We Have Concerns Jeff Cannata/Anthony Carboni

A new study shows that some insomniacs who claim to have been up through the night have actually been sleeping. What is going on in their brains? Anthony and Jeff take a look at the data and discuss how even our perception of our own sleep my be warped.

New research suggests that the farther back you are in a progression, the worse you are perceived. In effect, we judge those later in line to be of lower value. Anthony and Jeff discuss this finding, and try to figure out why being earlier might actually be beneficial.

By analyzing the brain waves of improvising jazz musicians, researchers now understand how the brain achieves a creative flow state. The findings have practical implications for anyone wanting to get ‘in the zone’ to generate creative ideas. Jeff and Anthony go with the flow and discuss how and when they are able to achieve this state of heightened performance.

Two stories this week, both involving kids who get more than they bargained for. In the first, a toddler is certain she hears a monster in the walls of her family's 100 year old North Carolina farmhouse. In a way, she was right. And in the second, a 9 year old boy pines for a pet he shouldn't, and his parents find out the hard way why they shouldn't have given in.

No two human fingerprints are alike. Even different fingers from the same person are unique. But new research from Columbia University using an applied neural network suggests there may be a new way to link intra-person fingerprints with a high degree of accuracy. Jeff and Anthony take a look at fingerprinting analysis and discuss the use of machine learning to innovate in ways humans cannot.

At the 1815 Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon Bonaparte’s final battle, more than 10,000 men and as many horses were killed in a single day. Yet, archaeologists have found the physical remains of only 2 soldiers. How did so many bones up and vanish? In a new book, an international team of historians and archaeologists argues the bones were depleted by industrial-scale grave robbing. Why? Well, for sugar, of course. Jeff and Anthony dig into this mystery and learn a lot about how sugar get from farm to table, by way of bone char.