Illustration: Teagan White for Wired MagazineResearch

Human Ecosystem

The Wired Atlas of the Human Ecosystem Wired.com

If some twisted genius vaporized all 10 trillion cells in your body—along with the hair, the fingernails, and other tissue they create—it would not leave empty space behind. A body-shaped cloud made of bacteria, viruses, and other former stowaways would hover briefly in the air. The cloud would outline your skin, delineate your lungs, trace your digestive tract. You might be gone for good, but your shadow biosphere would remain.

Vacillating IQ in Youth

As Brain Changes, So Can IQ WSJ.com

A brain scanning team at Kings College in London says that a young person’s intelligence measure isn’t as fixed as once thought. Without showing all cause and effect, the researchers found that IQ — previously used to predict school performance and job prospects — can fluctuate as much as 20 points, in response to tutoring or neglect, for example.

“A change in 20 points is a huge difference,” said the team’s senior researcher, Cathy Price, at the university’s Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging. Indeed, it can mean the difference between being rated average and being labeled gifted—or, conversely, being categorized as substandard.

One-fifth of the students in Dr Price’s 33 healthy British teenagers group demonstrated major changes in IQ, all verified by brain scan activity in the brain.

Illustrations by Lou BrooksThe Art of Influence Psychology Today