Okay, this is a little bit quirky -- 15 cloistered nuns had their brains scanned while they relived a mystical experience. The study revealed that about a dozen brain regions were activated during this task, casting doubt on earlier studies suggesting there was a "God spot" in the brain -- a specific region designed to communicate with God.

We've long known that humans are attracted to novelty, but is it really the newness of something that attracts us or its unexpectedness, or the emotions it arouses in us? A new study exploring the 'novelty center' of the brain -- an area linked both to the hippocampus (crucial for learning and memory) and the amygdala (critical for emotion) -- has revealed that, yes, novelty is in itself stimulating, and the greater the degree of novelty, the more driven we are to explore it.

Franz de Waal is well-known for his primate research. Spiegel International has a fascinating interview with him where he discusses how humans share behavioral attributes with our two closest relatives -- two very behaviorally-different primates, aggressive chimpanzees and peace-loving bonobos.