Though some historians think that Valentine's Day commemorates St. Valentine's death on February 14, others believe that the event derives from a Pagan fertility festival known as "Lupercalia," which was held on February 15 in ancient Rome. The day was dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, and the Roman founders Romulus and Remus, and was celebrated by sacrificing animals and slapping women with animal skins, a technique thought to increase fertility.

Martin Lotze, a German researcher, studied the brains of both professional athletes and professional writers and discovered that their brain activity during athletic competition and the writing process was very similar. Lotze discovered an interesting difference between professional and amateur writers: professional writers used their speech-processing centres of the brain to develop their stories, whereas amateur writers relied on their vision centres to imagine the story first.

Despite having one of Europe's oldest histories, Italy has only been a country since 1861. Italy was a unified entity throughout the Roman era. It was thereafter separated into independent states, which it remained until 1861. Because of this lengthy history of individualism, the country now has such a diverse spectrum of cultural variants.

Scientists can detect whether a gene has been effectively inserted into an animal's DNA by adding some type of clearly recognised marker to it. When testing an anti-FIV gene in 2011, scientists at the Mayo Clinic employed a fluorescent protein from a particular jellyfish. The tests were successful, however the cats did glow in the dark. In fact, these cats' offspring sparkle in the dark! Nonetheless, their accomplishment is only one step toward an ultimate solution for AIDS.

When explaining behaviour, we often attribute positive outcomes to internal factors and negative outcomes to external forces. When it comes to other people's actions, however, we usually attribute them to internal characteristics. For example, if we receive a poor grade on a paper, it is the fault of the teacher; if a classmate receives a poor grade, it is because he did not study diligently enough. The actor-observer bias refers to this tendency.

Official statistics show that over half of all persons up to the age of 64 have the equivalent of a high school graduation, significantly below the OECD average of nearly 75%. Younger generations, on the other hand, are defying the trend, with 65 percent of millennials obtaining the certificate — and the number is climbing.

A translator rewrote the story in the 1600s. When the prince attempted to follow Cinderella, Aschenputtel (Cinderella) lost her left shoe at the stairwell.

According to the National Library of Medicine in the United States, 12% of people only dream in black and white. People under the age of 25 say they almost never dream in black and white, whereas people over the age of 55 say they dream in colour about 75% of the time.

The Egyptians placed a high value on the afterlife. They thought that by mummifying a deceased person's corpse, their spirit would continue on in the afterlife for all eternity.

If you want to do something creative, such as write a short story or design a dress, do it after a long and stressful day. This is because studies have shown that when people's brains aren't functioning as well as they should, they become more creative. This is one of the main reasons why people frequently come up with brilliant ideas while taking a shower after a long day at work.

During the first year of being in a romance, a protein in our cells called Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) that is vital for the functions of particular sympathetic and sensory nerve cells, appears to thrive. During youthful love, our senses are heightened, and our fight or flight reaction system is activated.

Italy was a dictatorship until 1945, while having a royal dynasty until 1946. Following WWII, the country decided to become a republic, and King Umberto II governed briefly from May 9 to June 12, 1946. He spent the rest of his days in exile in Portugal. In Italy, he is regarded as "the May King," a reference to his exceptionally brief rule.

Apart from  butter-fingers, crossfire, dustbin, fairy story, slow-coach and whoosh, Charles Dickens is also credited with coining the term "boredom" in the Oxford English Dictionary, which he used in his novel Bleak House (1852-3), but this has since been traced back even further, to 1830.

People tend to seek out information that confirms their existing beliefs while ignoring information that contradicts their existing beliefs. This is referred to as confirmation of expectations. It contributes significantly to confirmation bias, a type of cognitive bias. This desire for confirmation causes us to avoid information that challenges our worldview.

There is a lot of evidence that following a pattern for 66 days will make it habitual. If you want to be better at cleaning your house or going to the gym, make a concerted effort to do so for 66 days, after which it will become a habit and be easier to maintain (this also works for breaking habits).

Everyone has experienced the agony of rejection at some point in their lives, but did you know that rejection causes physical harm as well as emotional pain? Even if you are unable to feel physical pain, scientists have discovered that the reactions and cascading events that occur in the brain after rejection or physical pain are nearly identical. Furthermore, the same natural chemical is released in both cases.

On Mondays, the chance of suffering a heart attack rises by 20% for men and 15% for women. It's most likely due to the stress of having to return to work. However, scientists caution that alcohol drank over the weekend can potentially be a cause of a heart attack.

Fetuses with short protuberances have been observed as early as 16 weeks of gestation. While there haven't been enough studies to determine why this happens, some point to the age-old "use it or lose it" theory—the Los Angeles Times reported that periodic movements are required to keep the penile tissue oxygenated and healthy.

This study was inspired by evidence obtained from wrongful conviction cases. The study involved interviewing adult suspects in a comfortable setting and employing poor memory retrieval techniques. Within three hours, the suspects had been interrogated in ways that led them to believe in and confess to crimes they had not committed. They were even able to vividly describe the events, and some of them believed they had committed a crime as serious as assault with a weapon as teenagers. Are you willing to be persuaded?

According to the World Health Organization, only Belarus consumes more alcohol than Moldova. With each person consuming an average of 16.8 litres of liquor each year (excluding under 15s). Well that is a lot of booze..

In the good ol' USA, around 300 billion pizzas are sold each year. Not only that, but 93 percent of Americans have eaten pizza in the last month, according to a recent survey. Around the Super Bowl, there is a significant increase in pizza delivery sales. It doesn't get any more American than that! Unfortunately, there is no official statistics on how many of those pies were devoured as a result of Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos' "Two Pizza Rule."

Being an astronaut is a serious profession, but they do allow for little fun every now and again. In space, "fun" activities, like as imbibing alcohol, are absolutely outlawed. However, astronauts have occasionally attempted to defy this regulation. Bottles of cognac have been "smuggled" into spacesuits by a few Russian cosmonauts. Smuggle because they couldn't lawfully transport the forbidden drug into space. They have acknowledged to mislabeling them as "juice bottles" or concealing them inside hollowed-out books. One determined astronaut concealed a little bottle in their blood pressure measurement device's wristband.

If you're using romantic whispers to impress a potential partner, make sure to speak into his or her left ear. An MITCogNet study discovered that when emotion stimuli were delivered to the left ear, recall accuracy was more than 6% higher than when the same stimuli were delivered to the right ear.