assumed that all spoken language, written texts and sign language mainly utilize the left hemisphere, but this doesn't seem to be the case for the whistling l ...

It's true, and this estimate is the same for tomorrow, and the day after. This video explains the Years of Life Lost measurement - a measurement which takes into account the age at which deaths occur by giving greater weight to deaths at younger age and lower weight to deaths at older age (more information can be found here). The video neatly displays the leading causes of death in each country from 2013. According to statistics, Saudi Arabia really needs to chill out with its driving antics given that death by vehicle is the leading cause of early death there at 19 people per day!

...

Just wait until they put these in phones so that they can self-destruct once a user's contract is through!

What can we learn from chimps swinging their hips? In this Nature Video, the walking style of our primate cousins are investigated, and we see what they can teach us about our ambling ancestors.

Could the most widely used personality questionnaire simply be a farce?

In case you don't know, the Myers-Briggs test is an assessment test believed by many to measure psychological preferences in how they perceive things and help them in making decisions. According to the Myers-Briggs test, there exist sixteen different types of personalities. This Myers Briggs Test has a series of questions that require your answers, which in turn determine the type of personality you have and provides you with general assumptions concerning how your personality type best suits you.

Back in year-3 of my undergrad., I had to spend $20 to take the test for an assignment I had to write. While it was interesting to note how my personality could be read throug ...

As soon as we're born, we're destined to age. Some of us age gracefully - we enjoy years of youthfulness - while others experience hair loss, wrinkles, and greying earlier than expected.

Found in the core of each hair, a pigment known as melanin gives rise to a person's hair color. This universal pigment is also found in our skin and eyes, giving use our unique physical traits. Dark and light versions of melanin - eumelanin and phaeomelanin, respectively - combine in various combinations to create all natural hair colors.

Melanin itself is the product of a specialized cell, the melanocyte, which is found in each hair follicle, from which the hair grows. As hair grows, the melanocyte injects melanin into the hair cells, which contain the s ...

The rare Iranian spider-tailed viper (Pseudocerastes urarachnoides) waggles a fake "spider" - actually a fleshy lure with leg-like scales at the tip of its tail - to tempt birds within striking distance. Until 2001, the viper was known only from a single misidentified specimen collected during a U.S. expedition to Iran in 1968. The weird structure on its tail was so unlike anything documented in other snakes that it was written off as a birth defect or an abnormal growth. While scientists had suspected its unique tail was used for luring prey, new observations of the dramatic bird captures now confirm this. The new study also revealed the viper starts growing its tail lure after birth, and that it isn’t complete until adulthood.