Alexandra Carmichael

March 4, 2012

Nine nifty nuggets for you to read today…

Why Anti-Authoritarians are Diagnosed as Mentally Ill: The demands on medical professionals to be compliant may bias their understanding of others.

Could rosemary scent boost brain performance? Speed and accuracy were both improved, and the authors propose that positive mood may improve performance where aroused mood cannot.

Bad Habits? My Future Self Will Deal With That: An interesting look at research regarding the choices we make and how they relate to our connection with our “future self.”

How games saved my life: A powerful story of how playing Sim City pulled a teenager out of a planned suicide.

Katherine Boo and Adrian Nicole LeBlanc Both Write on Insurmountable Poverty: Two writers whose work is based on compassionate & honest witness.

Abundance is our future: In this talk from the recent TED conference, Peter Diamandis of X Prize presents an inspiring, optimistic view of solving the world’s major problems.

App Intervention to Treat Addiction (and It Runs on Android): A wrist sensor connected to a smartphone to detect physiological signs of craving and offer in-the-moment support.

The Calming Effect of Sighing: Spontaneous sighs are more stress-relieving than instructed sighs.

How Habits Hold Us: A short, but interesting look into habits and learning by insightful science journalist Jonah Lehrer.

Thanks this week to Neema Moraveji, Martin Sona, Dan Dascalescu, Daniel Reda, Ernesto Ramirez, and Gary Wolf.