It's been snowing over the past week, and being cooped up in a small apartment while it is freezing outside has resulted into a cabin fever that has sent me down strange internet rabbit holes at three o'clock in the morning. Here are some of the most interesting things I've read this week.
Everyone assumes that memories are stored in the brain. But that actually might not be the case. A recent study trained worms to recoil at a flashing light. They then cut the worms in half, so that one portion of the body was just the tail -- without the brain. When the worms regrew from the bottom, the new brain that developed somehow knew to recoil at the flashing light.
Brain-building worms isn't even the oddest part of this list. An article that is even stranger covers leaked documents that suggest China is trying to build a time machine.
Meanwhile, the Middle Kingdom is not the only country that has an interest in bending spacetime. The CIA had a similar program in the 1980s, called "The Gateway Experience." Declassified documents are taking the internet by storm and reveal that craziness behind the minds of our spooks.
Last but not least in this pseudo-paranormal themed roundup is the exploration of whether humans will be able to live forever -- at least in digital form. Some people are now taking advantage of computerized versions of their late loved ones and "visiting" them in a virtual reality.