Saying Goodbye

Even with these words, I can not express how much I will miss you

Hiya,

It’s with a heavy heart that I write this last and final letter to you, as I have so enjoyed our conversations over these last few years.

I’ve shared with you before that I didn’t do well in school and never considered myself intelligent in any sort of academic sense, but I am extremely curious. I have seemingly endless questions, and won’t willingly let go of a curiosity until it is satisfied.

When I started Curious Adventure in 2020, with time on my hands because of the Pandemic, I would wake up, choose something to learn, and write about it because writing helped me understand the material.

I didn’t expect anyone to read it, and I never imagined science — of all subjects — would be what I loved to write and learn about most.

I had always assumed we had learned everything we needed about the world and about Life. That brilliant minds, like Einstein and Galileo, had already made all the significant, monumental, life-changing, history-altering discoveries, and all that’s left for modern scientists is to work out the details.

But oh, how wrong I was.

These last five years learning about the amazing scientific discoveries being made and sharing them with you have transformed my perspective and understanding of humanity and Life itself.

I also noticed some patterns.

I noticed that we’ve reached a pinnacle point in science. For thousands of years, we’ve dedicated ourselves as a species to learning about our shared, objective external world and reducing it to the sum of its parts within scientific fields — biology, chemistry, physics, geology, astronomy, etc.

Meanwhile, the potential to explore our personal, subjective, internal worlds was severely limited to philosophy and social sciences, such as psychology. However, thanks to technological advances, scientists can now explore our internal worlds like never before.

Now we know that we are just as, if not more, diverse on the inside as we are on the outside — which is an excellent thing because diversity is easily one of our most powerful survival skills as a species.

Scientists are studying consciousness and the countless ways we experience our thoughts. We know some think visually, others “hear” an inner monologue, some do both, and then there’s synesthesia. Adding to this complexity is that all such forms are spectrums.

We’re also learning — after dissecting our shared external world into the sum of its parts — how these subjects work together, with new scientific fields emerging as a result, such as quantum biology.

Beyond that, bigger than that, we’re being reminded of what it means to be Human and that we’re not alone on this planet, but part of countless lifeforms — many of whom are far more intelligent and complex than we ever gave them credit for.

We’ve learned that while we are the last Humans standing, we likely didn’t kill off our hominin ancestors, the Neanderthals and Denisovans, in our often glorified violent nature. Instead, it seems our superior immune system favored our evolution over theirs, and that we not only coexisted with them, but also learned from and interbred with them.

Still, we are undoubtedly unique. We are also contradictory, existing across countless spectrums that we must balance.

I suppose, at the end of this curious adventure, I’ve learned most that despite the chaos, upheaval, and uncertainties of modern life, now is a wonderful time to be alive.

We are living during a dramatic transformation. Amid climate change, political upheavals, artificial intelligence, and other technological advancements, we undoubtedly face challenges, but we also have an opportunity.

We can choose to follow our hearts, embrace our compassion, learn from our differences, and recognize our prospect to work with Nature rather than dominate it. We know, instinctively, that the path we’re on is headed for a cliff, and that we are not living in accordance with our highest potential.

However, I have faith that, regardless of the trials and tribulations ahead, humanity will endure. It is you who has shown me this.

I’m honored to have readers as wonderful as you and hope with all my heart that you will continue to follow your curiosities, for they will lead you on unimaginable and remarkable adventures.

Please know that writing to you has been a pride and joy for me, and I want to personally thank you for your support and friendship over the years. From the deepest caverns of my heart, I hope you know how much I appreciate you. I will miss you terribly.

Your curious friend,

Katrina Paulson

Please forgive my awkward selfie. I’m used to being behind the screen, not in front of a camera.

P.S. While a long list, below is a small sample of the hundreds of articles waiting for you to explore in the Curious Adventure archives.

I’ve removed all paywalls from the articles listed below. However, I’m still working on removing them from the rest of the articles in the archives (as Substack requires me to remove the paywalls one at a time within each individual article) and hope to have them all free for you to read by New Year’s Day at the latest.

Humanity

Natural Laws Humans Should Learn (2022)

Doppelgängers Have More than Their Looks in Common (2022)

How Many Relationships Can Your Nose Take Credit For? (2022)

Experts Learn More About the Brain During Death (2023)

Loneliness is a Real Problem, but Researchers and Urban Planners Have Found Ways to Help (2025)

Combine Your Logic and Emotions Instead of Choosing Between Them (2022)

What Science Says About the Reliability of Our Intuition (2025)

According to Psychologists, It’s the Little Things that Make the World Better (2024)

Kama Muta is A New Name for An Old Emotion (2024)

A Little Awe Goes A Long Way (2025)

Three Styles of Curiosity (2025)

New Research Challenges the Idea that Economic Inequality is Inevitable (2025)

Physics & Biology

Entropy, a Small Word Containing Big Mysteries (2022)

Research Suggests Consciousness Uses Quantum Entanglement (2022)

Interbreeding With Our Human Cousins Changed Our Blood (2025)

Newly Tweaked Double Slit Experiment Designed for Time (2023)

The Number of Human Blood Types Just Increased to 48 (2025)

Research Suggests Trauma and Healing are Genetically Passed Through Generations (2024)

A Strong Pelvic Floor is Vital for Men’s Health (2025)

Scientists Discover Vital Purpose for Part of Female Ovaries Once Considered Useless (2025)

Scientists Discover that A Common Parasite Decapitates Sperm (2025)

The Cells That Exist Between Life and Death (2025)

Part 1: Discrepancies Between Men and Women with Heart Disease (2025)

Mice Join the List of Animals that Provide First Aid to Injured or Unconscious Companions (2025)

Quantum Biology (2023)

New Study Finds the ‘Silent’ X Chromosome in Mice Activates with Age (2025)

Scientists Sound the Alarm to Stop Research into Mirror Life (2025)

Scientists Discover a Uniquely Human Gene Linked to Spoken Language (2025)

Archeology

Remains Found in Southeast Asia Steal Title for World’s Oldest Mummies (2025)

Humans Almost Went Extinct (2023)

Denisovan Fossils Are Resurfacing and Teaching Us More About Our Mysterious Human Cousins (2025)

Scientists Discovered a Fossilized Forest in England (2024)

New Technology is Revolutionizing Archeology and Changing History’s Narrative (2024)

Footprints Offer Evidence of Two Ancient Human Species Coexisting (2024)

Archeologists Find Mysterious 12,000 Year Old Female Burial (2025)

Over 6,000 Years Ago, A Teen Girl with An Elongated Skull Died in Iran (2025)

Neuroscience

What Research Tells Us About the Influence of Lying on the Brain (2023)

Scientists Discover New Roles for Two Areas in Our Brain (2022)

Oh Shit! Science Says Cussing is Good for Us (2022)

Covert Consciousness is a New Kind of Coma (2023)

Scientists Gain Insight Into A Mysterious Sleep Condition (2024)

Researchers Studied How Using ChatGPT Affects the Human Brain (2025)

Humans Can Learn Echolocation in Ten Weeks (2025)

The Uncommonality of Common Sense (2024)

Neuroscientist Explores Mixed Emotions in the Brain (2024)

Our Brains Have a Microbiome Too (2024)

Scientists Pinpoint Brain Mechanisms Behind Auditory Hallucinations (2024)

Curiosity Leads Researchers to Identify A New Mystifying Quality of the Brain (2024)

Preliminary Study Suggests Sex and Gender Map Differently in Children’s Brains (2024)

Scientists Identify a Significantly Larger Brain Network in People Who Are Depressed (2024)

The Long-Term Influence of Bullying and Its Effects on the Brain (2025)

Studying Our Struggles with Social Media Detox (2025)

Scientists Discovered What Happens in Your Brain When You Zone Out (2025)

Research Shows Long-Held Belief About Concussion Recovery is Wrong (2025)

Mind/Consciousness

Free Will, Quantum Consciousness, Chaos Theory, and Gravity (2024)

Scientists Think They Finally Cracked the Flow State (2024)

Scientists Say Lucid Dreaming is a New Form of Consciousness (2025)

Research Based Methods for Improving Reading Comprehension (2025)

Researchers Identified Six Stages of Critical Thinking (2025)

The Mind Without an Inner-Monologue (2024)

Scientists Learn More About Aphantasia (2024)

Scientists Discover Why Toxic Thoughts Run Rampant When We’re Tired (2025)

Nature

Did You Know There Are Giant Blobs in the Center of the Earth? (2022)

Scientists Suggest Complex Life Formed as A Result of Earth’s Magnetic Field Almost Collapsing (2024)

Ig Nobel Winner Suggests Plants Can See (2024)

Research Suggests the Moon May Affect Us More than Scientists Thought (2024)

Did You Know Every Part of Pine Trees Are Medicinal? (2022)

Last Ditch Effort to Save an Ecosystem 40 Years Ago is A Shocking Success (2024)

Scientists Finally Identified the Full Story Behind Earth Shaking for Nine Days Straight in 2023 (2024)

Researchers Investigated Environmental and Genetic Factors that Influence Our Longevity the Most (2025)

It Seems the Eruption of Mt Vesuvius Turned A Man’s Brain into Glass (2025)

The North American Continent is Dripping Into the Mantle Beneath It (2025)

Geoscientists Discover New Use for Global Fiber Optic Cable Network: Seismic Monitoring (2025)

Animals

Researchers Discover the Social World of Male Elephants (2025)

Are Elephants the True Superior Species? (2022)

What Female Animals Are Teaching Us About Human Female Health (2023)

Scientists Edge Us Closer to Seeing What Other Animals See (2024)

Magnetic Bacteria May Help Animals Navigate Earth (2025)

Two New Discoveries in Animal Sciences (2023)

Animals Are Becoming Nocturnal (2024)

New Technology Captures Animal DNA in the Air (2022)

Same-Sex Sexual Behavior is Common in the Animal Kingdom (2023)

Mice Join the List of Animals that Provide First Aid to Injured or Unconscious Companions (2025)