Author: jplucas

People can ?sniff out danger? because the brain responds to threatening smells, scientists claim.

Today we talk about words like honeyfuggle and pinkletink, puckerbrush and swop. These are words not found in most dictionaries. But you can find them in the Dictionary of American Regional English. Joan Houston Hall is the chief editor.

In June of 2009, a committee met at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to do a routine safety review of proposed research projects.One of those projects involved genetically modifying flu viruses. And during the review, the committee brought up the idea of “dual-use” research. “Dual use” means legitimate scientific work that?s intended to advance science or medicine, but that also might be misused with the intent to do harm.

Zoning out while trying to read this? No offense taken, since all of us do it at least a third of the time that we?re awake. In recent years a number of academicians have ventured into this previously unexplored territory, trying to figure out why our minds wander while we?re supposed to be paying attention. They were probably spurred on by the blank faces of their students during their stimulating lectures.

Depending on where you live in this great big country, a submarine sandwich might be known as a Dagwood (Colorado), a wedge (parts of New York) or a poor boy (in the Gulf States, where, we once discovered, a banh mi sandwich is known as a “Vietnamese poor boy”). This is but one of the fascinating entries in D.A.R.E. — no, not the attempt to war on drugs, but the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s Dictionary of American Regional English, a multivolume dictionary that shows that there are many, many ways of looking at a sandwich, among other foods. The fifth volume, from Sl to Z, was just published last month.

What unique words do they use in Maryland, Virginia and Washington? Or, for that matter, why do the same things have so many different meanings, depending on whether you are on the Jersey Shore, the Upper Peninsula or Fisherman?s Wharf?

When your former governor and your favorite Sudanese embassy-protesting movie star head to the clink the same week, it?s time to rethink how you talk about prison.

Many pet owners leave their home radios playing all day for the listening pleasure of their dogs and cats. Station choices vary. “We have a very human tendency to project onto our pets and assume that they will like what we like,” said Charles Snowdon, an authority on the musical preferences of animals. “People assume that if they like Mozart, their dog will like Mozart. If they like rock music, they say their dog prefers rock.”

At high school, it?s invariably the kids that day dream who get told off. But a new study suggests that it?s those of us whose minds wander that have the best working memory?and working memory is itself directly associated to intelligence. A new study, conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Science, suggests that a person?s working memory capacity relates to the tendency of their mind to wander during routine tasks. Working memory is the capacity to remember information for short periods of time?say, remembering a number while you dig out your phone.

If you?ve been puzzled by what your Texan (or Oklahoman) friends mean by a tin horn, or baffled by whether strubbly hair is a new style popular in Pennsylvania, or left wondering if you should be offended when a Mainer calls you a tunklehead, the fifth and final volume of the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) is here to set you straight. From it you?ll learn that a tin horn is a metal culvert, that strubbly hair is untidy or straggly, and that tunklehead is not a term of endearment.

If you?re having trouble reading the entirety of this article without your mind wandering off, it might actually be a good thing. Just stay with us for a moment. According to a new study published in the journal Psychological Science, people whose minds wander during minor tasks have a greater amount of working memory.

Eighty percent of college students drink, and schools have had little success reducing those numbers, or the problems caused by excessive alcohol.

Gnarly! Hella! Wicked! No matter where you?re from there are always certain words or phrases used solely by people in your region. Sure, some colloquialisms spread nationwide (like radical, perhaps), but there are some that never make it across state lines.

Could synthetic stem cells mean the end of certain forms of blindness? Scientists at the University of Wisconsin have created basic retina structures, giving hope to many with eye damage that their vision could be repaired someday.

If you?re heading to the store you might want to grab your bike instead of your car. A study out of UW-Madison says if everyone ditched their cars, health care costs could be reduced by billions of dollars.

“That jook, a real scaper that one, took the bonnet walker out back by the strand.”If that means nothing to you, you probably weren?t born in Florida, or at least weren?t living here in 1965.

If you?ve spent much time in Virginia, you might be aware a “jimmy” is a mature, male blue crab, “bluebird weather” is an Indian summer and “Sally Lunn” is a rich, sweet yeast bread.

An international particle physics collaboration has announced its first results toward answering a longstanding question – how the elusive particles called neutrinos can appear to vanish as they travel through space.

?If you?re headed to a carry-in, don?t forget to bring dope for the dessert. ?That?s apparently how we talk in Ohio, where, if kids have ?energy to burn,? we can push them out to play ?go-sheep-go.?