Short-term memory is a temporary space for limited, newly learned information

Sensory memory is information collected from your senses

Lasting seconds before moving into short-term memory or being forgotten, sensory memory aids in environmental awareness and navigation. Key brain regions involved include auditory, somatosensory, gustatory, visual, and olfactory cortices.

Long-term memory formation may not need short-term memory

New research shows that long-term memories can still develop even when short-term memory formation is blocked, suggesting the brain uses separate pathways for short- and long-term memory. This discovery could help scientists open new avenues for treating memory loss in diseases like Alzheimer’s.

Various types of memory, each serving unique functions, create a complex brain system

These forms of memory, which can overlap in daily life, have been sorted into broad categories, such as short-term and long-term memory, and subtypes such as implicit memory, which uses saved information without conscious awareness that it’s being recalled.

How to remember everything

On average, people can remember seven different things using their working memory. To better retain all the things we need to remember, Tiago Forte developed the Second Brain method: a simple approach for immediately capturing, organizing, and storing the myriad tasks, learnings, and resources we collect throughout the day.

ADHD impairs working memory and limits the ability to form long-term memories

While ADHD is most often recognized for producing struggles with attention and organization, these executive functions are critical for capturing the data that creates memories in the brain. Breaking data into pieces, or chunking, helps address these struggles.

The hippocampus, a structure in the brain, plays a crucial role in memory formation

The seahorse-shaped structure transfers short-term memories to long-term storage during sleep. It is located in the temporal lobes, above each ear, and aids in spatial navigation and remembering directions.

See how computer memory really works—from binary bits to modern RAM

The video explains how computers store information as 1s and 0s, how RAM functions as fast working memory, and why systems utilize different types of storage. The video demonstrates how this process enables computers to operate.

Synaptic plasticity allows neurons to communicate effectively and form memories

First proposed in 1949, synaptic plasticity allows the brain to adjust communication strength between neurons. This ability to change synaptic strength—either briefly or over long periods—is essential for learning and memory, with long-term synaptic plasticity forming the basis of how memories are stored.

While dreaming, the brain connects new information with already-stored memories

During dream sleep, the brain makes connections between new information learned during the day and information already stored in the mind, creating a revised mind-wide web of associations. The dreamer also temporarily becomes confused about time and place and is subjected to a pendulum of strong emotions.

False memories can form during recall when new information is incorporated

Often formed due to suggestion and misinformation, false memories can lead to serious consequences, such as wrongful convictions. The time between an event and recalling it affects one's susceptibility to false memories.

What is space-time?

Space-time is a complex subject, but this Livescience article makes an effort to disentangle the topic. Somewhat akin to a sheet of rubber that can be warped and bent in parts, space-time is a bit more involved that that. However, the analogy makes this and other aspects of the concept simpler to grasp.

Researchers believe the brain consolidates memories, processes emotions, and plans for the future during dream states

Mathematicians often solve problems using wordless mental processes

It's a common technique among expert mathematicians, where thinkers rely on intuition, blurry perceptions and subconscious work—no writing, no formulas. The state is distinct from daydreaming, and often relies on sudden illuminations stemming from extended periods of subconscious reflection.

Only a fraction of LSD reaches the brain, but it concentrates in key regions

When taken, LSD is absorbed quickly (often within an hour of ingestion) and exerts its effects primarily by binding to serotonin receptors. While only a small amount enters the brain, it's active in regions controlling the visual and auditory senses, potentially driving its psychedelic effects. The drug doesn't linger in the body, and is typically undetectable within a day.

The 15-minute city lets residents meet their daily needs within 15 minutes on foot

Many cities have been designed with inefficient layouts that waste time and lower the quality of life of those who live there. In the 15-minute city, essential services—including work, food, education, and health—should all be located within a short walk or bike ride from where people live.

Tardigrades typically live between 3 and 30 months

While avoiding predators, including other tardigrades, nematodes, snails, mites and some fungi, these organisms feed on decaying plant matter and cellular fluid, which they access by puncturing cell walls with their stylets—spear-like structures within their mouths.

Short-term capital gains are gains on sales made in less than a year

In 2024, a single filer making anywhere between $200,001 and $243,725 per year would pay a 15% tax on long-term capital gains. But when it comes to short-term capital gains, they’d be taxed at the same rate as their regular income, which, in their case, is 32%.

Museums are updating their approach to wall texts amid 8-second-long attention spans

The explanatory text found next to art in museums has long been integral to the exhibit experience, helping provide context for artists, the piece, and cultural movements. Some institutions are removing the texts to allow visitors to interpret the pieces unaided; others are seeking to optimize length or recruit a variety of perspectives—called "labelists"—to offer less authoritative context for the pieces.

PTSD is a long-lasting mental disorder linked to past traumatic events

Posttraumatic stress disorder is a mental health condition arising from traumatic events with four key symptoms: intrusive memories, avoidance behavior, negative moods and thoughts, and changes in emotional and physical reactions.

The exercise sweet spot is shorter than you'd think—and longer workouts aren't generally better

A meta-analysis concluded that resistance training for about 60 minutes per week provided the best health benefit—decreasing the likelihood of death for individuals within a specific timeframe around 27%.

The average TikTok user spends 95 minutes on the app per day

According to HubSpot, the average TikTok user spends 95 minutes per day using the app, and an estimated 90% of users access TikTok daily. TikTok also has the highest average session length among social media platforms: Its users spend almost 11 minutes per session.

Title loans are a type of short-term loan with high interest rates

Title loans allow borrowers to use their vehicle's title as collateral for a short-term loan. Similar to payday loans, title loans often have high interest rates and are mostly structured to last around 30 days. If title loans aren't repaid, the lender can take possession of the borrower's vehicle.

The two phases of stress: fast and slow

The physiological response to acute stress generally involves two phases—the "fast" response in which adrenaline is released, and a second "slow" response in which cortisol is released. This technical resource reviews what happens in the body during each phase.

Most part-time MBA students finish the degree in about 2 to 4 years

In addition to the classic full-time MBA, there are a few variations to this degree. These include Executive MBAs (for senior managers), 4+1 MBA programs, and more, which are detailed in this article.

A 14-year-old "human calculator" shatters six mathematical world records in one day

A teenage prodigy from Maharashtra, India named Aaryan Shukla set the record for the fastest time to mentally add 50 five-digit numbers. He did so in just 25.19 seconds–roughly equivalent to one addition every 0.5 seconds. The math whiz said he practices calculations for around five to six hours a day.

Scientists keep track of time via light absorbed by cesium and strontium atoms

These absorptions happen in cycles, where one second is defined as 9,192,631,770 cycles of cesium atom radiation. Strontium atoms can be used to make clocks that do not gain or lose a second in 15 billion years.

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.

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

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.

While atoms are normally made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, exotic ones have been built with antimatter—alternate versions of normal matter that live for fractions of a second and are about a billion times as rare.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

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.

Use this calculator to find the dollar value of your mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care for your children.

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.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

Tattoos remain visible on your skin thanks to immune cells called macrophages

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.

Astronauts have repaired genetic damage in space using CRISPR—a molecular tool that can make precise changes to DNA and is used in single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses.

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks

Despite being favored by 87% of Americans, Congress does not have term limits.

See this overview of the firework rules across all 50 states, ranging from a complete ban on non-professional fireworks in Massachusetts to states with more lax rules like Indiana.

Track the location of the Voyager probes, currently between 13 and 15 billion miles away from Earth.

In 1945, Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and legendary animator Walt Disney began collaborating on a short film that was not completed until 2003, years after both men had died.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

Some renewable energy sources may weaken the resiliency of electric grids by removing outage buffers provided by coal- and natural gas-fired plants, which provide the system with more time to find a new power source if a plant goes down.