Bilingual Babies Learn in the Womb
Babies who hear two languages regularly when they are in their mother's womb are more open to being bilingual, a study published this week in Psychological Science shows. Researchers tested one group of newborns who only heard English in the womb and the others who heard English and Tagalog and the infants exposed to two languages during pregnancy showed an equal preference for each one.... posted on Nov 14 2010, 2,457 reads

7 Health Benefits of Sharing
A recent Harvard Business School study found that giving a sum of money to someone else lifted well-being than spending it on oneself. Preventative medicine professor Stephen Post writes that giving to others has been shown to increase health benefits in people with chronic illness. Neuroeconomics researcher Paul Zak found that people who share and experience gratitude release oxytocin, a hormone ... posted on Nov 08 2010, 8,357 reads

Oliver Sacks: A Neurologist Examines 'The Mind's Eye'
Neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks has spent his career examining patients struggling to survive with a wide range of neurological conditions: Tourette's syndrome, autism, Parkinson's, musical hallucinations, Alzheimer's disease and phantom-limb syndrome. But in his latest book, "The Mind's Eye," Sacks turns the tables on himself. He writes about being diagnosed with a rare eye tumor and the subs... posted on Nov 04 2010, 4,230 reads

Athelete Defies All Odds
Four years ago, Yelandi Rivero was confined to his bed at home, paralyzed from the waist down. Rivero was seriously injured in an ATV accident. Doctors told him he would never walk again. But Rivero refused to accept that diagnosis, and was determined to return to the racquetball court. Using a walker after a year and a half of rehabilitation, he started showing up again at his outdoor racquetball... posted on Oct 20 2010, 2,490 reads

Beyond the Paycheck
Feeling stressed or overwhelmed? That may be a good thing. In several recent studies, social scientists have zeroed in on why paychecks alone can't explain the link between work and well-being. The findings suggest that, although people often yield to idleness, deep down they seek excuses to stay busy, because busyness is happiness. Even trivial tasks make us far happier than no tasks at all. In o... posted on Oct 14 2010, 4,108 reads

A Farmer's Market... in the Hospital?
In health professions, the kitchen is as crucial as the clinic. At least according to Dr. Preston Maring, a gynecologist and obstetrician with three decades as a surgeon. Food is at the center of health and illness, he says, and so doctors must make all aspects of it, "growing, buying, cooking, eating," a mainstay of their medical educations, personal lives, as well as their practice. A man who wa... posted on Oct 03 2010, 1,790 reads

Can Exercise Make Kids Smarter?
One memorable Swedish study found that, among more than a million 18-year-old boys who joined the army, better fitness correlated with higher I.Q.'s, even among identical twins. Hoping to learn more about how fitness affects the developing brain, a recent study found that fit children had significantly larger basal ganglia, a key part of the brain that aids in maintaining attention and "executive ... posted on Sep 29 2010, 2,633 reads

Live Boldly
It's easy to get discouraged. Taking the risk to manifest our ideas has always been just that: a risk. With so many daily challenges and voices of caution, the space between our ideas and their manifestation in the world can feel like an abyss. Yet, as Wendy Strgar notes, "Living with one foot out the door is the silent and common disease that infects us often without our knowing it." She suggests... posted on Sep 27 2010, 5,718 reads

Doing Silence
Allan Hall was seeking still moments. Somehow, he found himself at a London boys' school, where Headmaster David Boddy leads a period of quiet time at the start of each day. For ten minutes, three hundred boys sit in silence. Many close their eyes. All fidgeting ceases. It made Hall think. What do we get from stillness - those moments of reverie, of daydreaming, in an ever more noisy, busy, and st... posted on Sep 21 2010, 4,236 reads

Boost Creativity with a Power Nap
If you see a co-worker catching 40 winks in her cubicle or a student dozing in the library, don't roll your eyes. New research from the University of California, Berkeley, shows that an hour's nap can dramatically boost and restore your brain power. Indeed, the findings suggest that a biphasic sleep schedule not only refreshes the mind, but can make you smarter. Conversely, the more hours we spend... posted on Sep 08 2010, 5,214 reads