Tennis champions Venus and Serena Williams started playing tennis at age 4 and began playing professionally as teenagers. Similarly, golf phenomenon Tiger Woods first held a club at age 2 and won his first junior world championship at age 13. [Read more…]
How Has COVID-19 Impacted Our Sleep?
You probably know from personal experience that the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on sleep for many people. If your own sleep hasn’t been affected, chances are you know someone who has experienced sleep problems in the past year and a half. [Read more…]
Scientific Consensus: Humans Are Causing Climate Change
When former Vice President Al Gore launched the movie An Inconvenient Truth in 2006 to explain the science behind climate change to the American public, surveys showed that many Americans didn’t believe in climate change, even though scientific data was building that humans actions were causing global warming. [Read more…]
The Detrimental Effects of Microaggressions
An Asian female board member speaks up in a meeting about an important issue, only to be interrupted by her white male colleagues. A security guard follows a Black man around a store at the mall to make sure he doesn’t steal anything. A teacher compliments a Latino student on her English, even though she was raised in the U.S. with English as her first language. [Read more…]
How Much Do You Really Need to Exercise?
When a doctor prescribes medicine, he gives a precise dose calculated to maximize the health benefits while minimizing any side effects. Similar to medicine, we know that exercise is good for our health; it reduces the risk of developing chronic disease and prolongs our life. In fact, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimates that more than 8 percent of people in the U.S. over age 40 die as a result of too little exercise. [Read more…]
The Psychology of Compliments: A Nice Word Goes a Long Way
Imagine that you’re sitting in a coffee shop enjoying your drink and reading the paper when someone taps you on the shoulder. “Your jacket is beautiful,” the stranger says. “The color really complements your eyes.” [Read more…]
Why Youth Need Strong Relationships with Teachers
The past two school years have been extremely challenging – and even traumatic – for youth across the globe. In the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the vast majority of students throughout the U.S. to switch to virtual learning. Many suffered academically without in-person contact with their teachers and emotionally without contact with their peers. In addition, the pandemic was a traumatic event for many students, especially if their loved ones became ill or died, or family members’ work was impacted by pandemic shutdowns. [Read more…]
What You Thought About Your Metabolism May Be Wrong
Talk to people who are middle-aged or older about body weight, and you’ll likely hear them complain about how their metabolism has slowed down. But our commonly held beliefs about metabolism – primarily, that it slows for older people and women – are likely completely wrong, according to a new groundbreaking study published in the journal Science this month. [Read more…]