The Science of Sleep and Learning
When practicing a musical piece, a gymnastics move, or any other activity that depends on effortless, virtually automatic execution, here's some memory-enhancing advice: If you snooze, you cruise. That, at least, is the implication of two studies in which people who practiced certain tasks performed them better on ensuing trials if they were first allowed to get some sleep. Moreover, one investiga... posted on Feb 28 2007, 2,803 reads

Secret to Long Life: School
For decades, there have been a variety of hypotheses about what it takes to live a long life -- money, lack of stress, a loving family, lots of friends, even IQ. In every country, there is an average life span for the nation as a whole and there are average life spans for different subsets, based on race, geography, education and participation in faith-based activities. Surprisingly, year after ye... posted on Feb 17 2007, 2,868 reads

Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind
Where do creative people get their inspiration? Guy Claxton, author of "Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind" has a theory: according to him it comes from a combination of inspiration and evaluation, "of being able to let an idea come to you and then crafting it into shape." Claxton talks of the intuitive understanding creative people have, of the importance of alternating work rhythms with reverie, of knowi... posted on Feb 14 2007, 3,037 reads

A 17-year-old's Life-saving Breakthrough
In what could be a life-saving breakthrough, 17-year-old high school student Madhavi Gavini has found a way to defeat the Pseudomonas bacteria, which, in addition to killing people with cystic fibrosis, can cause deadly secondary infections under immune-suppressing conditions. To find a way through the bacterium's shield, the young scientist turned to Ayurvedic medicine, the traditional Indian hea... posted on Feb 04 2007, 2,539 reads

Happiness 101
A positive-psychology class called the Science of Well-Being -— essentially a class in how to make yourself happier -— at George Mason University in Virginia is a challenge for positive psychologists. It is one of the 15 unhappiest campuses in America, at least per The Princeton Review. The class is taught by Todd Kashdan, a 32-year-old psychology professor whose area of research is "curiosity... posted on Feb 01 2007, 3,774 reads

Why Do Good?
Why do people do good? A new scientific study suggests that it's not just for an emotional reward: people may actually act selflessly because they're acutely tuned into the needs and actions of others. For decades, psychologists and neuroscientists have puzzled over the tendency of humans to engage in altruistic acts -- defined as acts "that intentionally benefit another organism, incur no direct ... posted on Jan 29 2007, 3,098 reads

A Surgeon's Reflections on Mortality
Surgeon Pauline Chen maintains that doctors are as much at a loss as the rest of us when it comes to confronting death. Chen writes about "the final exam" -- the emotional challenges posed by terminal illnesses in the medical world. Death, she says, asks unanswerable questions. Perhaps most vexingly, it threatens to crack the hard professional shell of detachment that medical training puts in plac... posted on Jan 21 2007, 2,951 reads

The Impact of Gratitude
In an experimental comparison, people who kept gratitude journals on a weekly basis exercised more regularly, reported fewer physical symptoms, and were more optimistic about the upcoming week compared to those who recorded hassles or neutral life events. Psychologists Robert Emmons at the University of California at Davis, and Michael McCullough, at the University of Miami, foremost researchers o... posted on Jan 10 2007, 4,575 reads

Making Healthy New Year's Resolutions
January 1 is not only the start of the New Year, but is when many begin their New Year’s Resolutions. Manage stress. Eat healthier. Exercise more. Spend more time with family. Sticking to your resolutions and making changes can be difficult but not impossible. "A new year is a great time to think about the changes we want to make in our lives. Being and staying well is a resolution many people m... posted on Dec 31 2006, 2,798 reads

Studying The Power of Flowers
Need a new reason to "stop and smell the roses"? A recent study reveals that fresh flowers can be a natural remedy to enhance moods and increase energy. Conducted by Harvard Medical School, the behavioral research study showed that people feel less anxiety and more energy and compassion when fresh-cut flowers are present in the home. Harvard researcher, Nancy L. Etcoff followed 55 women of various... posted on Dec 30 2006, 2,456 reads