ESP STANDS FOR EXTRA-SENSORY PERCEPTION, or an ability to sense or manipulate things without the help of your eyes, ears, nose, mouth, or skin. If ESP exists, it would allow people to read minds, see-through walls, or move things without touching them.
A researcher named Joseph Rhine invented the term ESP. He got his PhD in botany, the study of plants. But in 1927, he abandoned that field, moved to Duke University, and began searching for scientific evidence of ESP. His most famous type of experiment involved a set of 25 cards with the symbols shown on the facing page. They were named Zener cards after Rhine’s colleague, Karl Zener, who came up with the designs. In a Zener card experiment, a person tries to figure out the symbol on a card without being able to see it.
In 1934, Rhine published a book analyzing 90,000 trials he’d done with the cards. His experiments didn’t prove ESP existed because he didn’t always follow the best methods. For example, sometimes a little bit of the design showed through a card. Rhine’s work didn’t explain how such an ability might work either. ESP is not compatible with science as we know it, and there is no indication that mysterious signals emanate from people’s heads.
Esta historia es de la edición January 2021 de Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición January 2021 de Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Who's Your Cousin?
The great apes are among the most popular animals in most zoos. Their actions, facial expressions, and family life remind us so much of ourselves. Have you ever wondered, though, how we might look to them?
Is it possible to die of boredom?
To figure out if we can die of boredom, we first have to understand what boredom is. For help, we called James Danckert, a psychologist who studies boredom at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
THE PROBLEM WITH PALM OIL
Palm oil is all around you. It’s in sugary snacks like cookies and candy bars. It’s in lipstick and shampoo and pet food.
SERGE WICH
Serge Wich’s favorite days at work are spent out in the forest, studying orangutans in Sumatra and Borneo or chimpanzees in Tanzania.
ELODIE FREYMANN
When you’re feeling sick, it probably doesn’t occur to you to try eating tree bark.
Guardians of the Forest
EARLY, MAKESHIFT WILDLIFE DRONES HELPED TO DETECT AND PROTECT ORANGUTANS.
APE ANTICS
The Whirling World of primate play
Dr. Ape Will See You Now
HUMANS AREN’T THE ONLY PRIMATES THAT USE MEDICATION.
THE LEFT OVERS
A lot has happened for modern humans to get to this point. We lost most of our hair, learned how to make tools, established civilizations, sent a person to the Moon, and invented artificial intelligence. Whew! With all of these changes, our bodies have changed, too. It’s only taken us about six million years.
SO, WHAT IS A PRIMATE?
What do you have in common with the aye-aye, sifaka, siamang, and potto? If you said your collarbone, you re probably a primatologist—a person who studies primates. If you’re not, read on.
