Smarval
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Curiosities, science and discoveries, all in one place.
Published articles: 50
The feeling of being completely absorbed in an activity, losing track of time, only got an official name in the 1970s, through
Canine psychologist Stanley Coren estimates that an average dog understands around 165 words or signals, while the smartest
Psychologist Anders Ericsson's original study, on violin students in Berlin, found that the best performers had accumulated, by age
British anthropologist Robin Dunbar proposed, in the 1990s, a now-famous figure: roughly 150 stable social relationships the human brain can
The "Aloha Friday" tradition began in Hawaii in the 1960s for a surprisingly commercial reason: local Hawaiian
A University of Exeter study (2014) compared completely bare offices, with no plants at all, to identical offices where a few
The oldest known written recipes don't come from a cookbook - they come from three cuneiform clay tablets, dated to around
Avoiding meat is a practice thousands of years old - it already appears in Pythagorean philosophy and in
Throwing together a meal from whatever's already in the fridge isn't just an improvised fallback anymore - it's become a culinary movement with
A study by American researcher Brian Wansink at Cornell estimated that an adult makes over 200 food-related decisions a day - from
The phrase "eating for two" wrongly suggests doubling calorie intake during pregnancy. Current medical guidelines recommend something quite
The idea of estimating the fertile window from a menstrual calendar isn't a recent app invention - it's nearly a century old. It was
The concept of VO2 Max - the maximum amount of oxygen the body can use during intense effort - traces back to the work of
By definition, a vitamin is an essential nutrient the body can't make on its own and must get from food. Vitamin D breaks that
The official recommendation of 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, used as an international benchmark, was never meant as
For nearly 50 years, US dietary guidelines recommended strictly limiting dietary cholesterol - and eggs, being high in cholesterol, were among the
The test used today to measure nicotine dependence carries the name of Swedish psychologist Karl-Olov Fagerström, who first
The FINDRISC (Finnish Diabetes Risk Score) was developed in Finland and formally published in 2003, based on data from the
The "mmHg" unit on every blood pressure reading comes directly from the original measuring devices, which literally used a
Almost everything modern medicine knows about cardiovascular risk factors - cholesterol, blood pressure, smoking - traces back to a single
Body fat percentage can't drop, healthily, all the way to zero - the body needs a baseline called "essential fat" just to
The "ideal weight" tables that sat in doctors' offices for decades weren't built by health researchers - they came from actuaries at the
The number on a scale doesn't say where the weight actually sits - and that turns out to matter. That's the idea behind the
There are real, rather than theoretical, examples of short trips - an extended weekend, a few-day getaway nearby - carefully planned around
The term "financial independence," as it circulates online today, is often associated with the idea of never working again. The concept's origin
There are stories - some partly legendary, others documented - about small sums left one or two centuries ago, through a will or
Consumer studies show that most of a family's daily spending doesn't go toward planned purchases, but toward a series of
A card with no annual fee seems, obviously, like the cheaper choice - but the real cost of a credit card rarely lies in
Kailash, a peak in Tibet, is considered sacred simultaneously by four different religions - Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Bön - and, unlike almost
Booksellers around the world have informally reported for decades that certain books "disappear" from shelves far more often than others - the Bible and
The Dionysia, held in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus, is considered one of the oldest organized forms of theatre in
São Paulo, one of the largest cities in South America, legally banned street billboards in 2007 - a radical measure, unique at
Pediatric research confirms something that sounds almost like an old wives' tale: most of a child's height growth happens during sleep, not
The standard duration used to calculate a due date - roughly 40 weeks from the last menstrual period - is a statistical average, not a
Blood type is inherited according to clear, though not always intuitive, genetic rules - which is why many parents are surprised when
One of the most documented medical cases involving prolonged fasting dates back to the 1960s: a man in Scotland fasted, with
Adonis is one of the best-known figures in Greek mythology - a young man of such remarkable beauty that, in legend, both the
It sounds counterintuitive, but it's a real phenomenon: when the body perceives a consistently low water intake, it tends to retain more
There's a recurring observation in personal finance, informally known as the "latte effect": a small, daily recurring expense - a coffee, a
Urban mobility studies show big differences between cities when it comes to walking - not necessarily because residents consciously choose exercise, but because
The idea of a "biological age" lower than your legal one often sounds like a supplement-ad slogan. The scientific reality is
An average person spends, cumulatively, whole months of their life standing in line - at the store, at the counter, in traffic. If you look at
The world record in the raw squat is over 500 kilograms - an almost unimaginable figure for anyone outside powerlifting. But this exact type of
Over 80% of the world's adult population consumes caffeine daily, in one form or another - coffee, tea, energy drinks. Statistically, it's the most
It's an almost universal feeling: summers fly by, winters drag on. The explanation isn't about the calendar, it's about memory. The brain measures elapsed time not in
There are luxury city-break packages sold for over 100,000 euros for a few days - private suites overlooking the
The calorie, as it appears today on every food label, was defined in 1824 by French chemist Nicolas Clément - as a unit of
There's a well-documented phenomenon in sleep science: people systematically misjudge how well they slept. Some wake up convinced they
Body Mass Index looks, at first glance, like a medical invention - a number meant to say whether your weight is "normal." The reality is
Today, Smarval welcomes a special contributor—a lover of words and epigrams, whose life experience and sense of humor continue