When the genie is out of the bottle…

Deindividuation is a form of social influence on an individual’s behavior such that the individual engages in unusual or non-normal behavior while in a group setting. Why? Because in these group settings, the individual no longer sees themselves as an individual anymore, disinhibiting their behavior and personal restraint.

Salt particles that have dissolved in water never spontaneously come back together in solution to reform solid particles. Moreover, a gas that has expanded in a vacuum remains dispersed and never spontaneously reassembles. The unidirectional nature of these phenomena is the result of a thermodynamic state function called entropy (S). Entropy is the measure of the extent to which the energy is dispersed throughout a system, or in other words, it is proportional to the degree of disorder of a...

The first law of thermodynamics is quantitatively formulated via an equation relating the internal energy of a system, the heat exchanged by it, and the work done on it. A quantitative formulation of the second law of thermodynamics leads to defining a state function, the entropy.
When an ideal gas expands isothermally, the disorder in the gas increases. From the molecular perspective, the gas molecules have more volume to move around in.
Consider an infinitesimal step in the expansion, which...

Magical thinking encompasses the belief in assumptions that defy logical reasoning yet appear intuitively convincing. It is a common psychological phenomenon that persists across various cultural and individual contexts. While these assumptions contradict empirical evidence and scientific laws, they often serve meaningful psychological roles in promoting emotional resilience and a sense of control, especially under stress or uncertainty.Thought-Action Fusion and the Law of SimilarityA key...

Natural selection—probably the most well-known evolutionary mechanism—increases the prevalence of traits that enhance survival and reproduction. However, evolution does not merely propagate favorable traits, nor does it always benefit populations.Life is not fair. A deer grazing contentedly in a field can have her meal cut tragically short by a bolt of lightning. If the doomed doe is one of only three in the population, 1/3 of the population’s gene pool is lost. Random events like this can...

In 1653, the French philosopher and scientist Blaise Pascal published "Treatise on the Equilibrium of Liquids," which discussed the principles of static fluids. A static fluid is a fluid that is not in motion. When a fluid is not flowing, we say that the fluid is in static equilibrium. If the fluid is water, we say it is in hydrostatic equilibrium. For a fluid in static equilibrium, the net force on any part of the fluid must be zero; otherwise, the fluid will start to flow. Pascal observed...