The Life Lab

[lifelabblog]

Must-Have Facebook Guidelines For Educators

By Katie Lepi 

There are probably hundreds of different ways to use Facebook in your classroom. We’ve written about a number of them, and we know that a lot of educators out there are using the tool for everything from classroom projects to keeping in touch with parents. But before you jump into using a social media tool that’s made for sharing, it is important to take a look at some considerations. Understanding things like social media privacy concerns and potential issues can help you ensure that you’re leading your students into an online safe space. Helping your studentsunderstand their digital footprint is a big one, too.

So what guidelines should you follow when you’re bringing Facebook into your classroom? We’ve set forth a few examples below. There will be obvious differences depending on whether you’re using the tool with an older or younger group, but the basics can remain the same.

Facebook Guidelines For Educators

Keep It Professional

This is your job, after all. If you already have a personal Facebook profile, it is better to keep everything personal and professional separate. This way, you don’t need to worry about what to share and if it is appropriate for sharing with your students or not. There will be no issues of allowing some students to be ‘friends’ and others not.

You can either choose to allow your students to be friends with your professional profile or not, but know that you don’t need to be friends with them to interact with them using Groups and Pages (whether you’ve created those groups and pages or not). Many teachers find it useful to use the ‘all or nothing’ approach to friending students, even if it is on a professional profile that doesn’t share much. We’d tend towards the ‘nothing’ part of that approach – because you really don’t need to know what your students are doing in their online life, either.

Make A Page

Making a page is one of the ways we mentioned above that you can interact with your students without needing to be friends with them. When you’re deciding if a page is appropriate for what you might want to use it for, remember that Pages are public – anyone can see them. You might use a page you’ve created to keep people (both students and parents) up to date on classroom and school events, showcase the students’ work and accomplishments, and share what would be considered ‘public’ information.

Create A Group

Creating a group, on the other hand, is the more private way to interact with your students (and you still don’t need to be friends with them to do so). Thus, this makes groups more appropriate for sharing classroom work, collaborating, sharing ideas, hosting discussions, posting class notes, scheduling reminders, and other items that are not as suitable (or necessary) for public sharing.

Make It Safe

While social media is generally a much ‘safer’ space when it is classroom centric (as opposed to the free for all that is the rest of the internet), you’ll still need to implement some rules. Give your students some guidelines for interacting: they can be basic (no mean commenting!) or they can be more in depth (requiring students to give constructive feedback, respond with supporting outside resources, encourage other students, etc).

[lifelabblog]

Top 30 Social Entrepeneurship Reads for Aspiring Changemakers

By: Tsega Belachew

The Ashoka Future Forum witnessed many innovators who shared their groundbreaking, future-focused ideas and solutions for the world's most pressing challenges. Below is a list of books written by such innovators; Ashoka Fellows, social entrepreneurs and experts some of whom were featured at the forum:

1. Rippling: How Social Entrepreneurs Spread Innovation Throughout the World by Beverly Schwartz

Schwartz provides a five point paradigm of social entrepreneurship that will allow any individual to become an innovative changemaker while sharing stories of ground-breaking innovators.

2. The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum by Ashoka Fellow Temple Grandin

Grandin believes that the autistic individual has the power to make a unique contribution to society—and she inspires those across the autistic spectrum to be changemakers by becoming empowered by their condition. 

3. Behind the Kitchen Door by Ashoka Fellow Saru Jayaraman

Jayaraman creates a bold agenda to raise the living standards of the millions of workers, including many immigrants and people of color, who work in the American dining industry and pushes for equality on both sides of the kitchen door.

4. Being Global: How to Think, Act, and Lead in a Transformed World by Angel Cabrera and Gregory Unruh

Cabrera and Unruh provide a guide for individuals—ranging from citizens, students to leaders—to developing the skills and connections needed in becoming effective business leaders in the globalized world where the speed of change has picked up. 

5. Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife by Ashoka Fellow Marc Freedman

Freedman envisions the transition beyond midlife as an empowering one. Through a map of personal narratives, he inspires and encourages individuals to transform their “crises” into opportunities for change. Marc's social enterprise 'Encore' presents viable options for meaningful involvement past midlife.

6. Chasing Ghosts: Failures and Facades in Iraq: A Soldier’s Perspective by Ashoka Fellow Paul Rieckhoff

After spending almost a year as a platoon leader and witnessing bloodshed in Iraq, Rieckhoff offers his stark and personal perspective on the Iraq war.

7. Corner Office: Indispensable and Unexpected Lessons from CEOs on How to Lead and Succeed by Adam Bryant

By pulling together dozens of interviews of top CEOs in various industries, Bryant creates a guide for changemakers of all levels to discover their path to success. 

8. End of Ignorance: Multiplying Our Human Potential by Ashoka Fellow John Mighton

Mighton has a revolutionary vision of education in which every child can succeed in every subject. He challenges us to identify and reverse the moment in which we become disenchanted with a subject and neglect to pursue it—thus revitalizing the learning process to create a new generation of well-rounded intellectuals.

9. Faces of Learning: 50 Powerful Stories of Defining Moments in Education by Sam Chaltain

There is always a special moment in one’s education in which he or she engages in true learning. Chaltain documents these moments through personal stories from various backgrounds, and weaves them together to create a model for improving one’s own learning style. 

10. Genership: Beyond Leadership Toward Liberating the Creative Soul by Ashoka Fellow David Castro

“Genership,” or the enabling of creativity within groups, creates a new model of leadership. Through this model, Castro presents an inspiring vision of leaders who encourage and capitalize on the power of inherent human creativity. 

11. Girls on Track: A Parent’s Guide to Inspiring our Daughters to Achieve a Lifetime of Self by Ashoka Fellow Molly Barker

Barker challenges the various societal pressures which shape young girls by outlining a ten week self-esteem-building plan to empower girls and enhance their health.

12. Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success by Adam M. Grant

Grant redefines how we perceive success by looking not at personal qualities, but at how we interact with others. He attributes many success stories to a trend of “givers” —those who contribute to others and expect nothing in return—and in doing so, creates a revolutionary paradigm for individual success.

13. Giving 2.0: Transform Your Giving and Our World by Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen

Arrillaga-Andreessen creates the changemaker’s guide to giving. She shows how, from volunteering to using technology and social media, anyone can become an everyday philanthropist.

14. Going to Green: A Standards-Based Environmental Education Curriculum for Schools by Ashoka Fellow Harry Wiland

Wiland’s learning curriculum integrates academics with service-based learning, thereby empowering citizens to build healthy and green communities.

15. How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas by David Bornstein

Bornstein provides in depth profiles of social entrepreneurs and their innovative ideas, providing a platform for readers to understand how individuals can make a difference in the world. 

16. Just Start: Take Action, Embrace Uncertainty, Create the Future by Leonard A. Schlesinger, Charles F. Kiefer, and Paul B. Brown

Schlesinger, Kiefer, and Brown craft a method to navigate a constantly uncertain world with an entrepreneurial attitude.

17. KaBOOM! A Movement to Save Play by Ashoka Fellow Darell Hammond

Hammond has built 2,000 playgrounds in some of America’s poorest neighborhoods. He aims to ensure that all children, regardless of their class, have access safe and creative play spaces.

18. Man Seeks God: My Flirtations with the Divine by Eric Weiner

Weiner is on a search to find spiritual truth among many religions. He documents his travels through different countries to create an entertaining and inspiring story of spiritual fulfillment.

19. Net Locality: Why Location Matters in a Networked World by Eric Gordon and Adriana de Souza e Silva

In an increasingly technology-dependent universe, the emergent functionality of location awareness creates a more interconnected world. Gordon and de Souza e Silva expound on the theory of Net Locality and how to use it as a tool for pro-social development.

20. Non Nonprofit: For-Profit Thinking for Nonprofit Success by Ashoka Fellow Steve Rothschild

Rothschild combines his own experience founding and developing the nonprofit Twin Cities RISE! with an explanation for social entrepreneurs of how for-profit business principles can be applied to nonprofits to create more impact.

21. Philosophy of Sustainable Design by Ashoka Fellow Jason F. McLennan

McLennan’s work has shaped the green building movement. He aims to educate individuals on the principles of sustainable design and to inspire them to build more responsibly. 

22. Zugunruhe: The Inner Migration to Profound Environmental Change by Ashoka Fellow Jason F. McLennan

Zugunruhe, or the restlessness and agitation that some species feel before migration, can also be seen manifesting in people who long for a deeper involvement with sustainability. McLennan’s book is intended to inspire these people to pursue this longing and to take the first individual step towards revolutionary environmental change. 

23. Powered by Pro Bono: The Nonprofits Step-by-Step Guide to Scoping, Securing Managing, and Scaling Pro Bono Resources by The Taproot Foundation (Ashoka Fellow Aaron Hurst)

The Taproot Foundation outlines a strategy for nonprofits who are struggling with tight budgets to access resources and manage projects effectively. 

24. A Random Book about the Power of ANYone by Ashoka Youth Venturer Talia Leman

Leman, a high school student and the founder of an organization which encourages young people to do good deeds, inspires anyone and everyone to embrace life’s unknowns and re-think the possibilities for change around them. 

25. Release 2.1: A Design for Living in the Digital Age by Esther Dyson

Dyson explores the new character of life in the digital age and teaches us how we can use the Internet to change the rules we live by.  

26. Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice, and the Promise of America by Ashoka Fellow Eboo Patel

Amidst growing prejudice in America against Muslims and members of other faiths, Patel argues for a better, more pluralistic America—one in which individuals respect each other across their differences.  

27. Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy by Emily Bazelon

Bazelon examines the issue of bullying from nuanced angles, and using stories, case studies, and research, she assembles a strategy to tackle bullying.

28. Sustainably Delicious: Making the World a Better Place, One Recipe at a Time by Michel Nischan and Mary Goodbody

Chef Nischan channels his respect for the environment into recipes which are both tasty and environmentally responsible. 

29. Uninsured in America: Life and Death in the Land of Opportunity by Susan Starr Sered

Sered aims to explore the impact of inadequate medical care on people’s lives and the broader implications it has for America.

30. A Year Up: How a Pioneering Program Teaches Young Adults Real Skills for Real Jobs-With Real Success by Ashoka Fellow Gerald Chertavian

Chertavian is the founder of the social venture Year Up, which aims to eliminate the divide between low income workers and the economic mainstream by providing them with training and mentorship. His book shares the inspiring success stories of participants in his program.  

Image credit: All book cover image copyrights belong to the book publishers.

[lifelabblog]

Get a life

By C.W. and A.J.K.D.

BERTRAND RUSSELL, the English philosopher, was not a fan of work. In his 1932 essay, “In Praise of Idleness”, he reckoned that if society were better managed the average person would only need to work four hours a day. Such a small working day would “entitle a man to the necessities and elementary comforts of life.” The rest of the day could be devoted to the pursuit of science, painting and writing.

Russell thought that technological advancement could free people from toil. John Maynard Keynes mooted a similar idea in a 1930 essay, "Economic possibilities for our grandchildren", in which he reckoned people might need work no more than 15 hours per week by 2030. But over eighty years after these speculations people seem to be working harder than ever. The Financial Times reports today that Workaholics Anonymous groups are taking off. Over the summer Bank of America faced intense criticism after a Stakhanovite intern died.

But data from the OECD, a club of rich countries, tell a more positive story. For the countries for which data are available the vast majority of people work fewer hours than they did in 1990: 

And it seems that more productive—and, consequently, better-paid—workers put in less time in at the office. The graph below shows the relationship between productivity (GDP per hour worked) and annual working hours:

The Greeks are some of the most hardworking in the OECD, putting in over 2,000 hours a year on average. Germans, on the other hand, are comparative slackers, working about 1,400 hours each year. But German productivity is about 70% higher.

One important question concerns whether appetite for work actually diminishes as people earn more. There are countervailing effects. On the one hand, a higher wage raises the opportunity cost of leisure time and should lead people to work more. On the other hand, a higher income should lead a worker to consume more of the stuff he or she enjoys, which presumably includes leisure.

Some research shows that higher pay does not, on net, lead workers to do more. Rather, they may work less. A famous study by Colin Camerer and colleagues, which looked at taxi drivers, reached a controversial conclusion. The authors suggested that taxi drivers had a daily income "target", and that:

When wages are high, drivers will reach their target more quickly and quit early; on low-wage days they will drive longer hours to reach the target.

 Alternatively, the graph above might suggest that people who work fewer hours are more productive. This idea is not new. Adam Smith reckoned that

The man who works so moderately as to be able to work constantly, not only preserves his health the longest, but in the course of the year, executes the greatest quantity of works.

There are aberrations, of course. Americans are relatively productive and work relatively long hours. And within the American labour force hours worked among the rich have risen while those of the poor have fallen. But a paper released yesterday by the New Zealand Productivity Commission showed that even if you work more hours, you do not necessarily work better. The paper made envious comparisons between Kiwis and Australians—the latter group has more efficient workers.

So maybe we should be more self-critical about how much we work. Working less may make us more productive. And, as Russell argued, working less will guarantee “happiness and joy of life, instead of frayed nerves, weariness, and dyspepsia".

[lifelabblog]

10 Easy Things That Will Make You Happier, Backed By Science

Happiness is so interesting, because we all have different ideas about what it is and how to get it. So naturally we are obsessed with it.

I would love to be happier, as I’m sure most people would, so I thought it would be interesting to find some ways to become a happier person that are actually backed up by science. Here are ten of the best ones I found.

1. Exercise more. 7 minutes might be enough.

You might have seen some talk recently about the scientific 7 minute workout mentioned in The New York Times. So if you thought exercise was something you didn’t have time for, maybe you can fit it in after all.

Exercise has such a profound effect on our happiness and well-being that it’s actually been proven to be an effective strategy for overcoming depression. In a study cited in Shawn Achor’s book, The Happiness Advantage, three groups of patients treated their depression with exercise. The results of this study really surprised me. Although all three groups experienced similar improvements in their happiness levels to begin with, the follow up assessments proved to be radically different:The groups were then tested six months later to assess their relapse rate. Of those who had taken the medication alone, 38 percent had slipped back into depression. Those in the combination group were doing only slightly better, with a 31 percent relapse rate. The biggest shock, though, came from the exercise group: Their relapse rate was only 9 percent!

You don’t have to be depressed to gain benefit from exercise, though. It can help you to relax, increase your brain power and even improve your body image, even if you don’t lose any weight.

A study in the Journal of Health Psychology found that people who exercised felt better about their bodies, even when they saw no physical changes: Body weight, shape and body image were assessed in 16 males and 18 females before and after both 6 × 40 mins exercise and 6 × 40 mins reading. Over both conditions, body weight and shape did not change. Various aspects of body image, however, improved after exercise compared to before.

We’ve explored exercise in depth before, and looked at what it does to our brains, such as releasing proteins and endorphins that make us feel happier, as you can see in the image below.

2. Sleep more. You'll be less sensitive to negative emotions.

We know that sleep helps our bodies to recover from the day and repair themselves, and that it helps us focus and be more productive. It turns out, it’s also important for our happiness.

In NutureShock, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman explain how sleep affects our positivity: Negative stimuli get processed by the amygdala; positive or neutral memories gets processed by the hippocampus. Sleep deprivation hits the hippocampus harder than the amygdala. The result is that sleep-deprived people fail to recall pleasant memories, yet recall gloomy memories just fine.

In one experiment by Walker, sleep-deprived college students tried to memorize a list of words. They could remember 81% of the words with a negative connotation, like “cancer.” But they could remember only 31% of the words with a positive or neutral connotation, like “sunshine” or “basket.”

The BPS Research Digest explores another study that proves sleep affects our sensitivity to negative emotions. Using a facial recognition task over the course of a day, the researchers studied how sensitive participants were to positive and negative emotions. Those who worked through the afternoon without taking a nap became more sensitive late in the day to negative emotions like fear and anger. Using a face recognition task, here we demonstrate an amplified reactivity to anger and fear emotions across the day, without sleep. However, an intervening nap blocked and even reversed this negative emotional reactivity to anger and fear while conversely enhancing ratings of positive (happy) expressions.

Of course, how well (and how long) you sleep will probably affect how you feel when you wake up, which can make a difference to your whole day. Especially this graph showing how your brain activity decreases is a great insight about how important enough sleep is for productivity and happiness:

Another study tested how employees’ moods when they started work in the morning affected their work day. Researchers found that employees’ moods when they clocked in tended to affect how they felt the rest of the day. Early mood was linked to their perceptions of customers and to how they reacted to customers’ moods.

And most importantly to managers, employee mood had a clear impact on performance, including both how much work employees did and how well they did it.

Sleep is another topic we’ve looked into before, exploring how much sleep we really need to be productive.

3. Move closer to work. A short commute is worth more than a big house.

Our commute to the office can have a surprisingly powerful impact on our happiness. The fact that we tend to do this twice a day, five days a week, makes it unsurprising that its effect would build up over time and make us less and less happy.

According to The Art of Manliness, having a long commute is something we often fail to realize will affect us so dramatically: … while many voluntary conditions don’t affect our happiness in the long term because we acclimate to them, people never get accustomed to their daily slog to work because sometimes the traffic is awful and sometimes it’s not. Or as Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert put it, “Driving in traffic is a different kind of hell every day.”

We tend to try to compensate for this by having a bigger house or a better job, but these compensations just don’t work: Two Swiss economists who studied the effect of commuting on happiness found that such factors could not make up for the misery created by a long commute.

4. Spend time with friends and family. Don't regret it on your deathbed.

Staying in touch with friends and family is one of the top five regrets of the dying. If you want more evidence that it’s beneficial for you, I’ve found some research that proves it can make you happier right now.

Social time is highly valuable when it comes to improving our happiness, even for introverts. Several studies have found that time spent with friends and family makes a big difference to how happy we feel, generally.

I love the way Harvard happiness expert Daniel Gilbert explains it: We are happy when we have family, we are happy when we have friends and almost all the other things we think make us happy are actually just ways of getting more family and friends.

George Vaillant is the director of a 72-year study of the lives of 268 men. In an interview in the March 2008 newsletter to the Grant Study subjects, Vaillant was asked, “What have you learned from the Grant Study men?” Vaillant’s response: “That the only thing that really matters in life are your relationships to other people.”

He shared insights of the study with Joshua Wolf Shenk at The Atlantic on how the men’s social connections made a difference to their overall happiness: The men’s relationships at age 47, he found, predicted late-life adjustment better than any other variable, except defenses. Good sibling relationships seem especially powerful: 93 percent of the men who were thriving at age 65 had been close to a brother or sister when younger.

In fact, a study published in the Journal of Socio-Economics states than your relationships are worth more than $100,000: Using the British Household Panel Survey, I find that an increase in the level of social involvements is worth up to an extra £85,000 a year in terms of life satisfaction. Actual changes in income, on the other hand, buy very little happiness.

I think that last line is especially fascinating: Actual changes in income, on the other hand, buy very little happiness. So we could increase our annual income by hundreds of thousands of dollars and still not be as happy as if we increased the strength of our social relationships.

The Terman study, which is covered in The Longevity Project, found that relationships and how we help others were important factors in living long, happy lives: We figured that if a Terman participant sincerely felt that he or she had friends and relatives to count on when having a hard time then that person would be healthier. Those who felt very loved and cared for, we predicted, would live the longest.

Surprise: our prediction was wrong… Beyond social network size, the clearest benefit of social relationships came from helping others. Those who helped their friends and neighbors, advising and caring for others, tended to live to old age.

5. Go outside. Happiness is maximized at 13.9°C

In The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor recommends spending time in the fresh air to improve your happiness: Making time to go outside on a nice day also delivers a huge advantage; one study found that spending 20 minutes outside in good weather not only boosted positive mood, but broadened thinking and improved working memory…

This is pretty good news for those of us who are worried about fitting new habits into our already-busy schedules. Twenty minutes is a short enough time to spend outside that you could fit it into your commute or even your lunch break.

A UK study from the University of Sussex also found that being outdoors made people happier: Being outdoors, near the sea, on a warm, sunny weekend afternoon is the perfect spot for most. In fact, participants were found to be substantially happier outdoors in all natural environments than they were in urban environments.

The American Meteorological Society published research in 2011 that found current temperature has a bigger effect on our happiness than variables like wind speed and humidity, or even the average temperature over the course of a day. It also found that happiness is maximized at 13.9°C, so keep an eye on the weather forecast before heading outside for your 20 minutes of fresh air.

6. Help others. 100 hours a year is the magica number.

One of the most counterintuitive pieces of advice I found is that to make yourself feel happier, you should help others. In fact, 100 hours per year (or two hours per week) is the optimal time we should dedicate to helping others in order to enrich our lives.

If we go back to Shawn Achor’s book again, he says this about helping others: …when researchers interviewed more than 150 people about their recent purchases, they found that money spent on activities—such as concerts and group dinners out—brought far more pleasure than material purchases like shoes, televisions, or expensive watches. Spending money on other people, called “prosocial spending,” also boosts happiness.

The Journal of Happiness Studies published a study that explored this very topic: Participants recalled a previous purchase made for either themselves or someone else and then reported their happiness. Afterward, participants chose whether to spend a monetary windfall on themselves or someone else. Participants assigned to recall a purchase made for someone else reported feeling significantly happier immediately after this recollection; most importantly, the happier participants felt, the more likely they were to choose to spend a windfall on someone else in the near future.

So spending money on other people makes us happier than buying stuff for ourselves. What about spending our time on other people? A study of volunteering in Germany explored how volunteers were affected when their opportunities to help others were taken away: Shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall but before the German reunion, the first wave of data of the GSOEP was collected in East Germany. Volunteering was still widespread. Due to the shock of the reunion, a large portion of the infrastructure of volunteering (e.g. sports clubs associated with firms) collapsed and people randomly lost their opportunities for volunteering. Based on a comparison of the change in subjective well-being of these people and of people from the control group who had no change in their volunteer status, the hypothesis is supported that volunteering is rewarding in terms of higher life satisfaction.

In his book Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being, University of Pennsylvania professor Martin Seligman explains that helping others can improve our own lives:…we scientists have found that doing a kindness produces the single most reliable momentary increase in well-being of any exercise we have tested.

7. Practice smiling. It can alleviate pain.

Smiling itself can make us feel better, but it’s more effective when we back it up with positive thoughts, according to this study: A new study led by a Michigan State University business scholar suggests customer-service workers who fake smile throughout the day worsen their mood and withdraw from work, affecting productivity. But workers who smile as a result of cultivating positive thoughts – such as a tropical vacation or a child’s recital – improve their mood and withdraw less.

Of course it’s important to practice “real smiles” where you use your eye sockets. It’s very easy to spot the difference:

According to PsyBlog, smiling can improve our attention and help us perform better on cognitive tasks: Smiling makes us feel good which also increases our attentional flexibility and our ability to think holistically. When this idea was tested by Johnson et al. (2010), the results showed that participants who smiled performed better on attentional tasks which required seeing the whole forest rather than just the trees.

A smile is also a good way to alleviate some of the pain we feel in troubling circumstances: Smiling is one way to reduce the distress caused by an upsetting situation. Psychologists call this the facial feedback hypothesis. Even forcing a smile when we don’t feel like it is enough to lift our mood slightly (this is one example of embodied cognition).

One of our previous posts goes into even more detail about the science of smiling.

8. Plan a trip. But don't take one.

As opposed to actually taking a holiday, it seems that planning a vacation or just a break from work can improve our happiness. A study published in the journal, Applied Research in Quality of Lifeshowed that the highest spike in happiness came during the planning stage of a vacation as employees enjoyed the sense of anticipation: In the study, the effect of vacation anticipation boosted happiness for eight weeks.

After the vacation, happiness quickly dropped back to baseline levels for most people.

Shawn Achor has some info for us on this point, as well: One study found that people who just thought about watching their favorite movie actually raised their endorphin levels by 27 percent.

If you can’t take the time for a vacation right now, or even a night out with friends, put something on the calendar—even if it’s a month or a year down the road. Then whenever you need a boost of happiness, remind yourself about it.

9. Meditate. Rewire your brain for happiness.

Meditation is often touted as an important habit for improving focus, clarity and attention span, as well as helping to keep you calm. It turns out it’s also useful for improving your happiness: In one study, a research team from Massachusetts General Hospital looked at the brain scans of 16 people before and after they participated in an eight-week course in mindfulness meditation. The study, published in the January issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, concluded that after completing the course, parts of the participants’ brains associated with compassion and self-awareness grew, and parts associated with stress shrank.

Meditation literally clears your mind and calms you down, it’s been often proven to be the single most effective way to live a happier live. I believe that this graphic explains it the best:

According to Shawn Achor, meditation can actually make you happier long-term: Studies show that in the minutes right after meditating, we experience feelings of calm and contentment, as well as heightened awareness and empathy. And, research even shows that regular meditation can permanently rewire the brain to raise levels of happiness.

The fact that we can actually alter our brain structure through mediation is most surprising to me and somewhat reassuring that however we feel and think today isn’t permanent.

10. Practice gratitude. Increase both happiness and life satisfaction.

This is a seemingly simple strategy, but I’ve personally found it to make a huge difference to my outlook. There are lots of ways to practice gratitude, from keeping a journal of things you’re grateful for, sharing three good things that happen each day with a friend or your partner, and going out of your way to show gratitude when others help you.

In an experiment where some participants took note of things they were grateful for each day, their moods were improved just from this simple practice: The gratitude-outlook groups exhibited heightened well-being across several, though not all, of the outcome measures across the 3 studies, relative to the comparison groups. The effect on positive affect appeared to be the most robust finding. Results suggest that a conscious focus on blessings may have emotional and interpersonal benefits.

The Journal of Happiness studies published a study that used letters of gratitude to test how being grateful can affect our levels of happiness: Participants included 219 men and women who wrote three letters of gratitude over a 3 week period.

Results indicated that writing letters of gratitude increased participants’ happiness and life satisfaction, while decreasing depressive symptoms.

Quick last fact: Getting older will maker yourself happier.

As a final point, it’s interesting to note that as we get older, particularly past middle age, we tend to grow happier naturally. There’s still some debate over why this happens, but scientists have got a few ideas: Researchers, including the authors, have found that older people shown pictures of faces or situations tend to focus on and remember the happier ones more and the negative ones less.

Other studies have discovered that as people age, they seek out situations that will lift their moods — for instance, pruning social circles of friends or acquaintances who might bring them down. Still other work finds that older adults learn to let go of loss and disappointment over unachieved goals, and hew their goals toward greater wellbeing.

So if you thought being old would make you miserable, rest assured that it’s likely you’ll develop a more positive outlook than you probably have now.

[lifelabblog]

10 Innovations Poised to Change Sustainable Industries

By Adam Popescu

NASA, USAID, Nike and the U.S. State Department don't sound like teammates, but they're all equal participants in an international accelerator focusing on sustainable programs and social good.

NASA, USAID, Nike and the U.S. State Department don't sound like teammates, but they're all equal participants in an international accelerator focusing on sustainable programs and social good.

In 2010, the quartet partnered on LAUNCH, a sort of Y Combinator for global development that has raised more than $40 million and helped bring clean water to 4.5 million Kenyans, as well as affordable, renewable energy to 3,000 people in India.

The program will be dedicated to shifting the environmental, economic and social impact ofmanufacturing through the year 2020. That means cleaning up products we use everyday, and introducing new composites to take the place of more expensive and less ecologically sensitive materials. Ten innovators converged at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratories last week for a three-day forum, exchanging ideas and collaborating with a council of experts that included NASA astronaut Ron Garan.

The List

Here's a look at the 10 innovations discussed, and the potential for change each represents.

1. QMilk: Turns spoiled milk into bio-textile fabric that competes with cotton. The Germancompany has started manufacturing prototypes for new antimicrobial, flame-resistant fibers made out of milk. The super soft fiber is 100% biodegradable, created only with renewable resources, produces zero waste and can be used to make clothing and home textiles. You can even eat the fiber, although it doesn't taste very good.

2. Geckskin: Adhesives inspired by the footpads of lizards, but without the residue. The Boston-based startup has designed the product to attach and release from surfaces repeatedly, without losing any of its adhesive properties. Think of it as a very powerful, velcro-like Scotch tape that never loses its strength. Potential applications include the home appliance sector and the military. Geckskin is still in its early-stages, several years away from putting anything out on the market.

3. Barktex: Transforming tree bark into leather-like materials, this agro-forestry company is the brainchild of a husband and wife team looking to scale their business. The process involves stripping the bark off of trees, soaking those strips in water and then, through a composite process, transforming the strips into a material that doubles as leather or upholstery. The project is designed to be low-energy compliant, ecologically safe and provides jobs for hundreds of farmers in Uganda. The goal is to take this model to other parts of Africa and the developing world.

4. Blue Flower: A textile initiative aimed at supporting and empowering at-risk women and reducing the environmental impact of manufacturing. The company's founder, fashion designer Eileen Fisher, wants to set up sustainable value chains across the world. The initiative is designed to help poor communities develop low-impact bio-fibers sourced from second-hand clothing, replacing viscose, an artificial textile treated with toxic chemicals.

5. Artificial Bee Silk: Bio-synthetic silk produced through the fermentation of honey bee cocoon silk. The process, created by Australia's national science agency, CSIRO, uses genetically engineered bacteria to reproduce highly-flexible "webs," which can be used for weaving and knitting, or formed into sponges, transparent films or nanofibers.

6. Ambercycle: Harnesses engineered enzymes to degrade plastic bottles, such as soda bottles, making plastic recycling both profitable and sustainable. The system lowers the cost of recycling and uses organic processes with no carbon footprint. This also allows producers to re-use plastics and remove them from landfills.

7. Benign by Design: Uses data collection and analysis to understand the impact of textiles. The Benign concept is intended to show businesses exactly how textile wear leads to fiber pollution, and offer solutions for controlling emissions. Benign has created a trade-off analysis system that scientifically selects the most cost-effective material with the smallest eco-impact. Dr. Mark Anthony Browne, who came up with the idea as a University of California post-doctoral fellow, says his program "will lead to low-cost effective fabrics that emit fewer and less toxic fibers...throughout their life cycle."

8. Ecovative: Completely biodegradable packing and insulation using mushroom materials. The product is designed to serve as a replacement for polystyrene, a synthetic polymer used to produce environmentally unfriendly products such as styrofoam cups and packing material.Ecovative materials "can be composted in low temperature home compost piles, and they will break down naturally," explains design director Sam Harrington. Other uses for the material extend to sandals, surfboards and insulation.

9. Biocouture: Creates sustainable material from microbes, transforming them into haute couture. The concept was created by fashion designer Suzanne Lee, who envisions microbial cellulose as the catalyst for her innovative approach. Microbial cellulose can be grown in a bucket and used to create biodegradable homewares as well as fashion accessories. And, in keeping with her DIY philosophy, Lee also plans to use Biocouture to share recipes and educational tools.

10. CRAiLAR: Making flax competitive in cost and comfort with cotton, CRaiLAR is the most mature of the presenting companies, and is publicly traded on the Canadian stock market. In addition to its wide availability around the world, flax also uses far less water, pesticides and land mass than cotton, resulting in lower emissions. CRaiLAR's process uses 97% less of the life-cycle water needed to produce a kilogram of cotton. The final product is a soft, natural fiber that is nearly indistinguishable from cotton, without the high price.

[lifelabblog]

P-MOB electric car travels 20 km on solar power alone

Electric vehicles (e-vehicles, or EVs) are set to play a key role in the future of urban mobility, reducing pollution, decreasing dependence on fossil fuels and saving drivers money. Although e-vehicles make up only a tiny fraction of the European car fleet at present, sales are expected to grow exponentially over the coming years, thanks, in no small measure, to advances in e-vehicle technology being made by EU-funded researchers. Fully electric vehicle technologies that optimise safety, energy consumption and kinetic energy recovery are also major contributors to on-going improvements in the performance of hybrid vehicles.

Across the European Union transport accounts for more than 70 % of total oil consumption, the vast majority of which is imported from abroad. With more than one million additional cars going onto Europe's roads every 50 days, fuel consumption, congestion and pollution will only continue to increase if the internal combustion engine remains the main source of automotive power. Hence, the EU, national governments and private companies are spending billions on supporting the development of e-vehicles.

'Rather than offering forms of mobility based on ever-increasing energy prices, the industry is now faced with satisfying a rational demand for mobility: clean, safe and low-energy-consumption vehicles, requiring less energy to be produced, and using recyclable and eventually self-disposable materials,' says Dr Pietro Perlo, the CEO of Interactive Fully Electrical Vehicles (IFEVS), an Italian SME dedicated to e-vehicle development.

Dr Perlo helped oversee the development of ground-breaking e-vehicle technology in the 'Integrated enabling technologies for efficient electrical personal mobility' (P-MOB) project, supported by almost EUR 2.8 million in funding from the European Commission. Involving researchers from six companies (Siemens from Germany; Mazel from Spain; IFEVS, Polimodel and Fiat from Italy; and Magnomatics from the United Kingdom), as well as the University of Sheffield in the UK, the project resulted in the development of a novel prototype electric car with a range of up to 20 kilometres (km) powered by solar power alone.

Coordinated by Centro Ricerche Fiat in Turin, Italy, the team behind P-MOB sought to break the link between increasing transport capacity and rising road deaths, congestion and pollution by developing an e-vehicle prototype that is not only clean, but extremely safe and compact. To do so, the researchers took a novel approach to advanced systems integration focusing, among other things, on solar cells, e-motor and magnetic torque control, power-energy management, distributed accumulators and technologies to enable e-vehicles to put power back into the grid when not in use.

'The design has met the highest safety ranking, a low footprint and extremely low energy consumption, making the vehicle ideal for most people's needs in cities as well as suburban roads,' Dr Perlo notes.

The prototype is a small compact vehicle - weighting less than 600 kilogrammes (kg) before the installation of the battery pack, and with a top speed of over 100 km/h - which meets new regulations on 'micro' electric vehicles. It is also able to meet the classical regulations for vehicle categories such as M1 (a car with eight passenger seats or fewer).

Aerodynamic, safe and solar-powered

A parallel project called 'Building blocks concepts for efficient and safe multiuse urban electrical vehicles' (WIDE-MOB), also involving the P-MOB partners, helped address the design and development of the basic building blocks of electric vehicles. The WIDE-MOB team worked on optimised aerodynamics to radically reduce the drag at any speed and lightweight and low-cost bodies designed for high safety in the event of a frontal or lateral crash, as well as a variety of technologies for distributed propulsion.

'Our vehicle is the first with a two-motor powertrain with one motor per axle. We have two doors on one side only ensuring a high degree of safety, better ergonomics and reduced complexity with extremely low aerodynamic drag: around 30 % lower than other vehicles of the same dimensions,' Dr Perlo explains. 'All the technologies were developed during the course of the project by the partners. Only the battery cells were produced outside Europe, though the design came from within the project.'

The project's integrated ICT-based control systems allow for the operation of two motors and two differentials - so the vehicle's front and rear axles are independent, providing effective four-wheel drive - as well as variation of the torque ratio, depending on driving conditions, which provides a variety of important benefits. It increases vehicle control on small radius curves, improves adherence on wet and icy roads, provides the impression of faster acceleration without drawing more power and allows for fail-safe operation: if one motor fails the other will always allow you to return home. Most significantly, this in turn ensures that a single motor failure will not cause loss of control of the vehicle, particularly at high speeds.

In addition, the use of two motors combined with ICT-based smart energy management enables higher efficiency, because the two motors can individually be operated at peak performance in all driving conditions, while maximising energy recovery during braking through distributed braking on two axles combined with virtual 'anti-lock braking system' (ABS) control.

Meanwhile, smart photovoltaic panels with smart diodes and self-adapting electronics minimise loss of energy generation due to shadows or a single malfunctioning cell. Like most electric vehicles, the P-MOB prototype can be charged directly from the electricity grid. The addition of flexible high-efficiency mono-crystalline silicon solar-cell technology, however, means that it can also be powered by the sun alone and can even sell back power to the electricity grid once its batteries are full.

In trials at Fiat's testing track in Turin, the vehicle was able to travel 2 km powered solely by its solar cells - more than enough for the average European daily commuter, especially in sunnier southern Europe.

'The vehicle's performance met our expectations for the design: it showed very high stability on small radius curves and had an average energy consumption of around 80 Watt-hours per kilometre,' Dr Perlo says. 'We presented it to the public at events in Turin, Athens and Brussels and received very positive feedback.'

The prototype was designed using the first variable design platform for micro electric vehicles, also created within the P-MOB and WIDE-MOB projects, and now set to continue its evolution within the EU-MOBY R&D platform, supported by the European Commission.

'The idea of having a vehicle that with minor additions could meet both the homologation of micro electric vehicles and the classical M1 world is new and is enabling novel business approaches. All these concepts have been patented,' Dr Perlo notes.

However, he points out that batteries are at the heart of electrical vehicles and Europe's lack of a strong battery industry remains a challenge to home-grown technology. 'No doubt a new level of pan-European industrial organisation is needed to specifically address the manufacture of batteries because this will put the overall road transport industry in trouble in the next few years,' he says.

Nonetheless, electric vehicle sales in Europe are expected to increase apace, rising from 45,000 this year to 400,000 in 2015, representing around 3.5 % of new passenger car registrations. As technology improves, prices will also drop, with a small to mid-sized electric passenger car with a range of 250 km on a single charge predicted to cost EUR 15,000 within four years, down from EUR 20,000 at present.

Another incentive to switch to electric is likely to come from EU plans to progressively reduce overall passenger car fleet CO2 emissions over the coming years.

'This will likely induce a deep change in the personal mobility offer: the conventional passenger car price will increase due to the technology to achieve the CO2 emission threshold while electric vehicles will fall in cost thanks to the optimisation of the manufacturing process and increasing sales,' Dr Perlo predicts. 'There will be a new equilibrium in the market and there will be room for new vehicle concepts such as the one developed in P-MOB.'

P-MOB received research funding under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).

[lifelabblog]

How Long to Nap for the Biggest Brain Benefits

By MELANIE PINOLA

Taking a nap, we've seen time and again, is like rebooting your brain. But napping may be as much of an art as it is a science. The Wall Street Journal offers recommendations for planning your perfect nap, including how long to nap and when.

The sleep experts in the article say a 10-to-20-minute power nap gives you the best "bang for your buck," but depending on what you want the nap to do for you, other durations might be ideal:

For a quick boost of alertness, experts say a 10-to-20-minute power nap is adequate for getting back to work in a pinch.

For cognitive memory processing, however, a 60-minute nap may do more good, Dr. Mednick said. Including slow-wave sleep helps with remembering facts, places and faces. The downside: some grogginess upon waking.

Finally, the 90-minute nap will likely involve a full cycle of sleep, which aids creativity and emotional and procedural memory, such as learning how to ride a bike. Waking up after REM sleep usually means a minimal amount of sleep inertia, Dr. Mednick said.

In addition to those recommendations, one surprising suggestion is to sit slightly upright during your nap, because it will help you avoid a deep sleep. And if you find yourself dreaming during your power naps, it may be a sign you're sleep deprived.

While you're planning your nap, don't forget to time it during the right time of day as well. 

[lifelabblog]

A brief history of climate change

BBC News environment correspondent Richard Black traces key milestones, scientific discoveries, technical innovations and political action.

1712 - British ironmonger Thomas Newcomen invents the first widely used steam engine, paving the way for the Industrial Revolution and industrial scale use of coal.

The Newcomen Engine foreshadowed industrial scale use of coal.

  1800 - World population reaches one billion.

1824 - French physicist Joseph Fourier describes the Earth's natural "greenhouse effect". He writes: "The temperature [of the Earth] can be augmented by the interposition of the atmosphere, because heat in the state of light finds less resistance in penetrating the air, than in re-passing into the air when converted into non-luminous heat."

1861 - Irish physicist John Tyndall shows that water vapour and certain other gases create the greenhouse effect. "This aqueous vapour is a blanket more necessary to the vegetable life of England than clothing is to man," he concludes. More than a century later, he is honoured by having a prominent UK climate research organisation - the Tyndall Centre - named after him.

1886 - Karl Benz unveils the Motorwagen, often regarded as the first true automobile.

1896 - Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius concludes that industrial-age coal burning will enhance the natural greenhouse effect. He suggests this might be beneficial for future generations. His conclusions on the likely size of the "man-made greenhouse" are in the same ballpark - a few degrees Celsius for a doubling of CO2 - as modern-day climate models.

Svante Arrhenius unlocked the man-made greenhouse a century ago.

  1900 - Another Swede, Knut Angstrom, discovers that even at the tiny concentrations found in the atmosphere, CO2 strongly absorbs parts of the infrared spectrum. Although he does not realise the significance, Angstrom has shown that a trace gas can produce greenhouse warming.

1927 - Carbon emissions from fossil fuel burning and industry reach one billion tonnes per year.

1930 - Human population reaches two billion.

1938 - Using records from 147 weather stations around the world, British engineer Guy Callendar shows that temperatures had risen over the previous century. He also shows that CO2 concentrations had increased over the same period, and suggests this caused the warming. The "Callendar effect" is widely dismissed by meteorologists.

1955 - Using a new generation of equipment including early computers, US researcher Gilbert Plass analyses in detail the infrared absorption of various gases. He concludes that doubling CO2 concentrations would increase temperatures by 3-4C.

1957 - US oceanographer Roger Revelle and chemist Hans Suess show that seawater will not absorb all the additional CO2 entering the atmosphere, as many had assumed. Revelle writes: "Human beings are now carrying out a large scale geophysical experiment..."

1958 - Using equipment he had developed himself, Charles David (Dave) Keeling begins systematic measurements of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa in Hawaii and in Antarctica. Within four years, the project - which continues today - provides the first unequivocal proof that CO2 concentrations are rising.

1960 - Human population reaches three billion.

1965 - A US President's Advisory Committee panel warns that the greenhouse effect is a matter of "real concern".

1972 - First UN environment conference, in Stockholm. Climate change hardly registers on the agenda, which centres on issues such as chemical pollution, atomic bomb testing and whaling. The United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) is formed as a result.

1975 - Human population reaches four billion.

1975 - US scientist Wallace Broecker puts the term "global warming" into the public domain in the title of a scientific paper.

1987 - Human population reaches five billion

1987 - Montreal Protocol agreed, restricting chemicals that damage the ozone layer. Although not established with climate change in mind, it has had a greater impact on greenhouse gas emissions than the Kyoto Protocol.

1988 - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) formed to collate and assess evidence on climate change.

1989 - UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher - possessor of a chemistry degree - warns in a speech to the UN that "We are seeing a vast increase in the amount of carbon dioxide reaching the atmosphere... The result is that change in future is likely to be more fundamental and more widespread than anything we have known hitherto." She calls for a global treaty on climate change.

1989 - Carbon emissions from fossil fuel burning and industry reach six billion tonnes per year.

The CO2 concentration, as measured at Mauna Loa, has risen steadily.

  1990 - IPCC produces First Assessment Report. It concludes that temperatures have risen by 0.3-0.6C over the last century, that humanity's emissions are adding to the atmosphere's natural complement of greenhouse gases, and that the addition would be expected to result in warming.

1992 - At the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, governments agree the United Framework Convention on Climate Change. Its key objective is "stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system". Developed countries agree to return their emissions to 1990 levels.

1995 - IPCC Second Assessment Report concludes that the balance of evidence suggests "a discernible human influence" on the Earth's climate. This has been called the first definitive statement that humans are responsible for climate change.

1997 - Kyoto Protocol agreed. Developed nations pledge to reduce emissions by an average of 5% by the period 2008-2012, with wide variations on targets for individual countries. US Senate immediately declares it will not ratify the treaty.

1998 - Strong El Nino conditions combine with global warming to produce the warmest year on record. The average global temperature reached 0.52C above the mean for the period 1961-1990 (a commonly-used baseline).

1998 - Publication of the controversial "hockey stick" graph indicating that modern-day temperature rise in the northern hemisphere is unusual compared with the last 1,000 years. The work would later be the subject of two enquiries instigated by the US Congress.

1999 - Human population reaches six billion.

2001 - President George W Bush removes the US from the Kyoto process.

2001 - IPCC Third Assessment Report finds "new and stronger evidence" that humanity's emissions of greenhouse gases are the main cause of the warming seen in the second half of the 20th Century.

2005 - The Kyoto Protocol becomes international law for those countries still inside it.

2005 - UK Prime Minister Tony Blair selects climate change as a priority for his terms as chair of the G8 and president of the EU.

2006 - The Stern Review concludes that climate change could damage global GDP by up to 20% if left unchecked - but curbing it would cost about 1% of global GDP.

2006 - Carbon emissions from fossil fuel burning and industry reach eight billion tonnes per year.

2007 - The IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report concludes it is more than 90% likely that humanity's emissions of greenhouse gases are responsible for modern-day climate change.

2007 - The IPCC and former US vice-president Al Gore receive the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change".

2007 - At UN negotiations in Bali, governments agree the two-year "Bali roadmap" aimed at hammering out a new global treaty by the end of 2009.

Rajendra Pachauri's IPCC netted the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

  2008 - Half a century after beginning observations at Mauna Loa, the Keeling project shows that CO2 concentrations have risen from 315 parts per million (ppm) in 1958 to 380ppm in 2008.

2008 - Two months before taking office, incoming US president Barack Obama pledges to "engage vigorously" with the rest of the world on climate change.

2009 - China overtakes the US as the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter - although the US remains well ahead on a per-capita basis.

2009 - Computer hackers download a huge tranche of emails from a server at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit and release some on the internet, leading to the "ClimateGate" affair.

2009 - 192 governments convene for the UN climate summit in Copenhagen with expectations of a new global agreement high; but they leave only with a controversial political declaration, the Copenhagen Accord.

2010 - Developed countries begin contributing to a $30bn, three-year deal on "Fast Start Finance" to help them "green" their economies and adapt to climate impacts.

2010 - A series of reviews into "ClimateGate" and the IPCC ask for more openness, but clear scientists of malpractice.

2010 - The UN summit in Mexico does not collapse, as had been feared, but ends with agreements on a number of issues.

2011 - A new analysis of the Earth's temperature record by scientists concerned over the "ClimateGate" allegations proves the planet's land surface really has warmed over the last century.

2011 - Human population reaches seven billion.

2011 - Data shows concentrations of greenhouse gases are rising faster than in previous years.

2012 - Arctic sea ice reaches a minimum extent of 3.41 million sq km (1.32 million sq mi), a record for the lowest summer cover since satellite measurements began in 1979.

2013 - The Mauna Loa Observatory on Hawaii reports that the daily mean concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has surpassed 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time since measurements began in 1958.

[lifelabblog]

Gut Bacteria From Thin Humans Can Slim Mice Down

Dr. Jeffrey I. Gordon, left, and Vanessa K. Ridaura are two members of a scientific team whose research shows a connection between human gut bacteria and obesity.

By GINA KOLATA

The trillions of bacteria that live in the gut — helping digest foods, making some vitamins, making amino acids — may help determine if a person is fat or thin.

Dr. Jeffrey I. Gordon, left, and Vanessa K. Ridaura are two members of a scientific team whose research shows a connection between human gut bacteria and obesity.

The evidence is from a novel experiment involving mice and humans that is part of a growing fascination with gut bacteria and their role in health and diseases like irritable bowel syndrome and Crohn’s disease. In this case, the focus was on obesity. Researchers found pairs of human twins in which one was obese and the other lean. They transferred gut bacteria from these twins into mice and watched what happened. The mice with bacteria from fat twins grew fat; those that got bacteria from lean twins stayed lean.

The study, published online Thursday by the journal Science, is “pretty striking,” said Dr.Jeffrey S. Flier, an obesity researcher and the dean of the Harvard Medical School, who was not involved with the study. “It’s a very powerful set of experiments.”

Michael Fischbach of the University of California, San Francisco, who also was not involved with the study, called it “the clearest evidence to date that gut bacteria can help cause obesity.”

“I’m very excited about this,” he added, saying the next step will be to try using gut bacteria to treat obesity by transplanting feces from thin people.

“I have little doubt that that will be the next thing that happens,” Dr. Fischbach said.

But Dr. Flier said it was far too soon for that.

“This is not a study that says humans will have a different body weight” if they get a fecal transplant, he said. “This is a scientific advance,” he added, but many questions remain.

Dr. Jeffrey I. Gordon of Washington University in St. Louis, the senior investigator for the study, also urged caution. He wants to figure out which bacteria are responsible for the effect so that, eventually, people can be given pure mixtures of bacteria instead of feces. Or, even better, learn what the bacteria produce that induces thinness and give that as a treatment.

While gut bacteria are a new hot topic in medicine, he added that human biology is complex and that obesity in particular has many contributors, including genetics and diet.

In fact, the part of the study that most surprised other experts was an experiment indicating that, with the right diet, it might be possible to change the bacteria in a fat person’s gut so that they promote leanness rather than obesity. The investigators discovered that given a chance, and in the presence of a low-fat diet, bacteria from a lean twin will take over the gut of a mouse that already had bacteria from a fat twin. The fat mouse then loses weight. But the opposite does not happen. No matter what the diet, bacteria from a fat mouse do not take over in a mouse that is thin.

Although researchers suspected that gut bacteria might play a role in human obesity, it has been difficult to get convincing evidence. While there are often differences in gut bacteria in fat and lean people, they could be a cause or an effect of obesity. And gut bacteria vary from individual to individual, making it very difficult to decide which, if any, affect body weight.

Those obstacles led Dr. Gordon and his colleagues to look for those rare sets of twins in which only one twin is fat. That allowed them to cancel out much of the effect of genetics and environment. They gave the twins’ fecal bacteria to mice that were born and reared in a sterile environment and had no bacteria of their own as a result. The mice were genetically identical, so genetic factors played no role in their weights.

Five weeks after they got human gut bacteria, the mice with bacteria from the fat twins had about 15 to 17 percent more body fat than those that had bacteria from thin twins. They also had some of the metabolic changes associated with obesity.

Next came what Dr. Gordon calls the “Battle of the Microbiota,” referring to the collection of gut microbes. The researchers put mice with gut bacteria from lean twins in the same cage as mice with gut bacteria from obese twins. Mice housed together eat one another’s droppings, so the mice in the cage naturally end up sharing gut bacteria. He also put in germ-free mice to determine which collection of gut bacteria they would get. Or would they get a mixture?

That led to the discovery that bacteria from the lean twins took over in the mice that started out with bacteria from the fat twins, resulting in weight loss and a correction of the metabolic abnormalities the mice had developed. But the mice were eating standard mouse food, which is very low in fat.

Then Dr. Gordon’s colleague Vanessa K. Ridaura had an idea. From a national survey about what Americans eat, she and her colleagues determined the diets of those eating the most fruits and vegetables and the least saturated fats and the diets of those at the opposite end of the spectrum. With that information, they created mouse food pellets of the same two compositions by cooking and drying fruits and vegetables and combining them with fats in the right proportions. They then repeated the experiment, putting fat and lean mice together in a cage and giving them one of the two types of food.

The fat mice that got food high in fat and low in fruits and vegetables kept the gut bacteria from the fat twins and remained fat. The thin twins’ gut bacteria took over only when the mice got pellets that were rich in fruits and vegetables and low in fat.

“This is all weird and wonderful,” said Robert W. Karp, a program director for genetics and genomics at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

And it raises questions of what comes next.

Dr. Gordon’s plan to isolate the bacteria or their products responsible for leanness “could take many decades,” said Dr. Alexander Khoruts, a gastroenterologist at the University of Minnesota.

“I am not down on this approach,” Dr. Khoruts said, but added that it would be a lot quicker to try fecal transplants. They have worked in one situation: people with a terrible gut infection with the bacteria Clostridium difficile get better when given feces from healthy people.

Those were people with no other treatment options, Dr. Karp noted, but, he said, perhaps obese people who have not done well after bariatric surgery might be in the same desperate situation.

“Maybe we could try it out very, very gingerly, very, very carefully,” Dr. Karp said, noting that that was his personal opinion.

But he added that he was not sure weight loss centers would take that cautious approach.

“It would not surprise me if someone somewhere starts doing it,” Dr. Karp said.

[lifelabblog]

ADHD Primer

by Katherine Ellison

October is ADHD Awareness month, meaning it's time to fix our flickering national focus on a sometimes-impairing brain condition that’s reportedly now as prevalent as the common cold.

There’s a lot of confusion, misunderstanding, stigma, and controversy out there about Attention deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. So for those of you who aren’t philosophically opposed to science, here’s my eclectic list -- culled from the most reliable sources I could muster -- of key things you need to know.

• ADHD is a mental disorder stemming from childhood, which often, if not always, lasts in some form into adulthood.

• Symptoms include forgetfulness, distractedness, impulsivity, and difficulty finishing tasks, to a degree that interferes with school, work, and relationships

 • The disorder puts kids and adults at a significantly higher risk of anxiety and low self-esteem. People with ADHD are also more likely than others to have social conflicts and major injuries. 

• Parent surveys suggest approximately 9.5 percent of children from 4-17 years old have been diagnosed with ADHD as of 2007. That’s 5.4 million kids. 

• These numbers have been steadily rising, with a 22 percent jump in parent-reported ADHD between 2003 and 2007.

• The National Institutes of Mental Health estimates that 4.4 four percent of U.S. adults – more than 9.6 million people -- have ADHD.

• While experts believe that some children are being too quickly and erroneously diagnosed with ADHD by panicked parents and pediatricians, they also contend that many kids aren’t getting the attention and help that they need.

• Authentic cases of ADHD may stem from one or more of a variety of causes, including heredity, low-birth weight, brain injuries, and environmental exposures, including lead and/or a mother’s alcohol or tobacco use during pregnancy. It is believed to involve a malfunction with the way the brain processes neurotransmitters including dopamine,which is important in motivation and interest.

 • The correct term is ADHD, not ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), which is what it was called until 1987, and it can manifest in a hyperactive, inattentive, or “combined” form.

 • Boys with ADHD are two to three times as likely to be diagnosed as girls, although some researchers believe more girls would be diagnosed were it not for the fact that many have the “inattentive” form of the disorder. Many girls therefore grow up with their ADHD undiagnosed and untreated, which can lead to serious consequences including depression, anxiety, and suicide attempts.

• The likelihood of being diagnosed with ADHD varies dramatically between U.S. states, from a low of 5.6% in Nevada to a high of 15.6% in North Carolina.

• Medication, most often with stimulants, remains the most common treatment for children with ADHD. As of 2007, more than 66 percent of diagnosed kids were receiving medication treatment.

 • Medication, nevertheless, is not helpful for everyone who has ADHD, even after trying various doses and formulas, and side-effects,including sleeplessness, loss of appetite, and irritability, are common.

 • Among non-pharmaceutical treatments – and for myself and my own child, I strongly favor non-pharmaceutical treatments -- my favorite is daily, intense exercise. Increasing research shows that even 20 minutes of exercise a day – e.g. swimming, brisk walking, going to the gym -- can be a powerful brain-booster for all sorts of people, and particularly beneficial to those of us whose brains need some extra revving up.

 • Another effective treatment for people with ADHD is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which doesn’t so much focus on the imperfect focus as on the negative “self-talk” that becomes a major problem after living with the disorder. 

• Neurofeedback also appears to be effective – again, in particular for coping most effectively with the anxiety that so often accompanies ADHD. Adherents of this therapy point to several small studies that indicate benefits, but the treatment is very expensive; insurance rarely pays for it, and there has yet to be a gold-standard, double-blind, peer-reviewed trial that would confirm some heady claims of effectiveness.

[lifelabblog]

The Habits Of Supremely Happy People

By Kate Bratskeir

Martin Seligman, the father of positive psychology, theorizes that while 60 percent of happiness is determined by our genetics and environment, the remaining 40 percent is up to us.

In his 2004 Ted Talk, Seligman describes three different kinds of happy lives: The pleasant life, in which you fill your life with as many pleasures as you can, the life of engagement, where you find a life in your work, parenting, love and leisure and themeaningful life, which "consists of knowing what your highest strengths are, and using them to belong to and in the service of something larger than you are."

After exploring what accounts for ultimate satisfaction, Seligman says he was surprised. The pursuit of pleasure, research determined, has hardly any contribution to a lasting fulfillment. Instead, pleasure is "the whipped cream and the cherry" that adds a certain sweetness to satisfactory lives founded by the simultaneous pursuit of meaning and engagement.

And while it might sound like a big feat to to tackle great concepts like meaning andengagement (pleasure sounded much more doable), happy people have habits you can introduce into your everyday life that may add to the bigger picture of bliss. Joyful folk have certain inclinations that add to their pursuit of meaning -- and motivate them along the way.

They surround themselves with other happy people.

Joy is contagious. Researchers of the Framingham Heart Study who investigated the spread of happiness over 20 years found that those who are surrounded by happy people “are more likely to become happy in the future.” This is reason enough to dump the Debbie Downers and spend more time with uplifting people.

They smile when they mean it.

Even if you’re not feeling so chipper, cultivating a happy thought -- and then smiling about it -- could up your happiness levels and make you more productive, according to a study published in the Academy of Management Journal. It’s important to be genuine with your grin: The study revealed that faking a smile while experiencing negative emotions could actually worsen your mood.

They cultivate resilience.

According to psychologist Peter Kramer, resilience, not happiness, is the opposite of depression: Happy people know how to bounce back from failure. Resilience is like a padding for the inevitable hardship human beings are bound to face. As the Japanese proverb goes, “Fall seven times and stand up eight.”

They try to be happy. 

Yep -- it’s as simple as it sounds: just trying to be happy can boost your emotional well-being, according to two studies recently published in The Journal of Positive Psychology. Those who actively tried to feel happier in the studies reported the highest level of positive moods, making a case for thinking yourself happy.

They are mindful of the good.

It’s important to celebrate great, hard-earned accomplishments, but happy people give attention to their smaller victories, too. “When we take time to notice the things that go right -- it means we’re getting a lot of little rewards throughout the day,” Susan Weinschenk, Ph.D. told The Huffington Post in May. “That can help with our moods.” And, as Frank Ghinassi, Ph.D. explains, being mindful of the things that do go your way (even something as simple as the barista getting your coffee order right) can make you feel a greater sense of accomplishment throughout the day.

They appreciate simple pleasures.

A meticulously swirled ice cream cone. An boundlessly waggy dog. Happy people take the time to appreciate these easy-to-come-by pleasures. Finding meaning in the little things, and practicing gratitude for all that you do have is associated with a sense of overall gladness.

They devote some of their time to giving.

Even though there are only 24 hours in a day, positive people fill some of that time doing good for others, which in return, does some good for the do-gooders themselves. A long-term research project called Americans’ Changing Lives found a bevy of benefits associated with altruism: “Volunteer work was good for both mental and physical health. People of all ages who volunteered were happier and experienced better physical health and less depression,” reported Peggy Thoits, the leader of one of the studies.

Givers also experience what researchers call “the helper’s high,” a euphoric state experienced by those engaged in charitable acts. “This is probably a literal “high,” similar to a drug-induced high,” writes Christine L. Carter, Ph.D. “The act of making a financial donation triggers the reward center in our brains that is responsible for dopamine-mediated euphoria.”

They let themselves lose track of time. (And sometimes they can’t help it.)

When you’re immersed in an activity that is simultaneously challenging, invigorating and meaningful, you experience a joyful state called “flow.” Happy people seek this sensation of getting “caught up” or “carried away,” which diminishes self-consciousness and promotes the feelings associated with success. As explained by Pursuit-of-happiness.org, “In order for a Flow state to occur, you must see the activity as voluntary, enjoyable (intrinsically motivating), and it must require skill and be challenging (but not too challenging) with clear goals towards success.”

They nix the small talk for deeper conversation.  Nothing wrong with shootin' the you-know-what every now and then, but sitting down to talk about what makes you tick is a prime practice for feeling good about life.A study published in Psychological Science found that those who take part in more substantive conversation and less trivial chit chat experienced more feelings of satisfaction.

"I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings," is one of the top five regrets of the dying -- a sentiment that hints at the fact that people wish they'd spent less time talking about the weather and more time delving into what it is that makes their heart swell.

They spend money on other people. 

Maybe money does buy happiness. A study published in Science found that spending money on other people has a more direct impact on happiness than spending money on oneself.

They make a point to listen. 

"When you listen you open up your ability to take in more knowledge versus blocking the world with your words or your distracting thoughts," writes David Mezzapelle, author of Contagious Optimism. "You are also demonstrating confidence and respect for others. Knowledge and confidence is proof that you are secure and positive with yourself thus radiating positive energy." Good listening is a skill that strengthens relationships and leads to more satisfying experiences. A good listener may walk away from a conversation feeling as if their presence served a purpose, an experience that isclosely connected with increased well-being.

They uphold in-person connections.

It’s quick and convenient to text, FaceTime and tweet at your buddies. But spending the money on a flight to see your favorite person across the country has weight when it comes to your well-being. "There's a deep need to have a sense of belonging that comes with having personal interactions with friends," says John Cacioppo, Ph.D., the director of the Center of Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago. Social media, while it keeps us in touch, doesn't allow us to physically touch, which harvests the warm-and-fuzzies and even decreases feelings of anxiety.

They look on the bright side.

Optimism touts plenty of health benefits, including less stress, a better tolerance for pain and, as HuffPost Healthy Living recently reported, longevity among those with heart disease. When you choose to see the silver lining, you're also choosing health and happiness.

Seligman summed up perhaps the greatest characteristic of the optimist in one of his most acclaimed books, Learned Optimism:

The defining characteristic of pessimists is that they tend to believe bad events will last a long time, will undermine everything they do, and are their own fault. The optimists, who are confronted with the same hard knocks of this world, think about misfortune in the opposite way. They tend to believe defeat is just a temporary setback, that its causes are confined to this one case. The optimists believe defeat is not their fault: Circumstances, bad luck, or other people brought it about. Such people are unfazed by defeat. Confronted by a bad situation, they perceive it as a challenge and try harder.

They value a good mixtape.

Music is powerful. So powerful, in fact, that it could match up to the anxiety-reducing effects of massage therapy. Over a three month period, researchers from the Group Health Research Institute found that patients who simply listened to music had the same decreased anxiety symptoms as those who got 10 hour-long massages. Choosing the right tunes could be an important factor, however, as a happy or sad song can also affect the way we perceive the world. In one experiment where researchers asked subjects to identify happy or sad faces while listening to music, the participants were more likely to see the faces that matched the "mood" of the music.Click here for a few of our favorite mood-boosting jams.

They unplug. 

Whether by meditating, taking a few deep breaths away from the screen ordeliberately disconnecting from electronics, unplugging from our hyper-connected world has proven advantages when it comes to happiness. Talking on your cell could increase your blood pressure and raise your stress levels, while uninterrupted screen time has been linked to depression and fatigue. Technology isn't going away, but partaking in some kind of a digital detox gives your brain the opportunity to recharge and recover, which -- bonus -- could increase your resilience.

They get spiritual.

Studies point to a link between religious and spiritual practice and mirth. For one, happiness habits like expressing gratitude, compassion and charity are generally promoted in most spiritual conventions. And, asking the big questions helps to give our lives context and meaning. A 2009 study found that children who felt their lives had a purpose (which was promoted by a spiritual connection) were happier.

Spirituality offers what the 20th-century sociologist Emile Durkheim referred to as "sacred time," which is a built-in, unplugging ritual that elicits moments of reflection and calm. As Ellen L. Idler, Ph.D., writes in "The Psychological and Physical Benefits of Spiritual/Religious Practices,": 

The experience of sacred time provides a time apart from the “profane time” that we live most of our lives in. A daily period of meditation, a weekly practice of lighting Sabbath candles, or attending worship services, or an annual retreat in an isolated, quiet place of solitude all of these are examples of setting time apart from the rush of our everyday lives. Periods of rest and respite from work and the demands of daily life serve to reduce stress, a fundamental cause of chronic diseases that is still the primary causes of death in Western society. Transcendent spiritual and religious experiences have a positive, healing, restorative effect, especially if they are “built in,” so to speak, to one’s daily, weekly, seasonal, and annual cycles of living

They make exercise a priority.

A wise, albeit fictional Harvard Law School student once said, "Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy." Exercise has been shown to ease symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress, thanks to the the various brain chemicals that are released that amplify feelings of happiness and relaxation. Plus, working out makes us appreciate our bodies more. One study published in the Journal of Health Psychology found that exercise improved how people felt about their bodies -- even if they didn’t lose weight or achieve noticeable improvements.

They go outside.

Want to feel alive? Just a 20-minute dose of fresh air promotes a sense of vitality, according to several studies published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology. "Nature is fuel for the soul, " says Richard Ryan, Ph.D, the lead author of the studies. "Often when we feel depleted we reach for a cup of coffee, but research suggests a better way to get energized is to connect with nature." And while most of us like our coffee hot, we may prefer our serving of the great outdoors at a more lukewarm temperature: A study on weather and individual happiness unveiled 57 degrees to be the optimal temperature for optimal happiness.

They spend some time on the pillow.

Waking up on the wrong side of the bed isn't just a myth. When you're running low on zzs, you're prone to experience lack of clarity, bad moods and poor judgment. "A good night's sleep can really help a moody person decrease their anxiety," Dr. Raymonde Jean, director of sleep medicine and associate director of critical care at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center told Health.com. "You get more emotional stability with good sleep."

They LOL.

You've heard it before: Laughter is the best medicine. In the case of The Blues, this may hold some truth. A good, old-fashioned chuckle releases happy brain chemicalsthat, other than providing the exuberant buzz we seek, make humans better equipped to tolerate both pain and stress.

And you might be able to get away with counting a joke-swapping session as a workout (maybe). "The body's response to repetitive laughter is similar to the effect of repetitive exercise," explained Dr. Lee Berk, the lead researcher of a 2010 study focused on laughter's effects on the body. The same study found that some of the benefits associated with working out, like a healthy immune system, controlled appetite and improved cholesterol can also be achieved through laughter.

They walk the walk.

Ever notice your joyful friends have a certain spring in the step? It's all about the stride, according to research conducted by Sara Snodgrass, a psychologist from Florida Atlantic University.

In the experiment, Snodgrass asked participants to take a three-minute walk. Half of the walkers were told to take long strides while swinging their arms and holding their heads high. These walkers reported feeling happier after the stroll than the other group, who took short, shuffled steps as they watched their feet.

[lifelabblog]

The Sun's Magnetic Field is about to Flip.

Author:Dr. Tony Phillips Production editor: Dr. Tony Phillips Credit: Science@NASA Something big is about to happen on the sun. According to measurements from NASA-supported observatories, the sun's vast magnetic field is about to flip. "It looks like we're no more than 3 to 4 months away from a complete field reversal," says solar physicist Todd Hoeksema of Stanford University. "This change will have ripple effects throughout the solar system."

The sun's magnetic field changes polarity approximately every 11 years. It happens at the peak of each solar cycle as the sun's inner magnetic dynamo re-organizes itself. The coming reversal will mark the midpoint of Solar Cycle 24. Half of 'Solar Max' will be behind us, with half yet to come. Hoeksema is the director of Stanford's Wilcox Solar Observatory, one of the few observatories in the world that monitor the sun's polar magnetic fields. The poles are a herald of change. Just as Earth scientists watch our planet's polar regions for signs of climate change, solar physicists do the same thing for the sun. Magnetograms at Wilcox have been tracking the sun's polar magnetism since 1976, and they have recorded three grand reversals—with a fourth in the offing. Solar physicist Phil Scherrer, also at Stanford, describes what happens: "The sun's polar magnetic fields weaken, go to zero, and then emerge again with the opposite polarity. This is a regular part of the solar cycle." A reversal of the sun's magnetic field is, literally, a big event. The domain of the sun's magnetic influence (also known as the "heliosphere") extends billions of kilometers beyond Pluto. Changes to the field's polarity ripple all the way out to the Voyager probes, on the doorstep of interstellar space. When solar physicists talk about solar field reversals, their conversation often centers on the "current sheet." The current sheet is a sprawling surface jutting outward from the sun's equator where the sun's slowly-rotating magnetic field induces an electrical current. The current itself is small, only one ten-billionth of an amp per square meter (0.0000000001 amps/m2), but there’s a lot of it: the amperage flows through a region 10,000 km thick and billions of kilometers wide. Electrically speaking, the entire heliosphere is organized around this enormous sheet. During field reversals, the current sheet becomes very wavy. Scherrer likens the undulations to the seams on a baseball. As Earth orbits the sun, we dip in and out of the current sheet. Transitions from one side to another can stir up stormy space weather around our planet. Cosmic rays are also affected. These are high-energy particles accelerated to nearly light speed by supernova explosions and other violent events in the galaxy. Cosmic rays are a danger to astronauts and space probes, and some researchers say they might affect the cloudiness and climate of Earth. The current sheet acts as a barrier to cosmic rays, deflecting them as they attempt to penetrate the inner solar system. A wavy, crinkly sheet acts as a better shield against these energetic particles from deep space. As the field reversal approaches, data from Wilcox show that the sun's two hemispheres are out of synch. "The sun's north pole has already changed sign, while the south pole is racing to catch up," says Scherrer. "Soon, however, both poles will be reversed, and the second half of Solar Max will be underway." When that happens, Hoeksema and Scherrer will share the news with their colleagues and the public.

[lifelabblog]

Do Owners and Their Dogs Have Similar Personalities?

By Stanley Coren, Ph.D. The majority of dogs spend their lives in a home with their owner and his or her family. To be a successful family member the dog must have characteristics which fit well with the people in the home. We already know that people tend to choose dogs which look similar to themselves, at least for some global characteristics (for example see here). Back in 1996 I conducted a study of over 6000 people in which I was able to show that a person’s personality predicted the breed of dog that they would be happiest to live with. The data from that study formed the basis of my book Why We Love the Dogs We Do. However the focus of that work was not a comparison of the personality traits of the dog and its owner but rather on how the personality of the human affected his attitude toward certain types of dogs. There have only been a few specific studies which have looked at the similarity of a particular personality trait in a dog and its owner. One which caused a bit of stir was an experiment which found that individuals who owned breeds of dogs with a high risk for aggression may themselves have personality characteristics or life histories associated with aggressive tendencies (for example see here). What we have been lacking, however, is a study that looks at the relationship of a broad range of personality characteristics in people and their dogs. A recent report by Borbála Turcsána, Friederike Range, Zsófia Virányi, Ádám Miklósi and Enikö Kubinyia, published in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science, has attempted to do this by looking at the similarity between the personalities of owners and their dogs using the most commonly accepted personality dimensions. This was a large elaborate study, involving a collaboration between Eötvös University in Budapest, Hungary, and the School of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Vienna. It tested 389 dog owners and 518 dogs. Because of the complexity of the study we can only touch on the highlights here. To begin with the owners completed a personality questionnaire which measured the "Big Five" personality traits. The big five are the most frequently measured personality traits and the ones that seem to predict behaviors best. They are: Neuroticism – whether a person is sensitive and nervous vs. secure and confident. It is often referred to as a measure of "emotional stability". Extraversion – this looks at whether the individual is outgoing, sociable and energetic vs. solitary and reserved. Agreeableness – measuring whether a person is friendly and compassionate vs. cold and unkind. Conscientiousness – assessing whether the individual is hard-working, efficient and organized vs. easy-going, lazy or careless. Openness – at one level this dimension looks at whether the person is inventive and curious vs. consistent and cautious. However this dimension is also highly correlated with intelligence and some researchers have gone so far as to relabel it as "intellect." Next the owners were asked to rate the personality of their dogs using a version of the same test which was developed specifically to measure a dog's personality by Samuel Gosling and his associates at the University of Texas in Austin. The main results of this study are easy to describe. The dog owners rated their dogs as having similar personalities to themselves in all five of the personality traits measured. The strongest association was between the owner's degree of neuroticism and that of their dog, followed by extraversion. Now if we stopped at this finding it would be interesting but certainly not conclusive piece of research. Remember we are having the dog owners rate the personalities of their pets. Psychologists recognize that there is a mechanism called projection which tends to cause individuals to believe that other people (particularly those who they live with or socialize with), also have the same beliefs, attitudes, emotions, and even the same personality characteristics as themselves. So it could be that the owners are simply projecting their own personality traits and seeing them in their dogs in a similar manner. To make sure that this was not the case the researchers cleverly chose to have a subset of family members rate the personality of the dog as well and that rating was then compared to the personality of the owners. The results showed that in four out of the five personality characteristics these family members saw the same traits in the dog as in the dog's owner. This suggests that for a least those four characteristics the owner's ratings were objective and accurate rather than psychological projections. The one trait that did not work out was openness. Apparently dog owners project their own intellectual abilities onto their dogs rather than coming to the conclusion that their dog has a significantly lower (or perhaps higher) intellect than they do themselves. Why do dogs and owners have similar personalities? One possibility is that the owner's lifestyle and interactions with the dog change the dog's personality, a fact which has been suggested by other data. It is easy to imagine how an anxious, neurotic owner could raise the neuroticism level of his dog by acting inconsistently, showing exaggerated emotions toward and around their pet, or being overprotective. If living with an owner with a particular personality shapes the dog's personality then the dog should appear to be more similar to the owner the longer the human and canine live together. This does not appear to be the case in this data set. That suggests that owners are making a relatively conscious choice and deciding to get dogs, or dog breeds, that reflect their own personality. Thus an active extroverted owner might make the choice when he is first acquiring a dog to pick out an active sociable canine companion like himself. Now I warned you that the results of this study were rich and complicated. Having just established that the data suggest that people select dogs with personality traits that are similar to their own, we must add the restriction that this only holds for households in which there is only one dog. If the household has more than one dog, then the similarities between begin to become weaker and more inconsistent. It is as if when we have more than one dog in our home we want our pets to have a bit of variety in their psychological characteristics rather than all being a simple reflection our own personality. This is certainly something that I can understand since my most recent constellation of dogs includes a clever active retriever, a couch potato lap dog, and a hound who wanders through his world with his own personal agenda. It is an interesting mix of personalities which keeps me entertained.

[lifelabblog]

The World's Biggest Polluter is About to Be Its Largest Green Energy Investor

By Rachel George. In the midst of booming industrial growth, China has quickly risen to become the world's biggest polluter. But it turns out the industrial giant is also set to become the world's largest investor in green energy, as Chinese officials recently announced an estimated $275 billion plan to be implemented for the next five years by business and government entities in an attempt to clear up the air. The great irony of the country's record-holding spot in levels of pollution as well as in green-energy investment is that efforts to counter-balance climate problems may come too late. The looming smog covering China's capital Beijing is filled with pollution from the area's 200 coal-fired plants and an estimated five million automobiles. The approximate concentration of pollutant particles in the air in Beijing alone is 900 parts per million, a shocking 40 times the World Health Organization standard for healthy breathing. These pollution problems are not just affecting people living under the smog China's in cities. China’s greenhouse-gas emissions have skyrocketed from about 10% of the world’s total in 1990 to nearly 30% in 2013, and, in 2000, China alone has contributed to two-thirds of total international growth in carbon-dioxide emissions. These figures indicate Chinese pollution is seeping into the atmosphere, and has become a truly global crisis. At the same time, domestic activism to clean up China's climate is booming, and the government is not ignoring the calls. The country's blogosphere had a reported 2.5 million postings that mention the word "smog" in January alone. Professors at China's leading business schools have issued warnings that the pollution is sending thousands of the country's most important businessmen and intellectuals away from the city, or worse, sending them packing away from the country altogether. “You need to breathe, and so do I," Chinese billionaire and blogger Pan Shiyi has explained. "State leaders need to breathe, and so do ordinary people,” he noted, helping illustrate that pollution reduction is growing to become a pressing problem for Chinese people from all walks of life. With these pressures in mind, it may not come as a surprise that Asia's giant has agreed to invest billions of dollars into cleaning up its act. But a $275 billion investment into green energy programs is no small drop in the bucket, despite the country's whopping $9 trillion (and growing) GDP. It's a serious investment equal to Hong Kong’s total GDP, and even twice the size of the country's annual defense spending. The problem is, despite this record-breaking financial effort to clean the air in the coming years, the degree of damage done will be very hard to reverse. As America and Europe have done a decent job in cutting back emissions with investments in green energy (reducing their emissions by an estimated 60 million metric tons per year combined), China has been steadily been increasing its emissions by an estimated 500 million tons. It's not that the investment is not significant, but that it may be too little, too late. Still, some experts believe China has the ability, with the help of these large investments, to undo the damage. "China also has advantages in addressing its — and the world’s — environmental problems," experts have explained in The Economist. "They are good at taking action on high-priority issues. China has a huge domestic market, cheap capital, and sunny, windy deserts ... It is the silver lining of a very dark cloud. If China cannot do it, no one can."

[lifelabblog]

The Science of Love

There are three phases to falling in love and different hormones are involved at each stage. Events occurring in the brain when we are in love have similarities with mental illness. When we are attracted to somebody, it could be because subconsciously we like their genes. Smell could be as important as looks when it comes to the fanciability factor. We like the look and smell of people who are most like our parents. Science can help determine whether a relationship will last. Cupid's chemicals People are usually in 'cloud nine' when they fall in love. Flushed cheeks, a racing heart beat and clammy hands are some of the outward signs of being in love. But inside the body there are definite chemical signs that cupid has fired his arrow. When it comes to love it seems we are at the mercy of our biochemistry. One of the best known researchers in this area is Helen Fisher of Rutgers University in New Jersey. She has proposed that we fall in love in three stages. Each involving a different set of chemicals. Three Stages of Falling in Love Stage 1: Lust Lust is driven by the sex hormones testosterone and oestrogen. Testosterone is not confined only to men. It has also been shown to play a major role in the sex drive of women. These hormones as Helen Fisher says "get you out looking for anything". Stage 2: Attraction This is the truly love-struck phase. When people fall in love they can think of nothing else. They might even lose their appetite and need less sleep, preferring to spend hours at a time daydreaming about their new lover. In the attraction stage, a group of neuro-transmitters called 'monoamines' play an important role: Dopamine - Also activated by cocaine and nicotine. Norepinephrine - Otherwise known as adrenalin. Starts us sweating and gets the heart racing. Serotonin - One of love's most important chemicals and one that may actually send us temporarily insane. Discover which type of partner you're attracted to by taking our face perception test. Stage 3: Attachment This is what takes over after the attraction stage, if a relationship is going to last. People couldn't possibly stay in the attraction stage forever, otherwise they'd never get any work done! Attachment is a longer lasting commitment and is the bond that keeps couples together when they go on to have children. Important in this stage are two hormones released by the nervous system, which are thought to play a role in social attachments: Oxytocin - This is released by the hypothalamus gland during child birth and also helps the breast express milk. It helps cement the strong bond between mother and child. It is also released by both sexes during orgasm and it is thought that it promotes bonding when adults are intimate. The theory goes that the more sex a couple has, the deeper their bond becomes Vasopressin - Another important chemical in the long-term commitment stage. It is an important controller of the kidney and its role in long-term relationships was discovered when scientists looked at the prairie vole Find out how the three stages can feel even stronger for teenagers in love, experiencing first love and first sex. The frisky Prairie Vole In prairie vole society, sex is the prelude to a long-term pair bonding of a male and female. Prairie voles indulge in far more sex than is strictly necessary for the purposes of reproduction. It was thought that the two hormones, vasopressin and oxytocin, released after mating, could forge this bond. In an experiment, male prairie voles were given a drug that suppresses the effect of vasopressin. The bond with their partner deteriorated immediately as they lost their devotion and failed to protect their partner from new suitors. Looking in their genes When it comes to choosing a partner, are we at the mercy of our subconscious? Researchers studying the science of attraction draw on evolutionary theory to explain the way humans pick partners. It is to our advantage to mate with somebody with the best possible genes. These will then be passed on to our children, ensuring that we have healthy kids, who will pass our own genes on for generations to come. Photo by Saar Katz

[lifelabblog]

Sleeping With The Enemy: What happened between the Neanderthals and us?

By Elizabeth Kolbert The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, in Leipzig, is a large, mostly glass building shaped a bit like a banana. The institute sits at the southern edge of the city, in a neighborhood that still very much bears the stamp of its East German past. If you walk down the street in one direction, you come to a block of Soviet-style apartment buildings; in the other, to a huge hall with a golden steeple, which used to be known as the Soviet Pavilion. (The pavilion is now empty.) In the lobby of the institute there’s a cafeteria and an exhibit on great apes. A TV in the cafeteria plays a live feed of the orangutans at the Leipzig Zoo. Svante Pääbo heads the institute’s department of evolutionary genetics. He is tall and lanky, with a long face, a narrow chin, and bushy eyebrows, which he often raises to emphasize some sort of irony. Pääbo’s office is dominated by a life-size model of a Neanderthal skeleton, propped up so that its feet dangle over the floor, and by a larger-than-life-size portrait that his graduate students presented to him on his fiftieth birthday. Each of the students painted a piece of the portrait, the over-all effect of which is a surprisingly good likeness of Pääbo, but in mismatched colors that make it look as if he had a skin disease. At any given moment, Pääbo has at least half a dozen research efforts in progress. When I visited him in May, he had one team analyzing DNA that had been obtained from a forty- or fifty-thousand-year-old finger bone found in Siberia, and another trying to extract DNA from a cache of equally ancient bones from China. A third team was slicing open the brains of mice that had been genetically engineered to produce a human protein. In Pääbo’s mind, at least, these research efforts all hang together. They are attempts to solve a single problem in evolutionary genetics, which might, rather dizzyingly, be posed as: What made us the sort of animal that could create a transgenic mouse? The question of what defines the human has, of course, been kicking around since Socrates, and probably a lot longer. If it has yet to be satisfactorily resolved, then this, Pääbo suspects, is because it has never been properly framed. “The challenge is to address the questions that are answerable,” he told me. Pääbo’s most ambitious project to date, which he has assembled an international consortium to assist him with, is an attempt to sequence the entire genome of the Neanderthal. The project is about halfway complete and has already yielded some unsettling results, including the news, announced by Pääbo last year, that modern humans, before doing in the Neanderthals, must have interbred with them. Once the Neanderthal genome is complete, scientists will be able to lay it gene by gene—indeed, base by base—against the human, and see where they diverge. At that point, Pääbo believes, an answer to the age-old question will finally be at hand. Neanderthals were very closely related to modern humans—so closely that we shared our prehistoric beds with them—and yet clearly they were not humans. Somewhere among the genetic disparities must lie the mutation or, more probably, mutations that define us. Pääbo already has a team scanning the two genomes, drawing up lists of likely candidates. “I want to know what changed in fully modern humans, compared with Neanderthals, that made a difference,” he said. “What made it possible for us to build up these enormous societies, and spread around the globe, and develop the technology that I think no one can doubt is unique to humans. There has to be a genetic basis for that, and it is hiding somewhere in these lists.” Pääbo, who is now fifty-six, grew up in Stockholm. His mother, a chemist, was an Estonian refugee. For a time, she worked in the laboratory of a biochemist named Sune Bergström, who later won a Nobel Prize. Pääbo was the product of a lab affair between the two, and, although he knew who his father was, he wasn’t supposed to discuss it. Bergström had a wife and another son; Pääbo’s mother, meanwhile, never married. Every Saturday, Bergström would visit Pääbo and take him for a walk in the woods, or somewhere else where he didn’t think he’d be recognized. “Officially, at home, he worked on Saturday,” Pääbo told me. “It was really crazy. His wife knew. But they never talked about it. She never tried to call him at work on Saturdays.” As a child, Pääbo wasn’t particularly bothered by the whole arrangement; later, he occasionally threatened to knock on Bergström’s door. “I would say, ‘You have to tell your son—your other son—because he will find out sometime,’ ” he recalled. Bergström would promise to do this, but never followed through. (As a result, Bergström’s other son did not learn that Pääbo existed until shortly before Bergström’s death, in 2004.) From an early age, Pääbo was interested in old things. He discovered that around fallen trees it was sometimes possible to find bits of pottery made by prehistoric Swedes, and he filled his room with potsherds. When he was a teen-ager, his mother took him to visit the Pyramids, and he was entranced. He enrolled at Uppsala University, planning to become an Egyptologist.

[lifelabblog]

Putting humor under a microscope.

By Peter McGraw, Ph.D. in The Humor Code Daniel Dennett makes a good point in his TED talk, Cute, Sexy, Sweet, Funny, when he argues our sense of humor must accomplish important evolutionary objectives. Why else would we find things funny and laugh about them – pretty unusual activities, when you think about it – unless doing so helped us survive as a species? According to Dennett, humor evolved as a way for the mind to incentivize the discovery of mistaken leaps to conclusion – or as he puts in his talk, it’s “A neural system wired up to reward the brain for doing a grubby clerical job.” This so-called “Hurley model” (named after lead author Matthew Hurley), makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. But the Hurley model of humor is based solely on argumentation, intuition and thought experiments. To be sure, that’s been the de facto way of devising humor theories ever since Plato and Aristotle contemplated the meaning of comedy. But the results don’t always withstand scientific scrutiny. Take incongruity theories of humor, which are based on the intuitively-appealing belief that humor arises when people discover there’s an inconsistency between what they expect to happen and what actually happens. In truth, scientists have found that in comedy, unexpectedness is overrated. In 1974, two University of Tennessee professors had undergraduates listen to a variety of Bill Cosby and Phyllis Diller routines. Before each punch line, the researchers stopped the tape and asked the students to predict what came next. Then another group of students was asked to rate the funniness of each of the comedians’ jokes. Comparing the results, the professors found the predictable punch lines (i.e., the less incongruous ones) were rated considerably funnier than those that were unexpected. That’s why when Pete, the scholarly half of our duo, began wondering what makes things funny, he launched the Humor Research Lab, aka HuRL. With his collaborator Caleb Warren, he’s been developing and testing the benign violation theory, the idea that humor arises when something that is unsettling, threatening or wrong (i.e., a violation) simultaneously seems acceptable, safe or okay (i.e., benign). All kinds of humor fit the model, from puns to sarcasm to tickling. But more importantly, the theory is being validated experimentally. In one HuRL experiment, a researcher approached undergraduates and asked them to read a scenario inspired by Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards. In the story, Keith’s father tells his son to do whatever he wished with his cremated remains—so when his father passed away, Keith snorts the ashes. Those who found the tale of Keith and his obscene schnozzle simultaneously “wrong” (a violation) and “not wrong” (benign) were three times more likely to smile or laugh than either those who deemed Keith’s actions either completely okay or utterly unacceptable. If appreciating humor is simply a mental debugging system, as Dennett suggests, these results are hard to account for. Also encouraging are the results from our Humor Code project, a global expedition exploring what makes things funny. Everywhere, we found evidence that humor is born from violations, from things that are wrong, threatening or disruptive. We accompanied Patch Adams on a clown mission into the Amazon, where the jokesters helped impoverished communities by breaking down social norms and shattering cultural preconceptions. And in Palestine, we discovered a vibrant comedy scene mining the decades-long turmoil for laughs. Similarly, it was clear from our travels that humor only takes root when situations are also playful, safe, or otherwise benign. In New York, we learned from the geniuses behind The Onion that even something as terrible as the 9/11 terrorist attacks can be joked about in a timely fashion, as long as the butt of the joke deserves it. And in Japan, we discovered that nearly anything goes in the name of hilarity, but only when it occurs in certain “safe” locales like comedy theaters, odd game shows, and of course, bars. What’s nice about the benign violation theory is that it fits from an evolutionary perspective, too. According to influential work by evolutionary scholars Matthew Gervais and David Sloan Wilson, laughter likely first evolved between 2 and 4 million years ago as outgrowth of the breathy panting emitted by primates during play fighting. This early form of laughter was a signal that danger was low, and now was as good a time as any to explore, to play, to lay the social groundwork that would lead to civilization. “There could be a violation or incongruity of expectation going on, but what’s being signaled by the laughter is that it’s not serious, or it’s benign,” Gervais told us. “What the humor is indexing and the laughter is signaling is, ‘this is an opportunity for learning. It signals this is a non-serious novelty, and recruits others to play and explore cognitively, emotionally and socially with the implications of this novelty.” Do benign violations underlie all of what we have evolved to find funny? To be sure, arguments, intuitions and world-wide travels will inform the answer – but, in the end, let’s settle it in the lab.