One trick that writers employ to sound more insightful (and therefore, more interesting) is using stories. This works especially well when the story is historical; the less familiar it is to the reader, the better. The writer is showcasing an idea the reader likely doesn’t know and something that has a historical basis, making it sound more legitimate. Readers will also stick to pieces that use stories because they’re easier to digest than argumentative prose and are therefore more interesting because they can understand them. Read full article here
Oddities
The Curious Case of the Ancient Brain
In 2008, archaeologists examining the University of York discovered something strange: the decapitated head of an Iron Age man and his very shrivelled but very much intact brain. How a centuries-old brain was preserved is still unknown, but research suggests that it could have been because of brain diseases like dementia. The Yorkshire man’s brain’s proteins were bunched up together, much like how dementia causes brain proteins to bunch up into plaques. This bunching up, or aggregation, could continue even after death, turning regions of the brain into hard masses. Read full article here
Merv
September 30, 2022
