What's the point of pain?

What is the most painful thing in the world?

Pain is famously difficult to quantify, and though our response to it may be subjective, most pain does have underlying objective causes. So what's the most painful thing of all? Many say childbirth, or a broken femur, but this article lays out one case for why, of all things, kidney stones may be the most painful experience. Prepare yourself to find out here.

The benefits of extreme pain rituals, explained

We naturally avoid pain and see it as a negative experience. But many traditional cultures incorporate extremely painful rituals into their religious ceremonies, claiming they, in fact, provide ample benefits. Researchers were able to observe boosts in happiness and a sense of belonging in a tribe of Mauritians after they undertook a rigorously painful religious ritual. Read about the study here.

Would you opt for a life with no pain?

Philosopher Robert Nozick famously posed a question challenging the philosophy of hedonism—the idea that maximizing pleasure is the greatest good in life. His thought experiment imagined people could plug into a machine that would give total pleasure, suggesting the idea itself is not a compelling or desirable one. Learn the arguments and ideas in this short video.

Your favorite music can minimize physical pain

According to a 2025 study, a person's favorite music can help them address pain. The report stated that “listening to a favored music genre has a significant positive influence on pain tolerance, irrespective of the kind of genre.”

A psychiatrist warns that chasing happiness can lead to misery

Rafa Euba, a retired consultant psychiatrist, argues that happiness is a vague and abstract concept that is hard to quantify. He suggests accepting that suffering and pain are a normal part of life. An attainable goal for one's life is to attempt to minimize pain, and pursue balance and contentment rather than a false ideal of permanent bliss.

Opioids are a class of drugs including fentanyl, heroin, oxycodone, and more

Since the dawn of pain, living things have sought ways to mitigate this evolutionary warning signal. One of nature's most effective painkillers is opium, a highly addictive, milky latex extracted from poppy plants. This forms the basis of one of the most prescribed classes of modern drugs.

Over 28% of US adults use yoga for pain management

According to a 2022 study, 28.8% of adults used yoga as a way to manage pain. That's a significant uptick from 2002, when only 11.2% did. The most used approach was chiropractic, which 85.7% used.

What's the point of archaeology?

Archaeology as a science may seem focused on tangible goods, with its emphasis on material evidence of peoples long passed. But its findings influence how humans interact today (and possibly tomorrow). From understanding and improving on concrete to...

What is a migraine attack like?

Are you one of the lucky people who've never experienced a migraine? Take the neurological condition for a whirl in this virtual experience sponsored by Excedrin, a pain relief medication brand. This 360º video is less than two minutes long and shows a snippet of an oncoming migraine suffered by a pastry chef.

There's no definitive test for inflammation, or a baseline for what's considered normal

Existing tests can pick up proteins that indicate an immune response—in particular C-reactive protein, which the liver produces when the body's stressed—but that won't tell you why there's inflammation nor if it's chronic or acute inflammation. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Key components of a joint: bones, cartilage, ligaments, tendons, and fluid

A human joint is any place in the human body where two bones connect. This junction allows for movement, but is prone to breakdown and pain. This nine-minute video explains normal joint anatomy and function, with particular attention to the different types of motion each joint facilitates.

Why the nature of consciousness is such a difficult problem

David Chalmers is one of the leading philosophers of consciousness. In this video, he outlines some of the major questions in this field, including the "hard problem of consciousness," which seeks to find neural correlate for every conscious experience.

Recent research found that the brain doesn't seem to massively rewire following amputation—upending earlier beliefs about the cause of phantom limb pain.

What is the function of money?

Nearly everyone uses some form of money to facilitate day-to-day activities, but what is it, anyways? Economists define money as anything that can be accepted as final payment for goods and services. Shells, beads, corn, and a wide range of objects have acted as money throughout history—explore the common but deceptively abstract concept of money in this eight-minute podcast from the Federal Reserve.

Itching is caused by stimulated nerve cells in the skin

Scratching produces low-level pain signals to the brain, distracting from the itch. Scratching also releases serotonin, a neurotransmitter that creates a happy sensation, which resets the itch signal. This can cause a cyclical itch-scratch cycle.

Do trees feel pain?

Trees don’t have nerves or brains. But when they’re wounded, they send underground and airborne warnings to other trees.

How grudges mostly hurt ourselves

Grudges feel like revenge against those who have done us some wrong and are very common. In this "Hidden Brain" podcast, psychologists explain how grudges end up only hurting us rather than those we hold them against. By using historical examples, the researchers show the counterintuitive danger of grudges and how people can learn how to avoid them.

At its root, cringe comedy is about empathy

Cringe comedy has never been more popular, even if it's too uncomfortable for some people to bear. Sören Krach, a professor of psychiatry at Germany’s Lübeck University who coauthored a paper on cringe comedy, notes that, although it may seem cruel, at the core of watching cringe comedy is empathy.

A primer on human tears

Tears are one of the many behaviors that differentiate humans from the rest of the animal kingdom. Why do we cry? This comprehensive and well-written essay explores various theories about why we cry, observes tear fluid as the only one that does not elicit disgust, and attempts to interpret the meaning of tears in different circumstances. See what all the fuss is about here.

The negative effects of cannabis use

After decades of criminalization, cannabis is a legalized drug in an increasing number of countries around the world. This allows for accurate, robust research on the drug's effects on humans . While weed isn't as harmful as alcohol, regular usage has its negative effects. As strains of the drug become stronger, so does its consequences. Watch this video for a lucid look at the effects of cannabis on its users.

What sleep is for and why you can’t live without it

Sleep is one of the most important needs that humans have. The body uses sleep as a time of restoration and rejuvenation, as body tissues repair themselves, growth hormones are released, and the process continues. Brain plasticity theorists believe that sleep is also used for the processing and consolidating of new memories.

What is psychoanalysis?

This nine-minute video, the first of a four-part series, seeks to answer the questions: what is psychoanalysis, and is it weird? The answer to the latter question is overwhelmingly yes. The answer to the first question is a bit...

Hear examples of what tinnitus can sound like to those suffering from it

This video, from a Scottish branch of the UK National Health Service, features different types of ringing, crackling, and other sounds that tinnitus sufferers experience. Individual responses to such phantom sounds may vary widely.

When is someone actually dead?

Death is a process, not a sudden flip of a switch. Technology can now interrupt this process at various stages, begging the question of when exactly death happens in the dying process. This 33-minute podcast episode explores this question and the...

What does it mean for AI to "understand" something?

This Quanta article discusses how programmers are working to create a reliable test for the depth and extent of the knowledge of machines. What does AI know and how does it know it, if it knows anything at all? There's been progress, but it hasn't been easy. Even humans can still be fooled some of the time.

Why the US can’t end poverty

Despite being among the wealthiest nations in the world in terms of GDP, the US has a major poverty issue, with more than 37 million Americans living in poverty as of 2023. Part of the issue is that the standards by which the US measures poverty are outdated: The official poverty measure in the US today is based on calculations from the 1960s. Find out more in this video.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

Read a deep dive on the 'all-purpose healing' peptide BPC-157.

About 12.5% of US adults experience a phobia in their lifetime, a diagnosis that hinges on the intense fear interfering with daily life and persisting for at least six months.

This poison ivy knowledge quiz—accompanied by photos of the plant's varied forms—may help you identify this common rash-inducing growth.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

Studies suggest when you sleep is as important as how much you get, and syncing with your circadian rhythms may lead to less fatigue and improved long-term health outcomes

A pickleball's loud 'pop' sound can reach 120 decibels, which is equivalent to a hammer hitting a nail

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

Bone marrow (soft tissue found inside certain bones) generates roughly 500 billion new blood cells each day

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

According to the physics of black holes, our 4D reality may be a hologram—a projection of information coded on a 2D surface on the edge of the universe.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

Learn more about the history of fireworks, which dates back to an accidental invention during an alchemist's quest for information about immortality.

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.

While the sun's gravity keeps the planets in orbit, their gravity also pulls on the sun, causing it and everything else in the solar system to orbit around a mutual balance point called the barycenter—the true center of the solar system.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by over 1.5 million Muslims.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

The animatronic shark from Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws,' the first modern blockbuster, was a complex underwater apparatus called 'Bruce.'

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

Pure water does not conduct electricity because this flow of energy requires the movement of charged particles, and water is a neutral molecule.