Medley

Demystifying traditional Chinese medicine for conservationists could be the key to better protecting endangered species like pangolins, tigers and rhino, according to University of Queensland-led researchers.

UQ PhD candidate Hubert Cheung said efforts to shift entrenched values and beliefs about Chinese medicine are not achieving conservation gains in the short term.

Dreams take us to what feels like a different reality. They also happen while we're fast asleep. So, you might not expect that a person in the midst of a vivid dream would be able to perceive questions and provide answers to them. But a new study reported in the journal Current Biology on February 18 shows that, in fact, they can.

Tim Wyatt – England

The author

Seven steps to banish panic and enhance well-being

Had my grandmother still been alive she would have probably sourly observed, ‘The world’s going to hell on a handcart.’ Although she wasn’t the most optimistic soul who’s ever been in incarnation, had she been alive in 2020 (unlikely since she’d be 146) she would certainly have had a point. Living through two world wars and the great depression as well as having had ten children hadn’t left her with the cheeriest of natures. And she was a martyr to her arthritis. But let’s not defame the dead.

What she would never have appreciated – and nor do the majority of people today – is that as this pandemic casts its grisly shadow across the world like the plot of an all too familiar Hollywood plague movie, human adaptability kicks in. And creativity. A crisis can suddenly become transformed into an opportunity. The problem is that so many people are gripped by varying degrees of stress, panic, depression, isolation and fear that they don’t notice this.

Leo Babauta – USA

Overcome the Fears That Stop You From Focusing

This special bonus chapter was written by Gail Brenner who is a psychologist with 17 years of therapy experience who practices in Santa Barbara, California and blogs at A Flourishing Life.

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In

that space is our power to choose our response. In our

response lies our growth and our freedom.”

– Victor Frankl 

Being alone ...

How do people experience time alone and time with others? Findings from a new Bar-Ilan University study reveal the intricacies of people's experiences in these basic social conditions.

The study used a unique approach of analyzing self-generated text from more than 1,700 participants who performed a sentence-completion task regarding their experience alone and their social experience when in the company of others. This approach shed light on people's perceptions when free to express themselves without being bound to specific questions.

Yale researchers have devised a way to peer into the brains of two people simultaneously while are engaged in discussion. What they found will not surprise anyone who has found themselves arguing about politics or social issues.

When two people agree, their brains exhibit a calm synchronicity of activity focused on sensory areas of the brain. When they disagree, however, many other regions of the brain involved in higher cognitive functions become mobilized as each individual combats the other's argument, a Yale-led research team reports Jan. 13 in the journal Frontiers of Human Neuroscience.

James E. Tepfer – USA

When your spirits need a lift, think of the virtues and talents of those around you — one’s energy, another’s modesty, the generosity of a third, something else in a fourth. Nothing is so inspiring and uplifting as the sight of these splendid qualities in our friends. Keep them always in mind.

Marcus Aurelius

Gandhi once commented that the notion of “best friends” was somewhat suspect. Special friendships tend to reduce themselves to the lowest common denominator. The first victim in the devolution of an initially meaningful bond of friendship is truth. Candor is gradually lost due to the fear of hurt feelings and the prospect of losing an intimate companion over telling unpleasant truths. Alas, loyalty to truth is all too easily replaced by quasi-mindless loyalty to a person. For this reason, Gandhi felt that it is better to try and befriend everyone one encounters than to cultivate a special “best friend”.