Do you ever feel like your thoughts are going around in circles? One minute, you’re thinking about your homework. The next minute, you’re thinking about your plans for the weekend.

Is it possible for us to slow our thoughts down or even stop them completely?

It depends on your definition of “thinking”, according to Michael Halassa, a researcher at MIT, the US. We basically go through each day in one of two states -- we either realize that we’re thinking or we don’t. Our brains won’t stop thinking completely until we die.

“The brain never actually stops ‘thinking’ in a broader sense. Most thoughts are actually in the background without us noticing them and there’s not really a way to turn these things off,” Halassa said. Human brains can unconsciously (无意识地) process about 11 million pieces of information per second, according to Forbes.

You can compare this to how a computer works. Even when you aren’t using your computer while it’s turned on, it is still running operations “in the background”. Your computer, much like your brain, is constantly “thinking”, even if you’re not actively using it.

Some researchers have referred to this phenomenon (现象) as “thought-chatter”. It describes the random thoughts that pop in and out of our mind at different times during the day, according to Steve Taylor, a psychology lecturer.

Some thought-chatter can be enjoyable, such as daydreaming. Albert Einstein came up with his famous The Theory of Relativity (相对论) while daydreaming at work. But too much thought-chatter can make us feel too anxious or worried, Taylor said. Meditation (冥想) can help us clean up some of this thought-chatter.

Life on earth evolves (进化) through the passing on of genes. How does culture evolve?

The evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins, coined the term “meme” in his book The Selfish Gene. According to Dawkins, while genes are the pieces of biological information from our parents which determines our appearance and how we grow, memes are units of cultural information — ideas and beliefs — that “pass from brain to brain”. Like genes, memes must compete for survival — if a meme cannot gain our attention. it disappears.

Basically, any shared idea related to culture is a meme. Myths, for example, are memes. Every society has its own stories that have survived, with some variations, for hundreds or thousands of years. The mythological dragon in Chinese culture is an idea that has been successfully passed among people for generations and is therefore also a meme.

Historically, memes have spread very gradually by word of mouth. Within Internet culture, though, a successful idea can be shared among millions of people within a few hours. Internet memes (which may for example, take the form of an image, a video or a website) may not last long, but they are particularly catching. They are shared “liked” copied and thus rapidly grown.

Then why do some ideas succeed in gaining our attention while others fail to attract us? It’s difficult to say, but humor is generally a factor. People are most likely to forward something to their friends if they think it is funny and the easier it is to digest the further the meme travels. Other memes may gain ground because they are something out of the ordinary. Aside from pure entertainment. Internet memes have a commercial aspect. Given their mass appeal, it is no surprise that advertisements turn up alongside them.

New research suggests that a gene that governs the body's biological (circadian) clock acts differently in males versus females and may protect females from heart disease. The study is the first to analyze circadian blood pressure rhythms (节奏) in female mice.

The body's circadian clock-the biological clock that organizes bodily activities over a 24-hour period-contributes to normal variations in blood pressure and heart function over the course of the day. In most healthy humans, blood pressure dips (下降) at night. People who do not experience this temporary drop, called “non-dippers”, are more likely to develop heart disease. The circadian clock is made up of four main proteins (encoded by “clock genes”) that regulate close to half of all genes in the body, including those important for blood pressure regulation.

Previous research has shown that male mice that are missing one of the four clock genes (PER1) become non-dippers and have a higher risk for heart and kidney disease. A research team studied the circadian response and blood pressure of female mice that lack PER1 and compared them with a healthy female control group. On both low-and high-salt diets, both groups “retained an apparent circadian rhythm” of blood pressure, the researchers explained. Unlike the male mice in previous research, the females without PER1 showed normal dips in blood pressure overnight.

These results suggest that the lack of PER1 acts differently in males and females. The findings are consistent with research showing that women are less likely to be non-dippers than men of the same age. "This study represents an important step in understanding sex differences in the regulation of cardiovascular (心血管) function by the circadian clock," the researchers wrote.