This article is from the magazine Les Indispensables de Sciences et Avenir n°210 dated July/September 2022. Could paranormal phenomena be a means of re-enchanting an existence no longer irrigated by religious feeling? When one shudders about poltergeists, indulges in divination or observes UFOs, the spiritual life is emancipated from the well-regulated framework of a rationality … Read more
A newly compiled dataset quantitatively captures beliefs in witchcraft in countries around the world, allowing investigation of key factors associated with these beliefs. Boris Gershman of the American University in Washington, DC, presents these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on November 23, 2022. Many previous studies conducted around the world have documented people’s … Read more
You’ve lost your keys, your laptop isn’t working very well, you’ve missed the bus, you’ve had misunderstandings at home and at the office…. In short, nothing is right. The culprit may be in the stars. It is the planet Mercury which has been retrograding since Wednesday: an astrological phenomenon which occurs three times a year, … Read more
The sentence is commensurate with the atrocity of the facts: Gabriel Carvajal, a Belgian national in his thirties, was sentenced Wednesday evening by the Valencia court to twice 25 years in prison, with a maximum incarceration of 40 years. His Spanish partner, Maria Gombau, co-author but considered irresponsible for her actions at the time of … Read more