A story about how humans become unable to cope with death because they can keep these interactive imitations of their loved ones around. They're never fully able to move on.
Shinrin-yoku emerged in Japan in the 1980s. It means "forest-bathing", and it's a form of ecotherapy. A review of 28 research papers gave the following results: forest bathing activities remarkably improve cardiovascular function, hemodynamic indexes, neuroendocrine indexes, metabolic indexes, immunity and inflammatory indexes, antioxidant indexes, and electrophysiological indexes; significantly enhance people’s emotional state, attitude, and feelings towards things, physical and psychological recovery, and adaptive behaviors; and alleviate anxiety and depression.
Are you writing a character that doesn't give a shit about other people? Make them sleep-deprived. Recent research shows a lack of sleep impairs basic social conscience. MRI scans of sleep-deprived reveal less activation of empathy parts of brain. Sleepless and selfish: Lack of sleep makes us less generous
The Diversity of Life: A nervous system is not always needed to respond to touch. The mimosa plant folds up its leaves in response to a touch stimulus.
New podcast episode from IFLScience - Can Humans Live Forever? (23 min 34 sec) A talk about the medical fight against old age at the cellular level and whether humans can live forever. https://open.spotify.com/episode/1Cvd4u1jqwUYrN8kIa9cDB?utm_source=The+IFLScience+Newsletter&utm_campaign=9643db3fb3-MAILCHIMP-Podcast-S2-Episode-3&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3aa1738e2a-9643db3fb3-273728596&goal=0_3aa1738e2a-9643db3fb3-273728596&mc_cid=9643db3fb3&mc_eid=baedd57357
Researchers studying sarcasm have found that exposure to sarcasm enhances creative problem-solving. Brains work harder to understand sarcasm, especially in the temporal lobes and the parahippocampus, which in turn makes them sharper. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-science-of-sarcasm-yeah-right-25038/
The Seven Biggest Unanswered Questions in Physics 1. What is matter made of? 2. Why is gravity so weird? 3. Why does time seem to flow in only one direction? 4. Where did all the antimatter go? 5. What happens in the grey zone between solid and liquid? 6. Can we find a unified theory of physics? 7. How did life evolve from non-living matter?
1. What is matter made of? Socks lost in dryers 2. Why is gravity so weird? It has been kept down all its life and suffers from an inferiority complex 3. Why does time seem to flow in only one direction? Because after birth, it's all downhill 4. Where did all the antimatter go? Into the dryer with the socks 5. What happens in the grey zone between solid and liquid? Someone wrote a book about those shades of gray 6. Can we find a unified theory of physics? Not if a committee searches for one 7. How did life evolve from non-living matter? Forty-two.
The Power of Music Feeling stressed out? Give a listen to Weightless, by Marconi Union. Research studies have shown it reduces anxiety, slows heart rate, reduces blood pressure and lowers cortisol levels.
Nope, not doing it for me. I ran out of patience with it twenty seconds into the piece. Another thirty seconds and boredom tinged with rising irritation set in. At one minute, I moved forward to see if anything interesting happened further on. Didn't.
Living things create and respond to rhythms. We oscillate. Now, for the first time, researchers have identified an oscillatory circuit in the brain. "We have defined a mammalian oscillator molecularly, electrophysiologically, functionally, and mechanistically," says Fan Wang, an MIT professor of brain and cognitive sciences and a member of MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research. "It's very exciting to see a clearly defined circuit and mechanism of how rhythm is generated in a mammal." I don't know if it's the circuit you use when you dance. Read more at How the brain generates rhythmic behavior.
I can see three polar bears (or parts of all three) from where I'm sitting in my office. I'd love to have a copy of that photo.
Chemical element of the day - Bismuth Bismuth is a hard, brittle, lustrous metal, grey-white with a reddish tinge. It's about as abundant as silver in the earth's crust. Commercially, it is used in alloys and the production of plastics. Also, Pepto-Bismol contains bismuth subsalicylate. Bismuth looks like this: But you can make bismuth crystals in your kitchen. Here's how: Making Crystals From Bismuth
90% of bird species choose monogamy as their reproductive strategy. For mammals, it's around 5%. Birds That Mate For Life: 15 of the world's most amorous birds
The James Webb Space Telescope has captured its first image of an exoplanet. The planet spins fast on its axis and has a mass about seven times that of Jupiter. It has a temperature of about 1000 C, and orbits a very young star with a mass twice our Sun. It is currently named planet HIP 65426b, but suggestions for planet names are being taken from the public. There are 20 planetary systems that require names beyond the current series of letters and numbers. If you want to participate in naming exoplanets, visit: Get Involved and Name One of the Exoplanets that JWST Will Study This Year
Looks like the image was captured in the infrared and not visible light, but the article isn't 100% clear on that. Its temperature suggests it's probably a brown dwarf and not a planet, which the article sort of mentions toward the end but isn't clear on either.
