The words “rape” and “sexual assault” are powerful under any circumstances. When the alleged victim is a patient in a nursing home suffering through the late stages Alzheimer’s disease, the apparent crime takes on a certain kind of perverse nature. Add to this picture a perpetrator who is a former state senator, and even the most open-minded of us is ready to abandon the tenet “innocent until proven guilty.”
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The science behind the “36 questions” that are the key to romance has been widely misrepresented. It seems that scientific findings trickle down from the laboratory to the general public in various forms. Sometimes it happens in the best way possible, like water through a drip coffee filter, so that one ends up with a pleasant, stimulating brew of digestible knowledge without the bitter taste of mystifying scientific terminology.
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Late last month, the internet was buzzing about an image of a dress. The passionate debate about whether the dress was blue and black or gold and white drew wide attention, even engaging the likes of Taylor Swift and John Boehner. Ultimately, the confusion was attributed by some to the lighting of the photograph. This is only partly true. The science behind the varying perceptions is complex, fascinating, and perhaps a bit disconcerting.
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Aside from obvious physical distinctions, how different are men and women? This age-old question has been the topic of extensive research and the focus of impassioned debate across many disciplines. Psychologists pursue this question in order to establish the role of sex in the etiology of mental illness, and to contribute to the general understanding of the workings of the mind.
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