Here's why Friday the 13th scares us

Jane Risen, a behavioral scientist at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, has found that superstitions can influence even nonbelievers. In one 2016 study, Risen found that people who identify as superstitious and non-superstitious both believe a bad outcome is more likely when they've been jinxed. For example, they worry that stating they definitely won't get into a car accident will make it more likely to happen.

“Generally speaking, I find that this occurs because the bad outcome springs to mind and is imagined more clearly following the jinx,” she explains. “People use the ease of imagining something as a cue to its likelihood.”

Fortunately, Risen's research also suggests that performing rituals that ward off bad luck can have surprising results. In a 2014 study, she found that some people use them even when they don't actively believe, and when tested, both types of people reported benefits from such acts.

It's difficult to pin down the origins and evolution of a superstition. But Stuart Vyse, an author and former professor of psychology at Connecticut College in New London, told National Geographic in 2014 that our fear of Friday the 13th may be rooted in religious beliefs surrounding the 13th guest at the Last Supper—Judas, the apostle said to have betrayed Jesus—and the crucifixion of Jesus on a Friday, which was known as hangman's day. The combination of those factors produced a "sort of double whammy of 13 falling on an already nervous day," Vyse explained.

(Fonte: National Geographic - adaptado.)

Here's why Friday the 13th scares us

Jane Risen, a behavioral scientist at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, has found that superstitions can influence even nonbelievers. In one 2016 study, Risen found that people who identify as superstitious and non-superstitious both believe a bad outcome is more likely when they've been jinxed. For example, they worry that stating they definitely won't get into a car accident will make it more likely to happen.

“Generally speaking, I find that this occurs because the bad outcome springs to mind and is imagined more clearly following the jinx,” she explains. “People use the ease of imagining something as a cue to its likelihood.”

Fortunately, Risen's research also suggests that performing rituals that ward off bad luck can have surprising results. In a 2014 study, she found that some people use them even when they don't actively believe, and when tested, both types of people reported benefits from such acts.

It's difficult to pin down the origins and evolution of a superstition. But Stuart Vyse, an author and former professor of psychology at Connecticut College in New London, told National Geographic in 2014 that our fear of Friday the 13th may be rooted in religious beliefs surrounding the 13th guest at the Last Supper—Judas, the apostle said to have betrayed Jesus—and the crucifixion of Jesus on a Friday, which was known as hangman's day. The combination of those factors produced a "sort of double whammy of 13 falling on an already nervous day," Vyse explained.

(Fonte: National Geographic - adaptado.)

Here's why Friday the 13th scares us

Jane Risen, a behavioral scientist at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, has found that superstitions can influence even nonbelievers. In one 2016 study, Risen found that people who identify as superstitious and non-superstitious both believe a bad outcome is more likely when they've been jinxed. For example, they worry that stating they definitely won't get into a car accident will make it more likely to happen.

“Generally speaking, I find that this occurs because the bad outcome springs to mind and is imagined more clearly following the jinx,” she explains. “People use the ease of imagining something as a cue to its likelihood.”

, Risen's research also suggests that performing rituals that ward off bad luck can have surprising results. In a 2014 study, she found that some people use them even when they don't actively believe, and when tested, both types of people reported benefits from such acts.

It's difficult to pin down the origins and evolution of a superstition. But Stuart Vyse, an author and former of psychology at Connecticut College in New London, told National Geographic in 2014 that our fear of Friday the 13th may be rooted in religious beliefs surrounding the 13th guest at the Last Supper—Judas, the apostle said to have betrayed Jesus—and the of Jesus on a Friday, which was known as hangman's day. The combination of those factors produced a "sort of double whammy of 13 falling on an already nervous day," Vyse explained.

(Fonte: National Geographic - adaptado.)

Here's why Friday the 13th scares us

Jane Risen, a behavioral scientist at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, has found that superstitions can influence even nonbelievers. In one 2016 study, Risen found that people who identify as superstitious and non-superstitious both believe a bad outcome is more likely when they've been jinxed. For example, they worry that stating they definitely won't get into a car accident will make it more likely to happen.

“Generally speaking, I find that this occurs because the bad outcome springs to mind and is imagined more clearly following the jinx,” she explains. “People use the ease of imagining something as a cue to its likelihood.”

Fortunately, Risen's research also suggests that performing rituals that ward off bad luck can have surprising results. In a 2014 study, she found that some people use them even when they don't actively believe, and when tested, both types of people reported benefits from such acts.

It's difficult to pin down the origins and evolution of a superstition. But Stuart Vyse, an author and former professor of psychology at Connecticut College in New London, told National Geographic in 2014 that our fear of Friday the 13th may be rooted in religious beliefs surrounding the 13th guest at the Last Supper—Judas, the apostle said to have betrayed Jesus—and the crucifixion of Jesus on a Friday, which was known as hangman's day. The combination of those factors produced a "sort of double whammy of 13 falling on an already nervous day," Vyse explained.

(Fonte: National Geographic - adaptado.)

O câncer que afligiu dinossauros e ainda atinge milhares de pessoas todos os anos

Em um dia chuvoso há cerca de 77 milhões de anos, no que hoje é o sudeste de Alberta, no Canadá, certo dinossauro estava passando por momentos difíceis. O Centrosaurus apertus adulto, um primo herbívoro de tamanho médio dos Triceratops maiores que viveram ao lado dos Tyrannosaurus, tinha um câncer ósseo avançado em sua tíbia. A doença possivelmente se espalhou para outras partes de seu corpo e era terminal.

O diagnóstico desse dinossauro em particular de osteossarcoma, um raro câncer ósseo maligno mais comumente encontrado em crianças e diagnosticado em cerca de 25.000 pessoas por ano em todo o mundo, só veio em 2020. Foi a primeira vez que um câncer maligno foi diagnosticado em um dinossauro. A confirmação do caso exigiu uma equipe multidisciplinar.

O osso tinha uma protuberância em uma extremidade que foi rotulada como calo de fratura, mas mesmo à primeira vista havia vários sinais indicadores de câncer ósseo: estava visivelmente malformado e tinha grandes forames não naturais (orifícios abertos) ao redor da protuberância.

A equipe usou todos os meios de que dispunha para confirmar o diagnóstico em seu paciente de 77 milhões de anos. Eles compararam o osso com um osso normal da canela do Centrosaurus e um osso da panturrilha humana com um caso confirmado de osteossarcoma.

Eles também usaram raios-X, tomografia computadorizada (TC) de alta qualidade, juntamente com ferramentas de reconstrução 3D e histologia para criar biópsias para que pudessem estudar o tumor no nível celular.

"Isso nos permitiu fazer um diagnóstico de câncer positivo que está de acordo com o que os médicos da minha equipe sugeriram [que fariam] em um paciente humano", diz Evans. "Na verdade, partimos para seccionar o osso em série. Conseguimos rastrear o tumor cancerígeno abrindo caminho através do osso, do joelho ao tornozelo."

(Fonte: BBC - adaptado.)