Want to test your intellectual capacity without spending two hours (and probably a bunch of money) on a full-blown IQ test? Then the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) might just be the one for you – but fair warning, it’s harder to get a perfect score than you might think.The CRT was created by Yale University Professor Shane Frederick in 2005 (though he was working at MIT back at that time) and consists of three math-based questions aimed at assessing your gut responses versus your more rational thought processes.The questions1. A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?2. If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets?3. In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long would it take for the patch to cover half of the lake?At first glance, these questions might seem incredibly simple, but there’s something important to remember. Frederick designed them specifically to see how good you are at ignoring your intuition – in other words, the first answer that you think of – and instead taking a more careful, analytical approach.While how many of the questions you can answer correctly is the main measure of the CRT, it might also give you something else to show off about if you score well and get to the correct answer quickly.The answers1. 5 cents – Did you say 10 cents? That’s what Frederick was expecting your gut instinct to be, but a 5-cent ball plus a $1.05 bat does indeed make the magical $1.10. According to Frederick’s study investigating the CRT, out of the 3428 people who carried out the test, those who answered 10 cents were found to be “significantly less patient” than those who answered correctly.2. 5 minutes – The intuitive response would be to carry on the pattern,100 minutes for 100 machines to make 100 widgets. On closer inspection, each individual machine takes 5 minutes; scale that up to 100 machines and each one still only takes 5 minutes.3. 47 days – The most likely wrong answer here is 24 days, with the instinct being to halve the number of days because you’re halving the size of the area covered by the lily pads. However, if the patch doubles in size each day, that means that it was half the size only one day before 48 days, thus the answer is 47 days. How many of the questions did you get correct? Don’t worry if you didn’t score very high – there’s plenty of reason to ignore intelligence tests anyway. Learn more in the video below. If you’re still looking for consolation, you might be reassured that only 20 percent of those tested at Harvard University, 26 percent at Princeton University, and 48 percent at MIT – some of the most prestigious academic institutions in the world – got all three answers correct.

This week, butter created from CO2 tastes like the real thing (according to Bill Gates), the first cave has been found on the Moon, and a new microcontinent has been discovered between Greenland and Canada. Finally, we investigate how to tell the difference between pseudoscience and anti-science – and how to fight both.Subscribe to the IFLScience newsletter for all the biggest science news delivered straight to your inbox every Wednesday and Saturday. New Detection Of Phosphine Deeper In Venus's Atmosphere – And Possibly Ammonia TooAstronomers have made new discoveries in the atmosphere of Venus, adding to the compelling complexity and debate over recent discoveries of the molecule phosphine there, and what it means. The unexpected presence of phosphine continues to perplex scientists, but the idea of life in the clouds of Venus continues to be a tantalizing possibility. Read the full story hereLab-Made Butter Created From CO2 Tastes Like The Real Thing, Says Bill GatesA start-up is literally making butter out of thin air. Using a host of biochemical wizardry, the company is developing ways to make fats out of carbon dioxide taken from the air and hydrogen from water, all without the need for animals, plants, or farmland. Read the full story here"Apex" The Stegosaurus Fossil Shatters World Record Fetching $44.6 Million At AuctionAfter less than an hour and a half of bidding, the remains of a Stegosaurus dubbed “Apex” sold for a whopping $44.6 million at Sotheby’s on Wednesday, making it the most expensive fossil ever to have been sold at auction. It’s not exactly unusual for a lot of money to be thrown about at a Sotheby’s auction, but the sale of Apex certainly surpassed expectations. Read the full story hereThe First Cave Has Been Found On The Moon – Is It Ready For Occupation?A tunnel has been identified under the surface of the Moon for the first time, appropriately on the Sea of Tranquility where humans first set foot. Although this particular spot is not a likely place to build a future colony, where there is one cave there are likely to be more, boosting the prospects for future colonization. Read the full story hereNew Microcontinent Discovered Between Greenland And CanadaA microcontinent has been discovered in the Davis Strait between Canada's southeastern Baffin Island and southwestern Greenland. In a new study, researchers from the UK and Sweden mapped the microcontinent using gravity data, and seismic reflection data to create a plate tectonic reconstruction of the region. Read the full story hereTWIS is published weekly on our Linkedin page, join us there for even more content.Feature of the week: Pseudoscience Vs Anti-Science: How To Tell The Difference And Fight BothThe internet was meant to be an “information superhighway” – a place where all human knowledge could be available, allowing humanity to find the truth of any situation at the touch of a button. Instead, it’s a place where anti-vaxxers tout deworming tablets for viruses and people pretend that birds aren't real. It’s a wild west of pseudo- and anti-science – and a recent paper into the two phenomena has now outlined just how dangerous it can get. Read the full story here More content:Have you seen our e-magazine, CURIOUS? It’s just turned 2! Issue 24 July 2024 is available now. Check it out for exclusive interviews, book excerpts, long reads, and more.PLUS, season 4 of IFLScience's The Big Questions Podcast has begun. So far we’ve asked “Why Are We The Only Surviving Human Species?” and “How Is Climate Change Impacting Our Health?”

For the last 10 months, NASA’s curiosity has been investigating a region of Mount Sharp that is of high interest. It has signs of a violent watery past and the chemical analysis has revealed the presence of many minerals including sulfates. And as the rover moved about it accidentally cracked open a rock. And inside it saw pure sulfur crystals.Pure sulfur had never been seen before on Mars. And while sulfates have sulfur, there is not a clear relationship between the formation of those molecules and the pure crystals. Elemental sulfur crystals form only in a narrow range of conditions. And none of those have been expected for this region.“Finding a field of stones made of pure sulfur is like finding an oasis in the desert,” Curiosity’s project scientist, Ashwin Vasavada of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement. “It shouldn’t be there, so now we have to explain it. Discovering strange and unexpected things is what makes planetary exploration so exciting.”The region Curiosity is exploring is known as the Gediz Vallis channel. It is a groove across Mount Sharp that has been an area of interest since long before the rover began climbing the relief in 2014. From orbit, scientists could see the presence of large mounds of debris. But the cause of them was not apparent. Was it landslides or ancient floodwaters that shifted the material along the channel?Curiosity has been able to provide an answer. A bit of column A and a bit of column B. Rocks shifted by water are smoother and rounded. Those shifted by dry avalanches are angular and sharp. Both types of rocks are found among the mounds.“This was not a quiet period on Mars,” said Becky Williams, a scientist with the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, and the deputy principal investigator of Curiosity’s Mast Camera, or Mastcam. “There was an exciting amount of activity here. We’re looking at multiple flows down the channel, including energetic floods and boulder-rich flows.”Curiosity continues to investigate the Gediz Valley. When even just rolling about revealing unique features, we can be very excited about the science that is being pursued here.

The James Webb Space Telescope has revolutionized astronomy in just two years of operations, but how can it see a galaxy 33.8 billion light-years away in a universe that is only 13.8 billion years old?

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Hollywood liberals like George Clooney can pen political op-eds to their heart’s content. Conservative stars meet in secret, keep their views off social media…

[unable to retrieve full-text content]So for all the constant backstage whispers on a Biden withdrawal - “Yes he will! No he won’t!- the unasked question is: if Biden drops out, who will the left-leaning…

A century-old puzzle may be solved.

Not emblematic of their sound. The post The one song Chris Cornell thought wasn’t right for Soundgarden: “A success unto myself” first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

A sore thumb. The post The one song James Hetfield didn’t think was “Metallica enough” first appeared on Far Out Magazine.