Harvard's Crowded Course On Happiness
The most popular course at Harvard University this semester teaches happiness. Positive Psychology, a class whose content resembles that of many a self-help book but is grounded in serious psychological research, has enrolled 855 students, beating out all other classes. 35-year-old Tal D. Ben-Shahar, the lecturer who teaches the course, describes how students might increase the likelihood of trans... posted on Oct 10 2006, 5,098 reads

Musical Training Fosters Brain Power
The latest research shows that young children who take music lessons show more advanced brain development and improved memory than those who do not. The Canadian scientists also claim to have found the first evidence of musical training being linked to greater attention skills. After a year, musically trained children performed better in a memory test that is correlated with general intelligence s... posted on Oct 03 2006, 1,809 reads

Vitamin C: Cancer Cure?
Is mainstream medical science ignoring an inexpensive, painless, readily available cure for cancer? Mark Levine mulls this loaded question. The government nutrition researcher has published new evidence that suggests vitamin C can work like chemotherapy -- only better. But so far, he hasn't been able to interest cancer experts in conducting the kind of conclusive studies that, one way or the other... posted on Sep 26 2006, 2,140 reads

Why The Brain Needs Breaks
In our fast-paced information-saturated world, what role does down-time really play? Researchers at MIT say that regular breaks in brain activity are key to forming memories. Their fascinating work supports earlier research showing that animals and people learn best when information isn't crammed together. "Perhaps we don't take breaks seriously enough," researcher David Foster says. "Perhaps we'r... posted on Sep 19 2006, 2,257 reads

Balancing Homework
Latest research shows that for high school students, there is no academic benefit studying beyond two hours a night; for middle-schoolers, 1.5 hours. In short, balance is key. Duke University professor Harris Cooper, the nation's best-known researcher on homework, also found that elementary school students get no academic benefit from homework -- except reading and some basic skills practice. But ... posted on Sep 13 2006, 1,872 reads

The Dangers of Venting Anger
The centuries-old idea that vigorously expressing or 'venting' anger is both helpful and healthy is now being disproved. Recent studies reveal that anger can be more destructive when expressed than when it's suppressed. "Talking out an emotion doesn't reduce it, it rehearses it," says Dr Travis, a social psychologist. Researchers in alignment with her theory say that by venting' rage, you're often... posted on Sep 08 2006, 2,448 reads

Poverty is all in the Brain?
Elizabeth Gould overturned one of the central tenets of neuroscience. Now she’s building on her discovery to show that poverty and stress may not just be symptoms of society, but bound to our anatomy. "Poverty is stress," she says. "One thing that always strikes me is that when you ask Americans why the poor are poor, they always say it's because they don’t work hard enough, or don't want to... posted on Sep 04 2006, 3,904 reads

Optimal Brain Performance? Try Solitude.
Ask UC Davis Neurobiologist Leo Chalupa what is needed to attain optimal brain performance, and his answer will likely shock you. He knows that there are programs offered now to make virtually any region of your neocortex a more efficient processor. Parents are urged to begin such regimes in preschool children and adults are told to take advantage of their brain's plastic properties for profession... posted on Jul 09 2006, 2,569 reads

Why Multi-Tasking Can Be Unhealthy
Multi-tasking has become something of a heroic word in our vocabulary. But is it really an inarguable virtue? We’re not talking about chewing bubblegum and walking a straight line at the same time -- while automatic actions, or what the researchers call "highly practiced skills," can be done while thinking about other things, research shows that any key decision-making requires full attention. W... posted on Jul 04 2006, 2,301 reads

Connecting Minds and Machines
We react naturally to the signals our brains send out to our bodies. Science has long been able to listen into the signals the brain sends, but is just now learning to turn those signals into meaningful action. The result is restoring movement and speech to the disabled.... posted on Jun 12 2006, 1,866 reads