Science
Can starting your day with a smile really change your mood and improve your heath?
I read that smiling when you wake up can be very beneficial. Supposed health benefits include: When you smile your body releases the feel-good neurotransmitters dopamine and endorphins. This means that by smiling first thing when you wake up you’ll be starting your day in a better mood. In addition, when you smile your mood…
Read MoreLottery winners are happy after all
Good news! Winning the lottery will not make you unhappy. For years, we’ve all heard that winning the lottery will make me unhappy. This made no sense, of course, since everyone likes money, myself included. It’s hard to imagine that being handed a large sum of cash for doing almost nothing wouldn’t make me at…
Read MoreDiscount men
Every year, Space Telescope Science Institute in Maryland fields thousands of requests from scientists all over the world to use the Hubble telescope to advance their research. Only 200 proposals are accepted. In 2014, the Institute realized that 21.9 percent of proposals written by men were being accepted while only 16.9 percent of proposals written…
Read MoreSmile and wear sunglasses
One of the many doctors who I’ve gotten to know through my work with Yale New Haven Hospital was explaining the science of biofeedback to me. It’s fascinating. Biofeedback is the idea that your brain is always monitoring and sensing what is happening in your body, and it reviews the information being received and uses…
Read MorePhysics and philosophy at bedtime
Before bed last night , Charlie, age 6 asks: “When the Big Bang reverses and the universe compresses into a tiny dot again and then we have another Big Bang, will we all eventually get born again like this time, or will it be different?” “That’s a big question,” Elysha said. I wanted to say,…
Read MoreAn answer to the stupid question, “How can it be so cold if global warming is real?”
Trump tweeted about the weather at least twice last week, calling into question climate change and global warming given the cold temperatures that have recently gripped the nation. This is so stupid and so dangerous. Climate change is one of the greatest threat to our country. American intelligence agencies, including the Pentagon, have said so…
Read MoreThey love themselves more than they love their children.
Greta Thunberg, age 15, is a climate activist who addressed the U.N. plenary last month in Katowice, Poland, condemning global inaction in the face of catastrophic climate change. Thunberg was brilliant. She speak for four minutes. You should watch it. She is the calmest, angriest child I have ever seen. Her most compelling argument is…
Read MoreLet the anger go
Someone was annoyed with me this week because, in her words, “You’re always great.” Sadly, she was not implying that I’m a persistently remarkable person. In fact, I suspect that she thinks I’m not persistently remarkable in any way. Instead, she was annoyed that I don’t allow much to bother me. Petty disagreements, disputes over…
Read MoreI don’t have T-rex arms, but if I did, it would be for a very good reason.
One of my friends famously described me as a “neckless stump with legs for arms.” This wasn’t nice, but when I use that description onstage to describe myself, it always gets a laugh, so I embrace it. Anything for the laugh. Another friend watched me golfing one day and described me as having T-Rex…
Read MoreHermit crabs could teach US politicians a thing or two
I watch this UNBELIEVABLY AMAZING VIDEO THAT YOU MUST WATCH of crabs exchanging shells and can’t help but wonder: Why can’t our politicians work together like this to solve our problems? Seriously.
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