We live in an age in which people willingly lube up homemade electrodes, strap them to their heads, and then crank up some voltage to zap their brains. It’s called transcranial direct-current stimulation, or tDCS, and it is very much a thing — there’s some slick consumer products you...
Once upon a time, the internet was made up of awkward personal blogs and weird webpages about string theory. Then, for a while, it was mostly made up of cats (plus some quizzes). But in the past year or so, the internet has entered a new phase:...
World-class athletes are known for their willingness to embrace extreme training regimens and unorthodox treatments in their pursuits of physical excellence — treatments that often look a little outlandish to the mere mortals who watch from the stands. During the London Olympics, beach volleyball players and others drew notice...
We live in a post-tryptophan world. The idea that turkey makes you sleepy because it has a special chemical in it has been a standard part of Thanksgiving small talk since time immemorial. Plus, having a scientific term on hand let us pretend there was a pseudo-medical...
Patrick Nerrant has the “virus for tanks.” He means, of course, a “bug” for collecting tanks — his French interpretation of an old American idiom. Luckily for him, Normandy, France, where he lives and works, is a good place for a World War II tanks collector to be. Nerrant’s...
In March, one week after IMG announced it had signed Zach Miko, its first plus-sized male model, American Eagle Outfitters debuted a new commercial to promote Aerie, its line of intimate apparel. The commercial featured three men lounging about at home in snug boxer briefs. In a...
This spring, The New York Times confidently announced the return of chest hair, contextualizing the trend as an extension of the lumberjack look that brought with it beards and a more rugged, natural approach to men’s grooming. It’s hard to imagine a day of felling trees starting...
The promise of “power posing” was simple: Stand like Wonder Woman for two minutes a day, and you’ll instantly feel more powerful, more accomplished, and able to achieve. In recent years, power poses have become a standard of the productivity-maximizing business life hack literature. You could read...
Tyler Lyson has been hunting dinosaurs his whole life. Growing up in a family steeped in fossil fuels, Lyson benefited from access to land and heavy equipment as well as a knack for finding prehistoric creatures. Every year, Lyson invites volunteers — average folks from all walks of life — to...
I first realized I had a sweating problem when I was in the third grade. I was running around during gym class when my friend Dion stopped, cocked his head, looked at me and asked, “What the hell is wrong with you?” “What do you mean?” “You’re...
Martin Riese is a sommelier. But not for wine. Or beer. Or any other beverage you typically would think requires an impeccable palate and expert recommendation. No, Riese is a water sommelier — and one of the best in a small, but quickly growing field. (The Wall Street Journal...
It was the moment someone suggested setting up a Doodle poll to organize going for drinks that I realized something had gone wrong. You know how it goes. A casual agreement to go for drinks with more than one person all of a sudden gets stuck in...