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" We are all cognitive misers. Our brains do not expend mental resources thoroughly examining problems when snap judgments will do. "

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" I have a save file in 'Final Fantasy XII' that is 125 hours long. I have gotten into legitimate arguments over the rules governing the tapping of mana in 'Magic: The Gathering.' I don't like hugs or parties, high school sucked for me, and Nathan Fillion deemed something I wrote his 'Favorite 'Firefly' fanboy rant to date.' "

" When we overestimate the benefits of exercise, underestimate how many calories we eat, and overcompensate for a job well done, exercise is really a false protection from fattening food. "

" People are misers of mental effort. If we don't have the interest or the capacity to look into the arguments, if the message isn't personally relevant, if we judge that we already know all we need to know about a topic, there is no reason to spend precious mental resources. "

" If you wanted to travel backwards in time, you're out of luck. We have theories on how it might be possible to do so, but they all involve wormholes and black holes and other stuff that would probably kill you. If you want to travel forward in time, you just have to go really fast. "

" Most people would put me firmly in the nerd/geek category. It wouldn't be a change from where I've been put my whole life, but my place now has standing. Nerds are inexorably cool again. "

" Evolution is ultimately why cancer is so deadly. Take two biopsies from different sides of a tumor, and they can be genetically very different, making it that much harder to fight. Variation is the toolbox of evolution, and this variation gives cancer strength. "

" Researchers may like to think that, given all the facts, we make rational choices. Ask economists how that assumption works out for them. No, we are emotional creatures who use value-based reasoning in conjunction with our rationality. "

" Galileos still exist in science. Sometimes a lone proponent of a new idea turns out to be right. "

" Bullets are fast - even a 9-millimeter handgun launches lead at Mach 1. And the bigger the bullet gets, the more grains of gunpowder it carries, the faster it goes. Modern rifles can fling the small pieces of metal at half the velocity needed to escape the gravitational pull of the Moon. "

" Bigfoot does not exist because there would be evidence left behind - hair, feces, bones, kills, offspring, a carcass - if it did. "

" When the first episode of 'Mythbusters' aired in 2003, I couldn't drive a car. I couldn't see a R-rated movie. I was 14 years old, and I couldn't do much of anything. But 'Mythbusters' taught me that I could do science. "

" It is as though nature is a wonderful symphony that science sits in awe of. It looks closely at each player, how the tubas are tuned and how the strings are strung. Creationism lets out a loud 'shush' at such excitement. Just enjoy the show and stop asking questions. "

" Making the leap from Monsanto's business practices - whatever you may think of them - to the 'dangers' of GM foods is a mistake in logical reasoning. It is akin to saying landscape paintings are potentially evil because the painter was a serial killer. "

" The disturbing truth about science communication is that we have theories and ways of delivering messages that really are like putting a candle to the dark, as Carl Sagan would say. We aren't sure what will work, when, or how much. But for all that uncertainty, that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. "

" If a process or adaptation seems too smart for nature, that's a failure of your imagination, not the hand of God. I can make that claim because we have a working model of life's morphing and molding without it. "

" You can do yoga all day, you can run or bike or swim, but a pull-up will still be hard. It's not that you have to be a juiced-up 'lunk' to do one; it's a matter of physics. "

" Reality is on a delay. For you, nothing is now. Realizing this fact is unsettling. If we can only react to the past, how do we manage to navigate the present? It's easy to spiral into a treatise on free will while in the fetal position, overthinking our forever past. "

" A rainbow is the product of physics working for your appreciation of beauty. "

" Cancer is real-time evolution, and your body is the selective pressure. "

" Sherlock is a portrait of humanity - he takes nature's gift of thought and runs with it, bringing along all the human struggles, fears, and insecurities. He's the hero we could see ourselves being. "

" Whether we know it or not, each of our decisions is influenced by what we want to see or think. "

" By calling GMOs 'poison' and 'evil,' Bill Maher poisons the well of reasoned scientific discussion with ideologically driven fear mongering. "

" You can do crunches all day long, and you abs will indeed get bigger and stronger, but you will never see them. The only way to see the muscles you work so hard for is to lose weight globally - across your entire body. "

" Human atoms are the notes, their life the symphony. "

" In science, the kind of evidence matters; all unlikelihoods are not created equal. "

" We tend to accept information that confirms our prior beliefs and ignore or discredit information that does not. This confirmation bias settles over our eyes like distorting spectacles for everything we look at. "

" Climate change denial, anti-vaccination proponents, creationist teachers, faith healers, fake bomb detector peddlers, psychic frauds, alternative medicine pushers... we need scientific thinking. We need a generation of kids who think an experiment is more important than a preconceived notion or an argument from authority. "

" Imagine how many women could excel in science if not for the pernicious myth that science and math are a man's game. Likewise, fitness isn't defined by the Arnold Schwarzeneggers of the world. "

" No matter how many times you've seen the movies and the TV shows that have a protagonist leaping in the path of a bullet, physics forbids such sacrifice. Because of a bullet's radical speed, you can't jump in front of it, but you could get in its way. It's not as dramatic, but it does save lives. "

" As any successful mad scientist will tell you, energy ain't free. Popular culture tends to forget this, instead focusing on the destructive capabilities of our finely crafted death rays without noting the massive energy expenditures required to use them. "