Serious, yet playful

internalized
personal or subjective, being an integral part of one's attitudes or beliefs

pragmatic
concerning actual occurences, facts or everyday matters, practical

construction play
a type of play based on using building blocks in order to construct something; it sharpens child's mind and enhances dexterity, spatial thinking and creativity.

social scripts
society's patterns of appropriate behaviour

a healthcare environment
the healthcare system with its facilities and healthcare workers

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Inevolution

electromagnetic field (EMF)
a physical field produced by electrically charged objects, also those common in homes, e.g. a microwave.

After 20 years of researches, it was proven that EMF's are hamless for human health.
An EMF was, for instance, generated by high energy power lines.


intrinsically
by natural feature or ability, with relation  to the real nature of something/somebody.
.
He was exercising a lot, because he wasn't intrinsically athletic.
She was intrinsically a good person.

eradicate
to get rid of, destroy something absolutely, usually applies to something bad, negative.

Those rats must be eradicated from our house!
Government intends to make greater effort to eradicate racism.

scientific paradigm 
commonly known scientific achievement that, for a time, provides model problems and solutions.

It is frequent for scientific paradigms to rise and fall.
I'm a person devoted to fine arts, so I have no interest in or respect for your scientific paradigms.

infinitesimal
immeasurably or incalculably small, microscopic

I wouldn't hesitate if I were you, the risk of loss is infinitesimal!
Compared to what I gained, the effort was infinitesimal.

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Once upon a school...

cross-pollination
positive, inspirational influence among diverse elements, cultures etc. (e.g. in art or music)

We experience a lot of fruitful cross-pollination during our weekly jam session.
Cultural or artistical cross-pollination is a great opportunity to exchange skills and experiences and benefit from it.

pro bono
professional service done voluntarily, without payment, for the public good

You don't need to worry about money, these workshops are totally pro bono.
It's wonderful that there are still people willing to sacrifice their skills and time to support pro bono organisations.

per capita
per person

In Norway, income per capita is moderately high.
I heard that in Egipt they've got 7 cats per capita.

buccaneer
a pirate, term was first used in 17th century on the islands Hispaniola and Tortuga, borrowed from French word meaning... barbecue frame.

I only drink rum, as a real buccaneer should.
At those times, ships crossing this waters were exposed to attacks of buccaneers.

malleable
adaptable, pliant, able and willing to adjust to the situation immediately, even if it's constantly changing

Malleable people are perfect flatmates, because they don't make up absurd problems and their hardly bothered by anything.
I am totally malleable, any time will suit me.

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Darwinian theory of beauty

selective retention
tendency to remember messages that are more relevant to one's values, beliefs and interests.

Some may wonder how Batman remembers only the fights he won, but the simple and obvious answer is selective retention.
My school times surely had its bad moments, but luckily, thanks to selective retention, I keep in mind only the good ones.

cross-cultural
adj., involving/dealing with two or more different cultures.

Open mind is a facility in cross-cultural communication.
New York was the most cross-cultural city she had ever been to.

fitness signals
signals indicating person's or animal's good physical condition, for example well-built abs, strong, shiny hair or peacock's tale.

Female parrots tend to choose partners with the most visible fitness signals, like rich, colorful plumage.
Human beings' preferences in choosing a partner often vary from basic fitness signals and are more personalized than those in animal kingdom.

craftsmanship
one's great skill in a certain craft or high quality of a hand-made product, artistry.

With each new work, William Marble proves his amazing craftsmanship.
This 16th century porcelain vase is a piece of fine craftsmanship.

natural selection
biological process in which only organisms with the ability to adapt to environmental changes tend to survive and reproduct.

Probably, the end of dinosaurs was the effect of natural selection.
If natural selection was a subject, we could say that humanity passed easily.

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Unexpected homes

juxtaposition
act or instance of placing two objects, things close to each other, usually contrastive.

I find a photo of fat American with a skinny African child a bit disturbing, it is such a juxtaposition.

 

stomach-churning

adjective, means that something makes us feel sick and nauseous.

Tidy your room, this mess is stomach-churning!

Lilly was never able to cook any meat, she found 'raw animal flesh', as she called it, stomach-churning.

adjacent

adj., close to, next to, neighbouring, lying near.

New neighbours have moved to adjacent apartment.

In order to get some exquisite spices, you should go to the adjecent market.

barbell
a metal bar, with heavy discs of the same weight attached to each end, usually used in gyms to gain bigger arm muscles.

When Jim decided to improve his body sculpture, he started by purchasing barbell and some weights.
Our gym is fully equipped, so obviously we have barbells and various weights.

substraction
act of substracting, taking an amount (or number) from a larger amount.

The teacher said I should have done substraction, not addition in that equation.
We gain additional space by substraction of unnecessary elements.

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Happiness synthesis

prefrontal cortex

a part of human brain, located in the front of the brain, behind the forehead, is responsible for all kinds of cognitive processes like making decisions, determining right and wrong, analysing thoughts, regulating behaviour and even abstract thoughts.

 

Prefrontal cortex is the anterior part of the frontal lobes.
If you can't tell if it's right or wrong, better go check your prefrontal cortex!

impact bias

a tendency to overestimate the impact of some intense life events on our feelings, magnify strength and length of its influence on one's happiness.

After the traumatic accident, Jane had an impact bias and was strongly convinced she would never be fully recovered.
Impact bias is not only unnecessary, but also dangerous for a affected person, who may unconsciously worsen his/her state.

cognitive processes

processes of gaining and using knowledge, informations, remembering, perceiving, include also paying attention, learning, solving problem, understanding and using languages and other operations that affect mental contents.

Without our cognitive processes, we wouldn't be human beings.
He stood there, motionless, dazed, unable to speak, praying for his cognitive processes to be back on track.

turgid prose

pompous, excessively complex form of spoken or written language, with an ostentatiously flowery, ornate style.

Mr Lavish's publications are such a turgid proses that they should be released in diet version.
I didn't want to upset him by saying that his speach was a turgid prose, so I just answered that the vocabulary was extraordinarily rich.

immune system

system which protects our bodies from diseases, makes them resistant to infections and helps to recover after being ill or injured.

My immune system is not doing very well lately, I guess I should do to the doctor or at least take some vitamins.
Immune system is a pretty impressive mechanism, you could almost imagine you have a tiny army inside of you.

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The sound of Universe

peripheral vision
everything outside the center area of vision, called also side vision.

'She noticed him only because he got caught in the area of her peripheral vision.'
'Loss of peripheral vision is one of disorders a human eye can be affected with.'

celestial bodies
every natural object of our Universe, like the Sun, Venus, our home planet - Earth or the planets, asteroids and stars outside our Solar System

'Celeste used to lie on the ground at night and watch the glow of celestial bodies.'

'In the Copernicus' most famous work, celestial bodies were called the heavenly bodies.'

multiverse
a term in physics (calles also meta-verse), meaning a hypothetical set of universes, finite and infinite, based on a hypothesis that our Universe is not necessarilly the only one, and there are other universes possible.

'Through all her career as a physician, she seeked a proof for the existence of multiverse.'
'Multiverse is a lot like Heaven, you may believe in its existence or not.'

dust lane
a dense stripe of interstellar dust, that usually can be seen as a dark line running across a brighter background such as a galaxy.

'Without dust lanes, galaxies would look less interesting.'
'My grandma always said that dust lanes are what have left after a star went for a walk.'


black hole
a place in spacetime where gravity becomes so extreme, that it is stronger than any other forces, and prevents everything, even light, from escaping. They occur in place of stars after their death.

'If an object gets to close to a black hole, it gets sucked in and never goes back.'
'Black holes are said to resonate though time and space with a deep, wobbling sound.'

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