BY KAHA GEDI

How can the same day feel so different? Let’s explore two perspectives from Anna, a student, who experienced just that.

Scenario one:

“Today I had to wake up early for school, but I dreaded it because I slept late yesterday working on an assignment I procrastinated. Thankfully, I finished it before the deadline, but that didn’t stop my day from being ruined. I just feel like a failure for not doing better, and continuously letting not only myself down, but everyone else as well.”

“Additionally, I went through a lot today. I lost my wallet, which someone found, and if you think it can’t get any worse, my teachers gave me loads of homework. I just want to sleep and hope tomorrow will be a better day.”

Scenario two:

“Today, being mentally drained was an understatement. I procrastinated on a project and woke up quite grumpy this morning. However, I plan to do better next time and learn from my mistakes. I apologized to my loved ones for being cranky and irritable, which is a big step for me, because taking accountability is one of the biggest goals I’m working on.”

“Better yet, during my third-period class, I was called down to the office, and I was so scared, because I didn’t know if I was in trouble or not. When I got there, they said ‘Here’s your wallet, someone found it for you.’ I was awestruck. I didn’t even notice it was gone, and I’m even more surprised everything was there. This made my whole day that much better. I think things are looking up for me, I will try my best to work on myself, have a better day tomorrow, and deservingly get some rest.”

Anna had the same day, but these two scenarios produced very different outcomes. In the first scenario she focused on the negatives which completely clouded her day, but in the second she focused on the positives while also regarding the negatives as well. My question to you is, what kind of movie will you replay?

Did you know that our brain organizes our days into scenes like a movie? Just like how in movies, directors and editors decide when one scene ends and a new one begins. How does the brain choose? Christopher Baldassano (an Associate Professor of Psychology at Columbia University) and his team made a theory that it is caused by major shifts in our environment. Whether that be: from home, to school, or the different classes in between, to a movie theater, to a cafe, entering a new place our brains create a new scene or boundary between those memories.

According to livescience.com, alongside that theory, they further hypothesized that “These boundaries are created by our own past experiences and feelings about certain events, or environments. So, while a change in environment can affect the segmentation of someone’s day, it’s possible that this influence can be overridden by our priorities and goals.” Which is what I was portraying in the beginning of my article.

To explore this hypothesis, they experimented. The study involved 16 short audio narratives, each featuring four locations: (a restaurant, a lecture hall, a grocery store, and another restaurant), and four social situations: (a business deal, a “meet-cute,” a proposal, and a breakup).

Volunteers listened to these narratives while their brain activity was scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The researchers focused on tracking changes in brain activity, particularly in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), which is responsible for perceiving and interpreting moment-to-moment input from our surroundings. They found that mPFC activity spiked when the key social events in the storyline changed, such as when the business deal was closed, or the marriage proposal was accepted. However, if the participants were instructed to focus on features of the locations instead, such as sitting down at a restaurant and ordering food, their segmentation of the events changed, as did their brain activity.

The study also revealed differences in how the volunteers remembered the narratives after hearing them. When the participants were asked to recall the part of the story, they were not asked to pay attention to, they forgot many details. This shows that our brain doesn’t just record what happens to us; it actively shapes our reality based on what we focus on.

I would like to conclude this article with a knowledge question provided by Christopher Baldassano himself. “To what extent does this [shift in focus] change the way that we either frame a story, or the kind of details they include?”

BY KHADIJA KARIM

Have you ever been to a restaurant and suddenly felt hungry because of the delicious smell in the air? This isn’t just a coincidence. Like many fast-food restaurants, chain restaurants use scent to make us want to eat there. It’s a clever trick that uses our senses and makes us crave things we haven’t even thought about. Let’s explore how restaurants use scent to entice us. Why is it so effective?

Smell is one of our strongest senses. When we smell something, our brains can instantly associate that with memories and emotions. That’s why when it smells like freshly baked cookies, it reminds us of home, or a holiday. Restaurants know this and use scent to stimulate hunger and mood. It makes us more likely to stop and buy food.

Think about the smell of a pizza shop. The smell of melted cheese. Spicy pepperoni. Fresh, irresistible dough. You don’t plan on buying pizza, but the smell can change your mind. Like a bakery with the warm smell of bread and desserts. It makes your mouth water before you even look at the food.

Sometimes the amazing smell we notice doesn’t even come from the food being cooked. Many restaurant chains use machines to remove artificial odors. This way, the odour can travel further and be stronger than it would naturally. Popular places like Subway can use scent machines to make the surrounding area smell like freshly baked bread. Even if they weren’t cooking at the time, it makes a passerby suddenly want to stop and eat a sandwich.

These synthetic odors can be controlled and spread through vents, or even sprayed outside the restaurant to attract people. It’s like a restaurant sending out a message saying, “Smell this amazing food! Why don’t you want it? Eat here?”

Restaurants use scent to attract us because it works! Smells come to us before we even look at the food or look at the menu. Smells like those that attract what we see or hear affect us immediately and can make us hungry even if we’ve never been there before. It’s a clever way to grab attention and make us want to eat.

Chain restaurants use scent to attract us and make us crave food. Whether it’s natural odors from cooking, or synthetic odors pumped into the air. This strategy works. Smell has a huge effect on our brain and mood. The next time you walk past a fast-food restaurant and suddenly feel hungry, think about real food, or smells, they make your stomach growl.

BY YAHYA KARIM

Exoplanets—planets orbiting stars outside our solar system—continue to reveal incredible diversity and challenge our understanding of planetary formation and survival. Some planets are just forming, such as those around the star V960 Mon. Here, astronomers using advanced telescopes observed clumps of gas being made into planet-like shapes, marking the early stages of planetary birth. This discovery provides a unique view into how giant planets come into existence.

Around the star PDS 70, researchers spotted something even rarer: sibling planets in the same orbit. One planet, roughly the size of Jupiter, orbits the star, while behind it there is a large cloud of gas and dust that may be forming into another planet. These “trojan planets” are rare and offer new information into planetary systems that form in close coordination.

Some exoplanets defy expectations. For example, the exoplanet LTT9779 b reflects an astonishing 80% of its star’s light, making it the most reflective planet ever discovered. It is extremely reflective nature comes from metallic clouds composed of glass, like silicates and titanate particles. What’s puzzling is how the planet still maintains its atmosphere, given its close proximity to its star. Similarly, the exoplanet Halla, which orbits a dying star in the red giant phase, should have been destroyed, but it still survives. This “zombie planet” suggests it may have formed after the star shrank or survived an unusual stellar event.

Extreme environments are also possible for exoplanets. GJ 1214b, located just forty light-years from earth, is covered in thick clouds of steam, hinting that it may have significant amounts of water. On the other hand, TRAPPIST-1b, which orbits a red dwarf star, has no atmosphere and reaches temperatures as high as 450°F, making it uninhabitable.

Even stranger, the exoplanet KELT-9b is hotter than some stars, with surface temperatures reaching 7,800°F. Its immense heat causes hydrogen molecules in its atmosphere to break apart. Meanwhile, WASP-121b, located about nine hundred light-years away, is stretched into a football shape due to the great gravitational pull from its nearby star.

These discoveries just show how different, bizarre, and mysterious exoplanets really are. Each planet shows its properties, and how it is unique. All this information will further help us understand how to develop our knowledge about space, and maybe even help us in our future journeys in space.