On News

Brian Science #1: Neuroplasticity

Neuroplasticity is fascinating. Your brain is always changing, and always adjusting to make you better at what you do. This means that my brain has constantly been getting better at writing, because I’ve been writing for years. And it’s constantly getting better at writing code because I wrote code every single day of my life (even if I’m not physically writing it, mentally coding the way I do all the time apparently helps for at least a short while).

Theory says that this might be a source of addictions and why habit breaking is so difficult. Though it’s very neat to see science advancing, and hopefully this science can be learned to help train brains to break addiction and the like!

I love blowing things up…

Seriously. I’m pretty sure that’s why I’m obsessed with Mythbusters. I must watch Tory’s webshow…. Seriously. Lots of fun explosives to play with and things that explode… I must learn about new explosives…. Also… Blowing things up is just straight up embowering.

Why Go Organic?

Yes. The news is a little bit older, but what can you do. I blame the accidental time off I took awhile back.

Just touching stuff that’s organic creates a positive contagion effect that improves a person’s feelings of wellbeing. So between that and improved effects on nature, I think we ca be happy about that. There are some details you have to be aware of, but if you buy well you can truly be happy with it.

Effects of Birth Order

I figured since I need to celebrate my new Nephew, who’s just two days old now that I would do a story about childhood.

It seems likely that it would effect a person, but I’m not sure what I think about the whole idea of these things being locked in except by the confines of an individual family. The compilation study seems the to have narrowed down what could be concluded…

Honey is a Superfood.

“Superfood” is a word that scares me. It gives people the wrong idea about what makes a food healthy and how eating healthy works (it’s not about eating a lot of any one thing, but seeking a great variety of many things for a balanced died).

That said… Honey is pretty badass. It can keep and be perfectly safe and edible after an amazingly shocking amount of time. It’s rumored to lower allergies, and can aid in the healing of wounds. Pretty impressive, really.

False Memories

Memory has been on my mind of late, so this video seemed timely. My Grandmother is suffering at the hands of dementia right now. She can forget who I am. And for some reason can simultaneously remember my husband, whom she’s known a great deal of time less. It’s astounding, not only what the brain is capable of, but the ways in which the brain can misfire.

This might not be directly related to curing dementia, but it’s another study in which parts of memory are becoming better understood. The functionality of the brain and body together are important. But also understanding the fact that the brain screws up on it’s own, without any problems ongoing, so we have to work out what’s the normal functionality of the brain and what is actually a malfunction.