Behavioural scientist Michael Norton: ‘When a tennis player ties their shoes in a particular way, they feel they can play at Wimbledon’
The Harvard professor reveals how everyday rituals can help us cope with pressure, unlock our emotions and define our identities – but can also become unhelpful and divisiveMichael Norton studied psychology and was a fellow at the MIT Media Lab before becomingprofessor of business administration at Harvard Business School. Known for his research on behavioural economics and wellbeing, Norton published his first book,Happy Money: The New Science ofSmarter Spending, withElizabeth Dunn, in 2013. For his latest,The Ritual Effect: The Transformative Power of Our Everyday Actions, out on 18 April, Norton spent more than a deca...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 6, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Killian Fox Tags: Psychology Science Society Science and nature books Source Type: news
Cheaper, quicker prostate cancer scans just as accurate ‘and can help more men’
Groundbreaking research finds dropping the third stage of standard MRI test for the disease doesn ’t hamper detection rates, and cuts costs in halfCutting the duration ofMRI scans for prostate cancer by a third would make them cheaper and more accessible without reducing their accuracy. That is the key result of a UK trial which indicates that lowering costs could ensure more men are offered scans.According to Cancer Research UK, there are about 52,300 new prostate cancer cases every year in the UK, equal to more than 140 a day.Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 6, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Robin McKie Science editor Tags: Prostate cancer Science Health UK news Source Type: news
What is the total solar eclipse and how can I watch it?
On Monday, the moon will block the sun in what many say will be one of the most spectacular celestial events in recent timesThe total solar eclipse that will traverse a large chunk of the continental US on Monday, along with parts of Mexico and Canada, will be one of the most spectacular celestial events in recent memory. Here ’s what you need to know:Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 6, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Richard Luscombe Tags: Solar eclipses Space Nasa Texas Maine Canada Mexico Americas US news Source Type: news
The Guardian view on endangered languages: spoken by a few but of value to many | Editorial
The survival of ancient dialects matters not just for scholarship, but because of the wisdom they convey about how to live with natureThe launch of a “last chance”crowdsourcing tool to record a vanishing Greek dialect drew attention back this week to one of the great extinctions of the modern world: nine languages arebelieved to be disappearing every year. Romeyka, which is spoken by an ageing population of a few thousand people in the mountain villages near Turkey ’s Black Sea coast, diverged from modern Greek thousands of years ago. It has no written form.For linguists, it is a “living bridge” to the ...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 5, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Editorial Tags: Language Turkey Science Greece Europe Unesco Source Type: news
Incarcerated people in New York will get to see eclipse after settling lawsuit
Settlement in case allows six people to view the total eclipse after suing to oppose state ’s decision to lock down prisonA group of incarcerated people in New York will be allowed to watch Monday ’s totaleclipse of the sun after suing the state ’s correctional department for its decision to lock down the prison during the celestial event.Six people at the Woodbourne correctional facility in southern New York state will be allowed to view the solar eclipse in outdoor space “in accordance with their sincerely held religious beliefs”, according to a statement from the group’s lawyers.Continue reading... (Source: ...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 5, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Gloria Oladipo in New York Tags: New York Solar eclipses US news US prisons Space Source Type: news
Fiona Wood: ‘When I’ve got a bee in my bonnet, I don’t give up’
The lauded burns pioneer and plastic surgeon on a ‘paradigm shifting’ project, coping with tragedy and the patients she will never forgetGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailRead the rest of Guardian Australia ’sWalk with … interview series hereWhen Fiona Wood moved toPerth from the UK in 1987, she was drawn to its wildlife. “Intrinsically, it’s the most beautiful place,” she says, as we wander along Matilda Bay beneath a canopy of foliage, the gnarled trunks of moreton bay figs and cape lilacs with their bursts of yellow berries. “When I first came here, I thought, ‘I can see myself sitting under t...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 5, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Rosamund Brennan Tags: Life and style Science Medical research Perth Source Type: news
Can a Waitrose shopper ’s gaze boost loose produce and cut plastic waste?
A supermarket is using eye-tracking technology to find what messaging encourages take-up of unpackaged fruit and vegWith thick black frames and hidden cameras, the glasses look designed for espionage or the metaverse but instead the eye-tracking headgear is being deployed to get inside shoppers ’ heads as part of the drive to cut plastic packaging from the weekly food shop.It is an unlikely scene. Hooked up with the glasses a shopper is being tailed around a Waitrose produce department by a researcher carrying a large tablet that displays live footage of them picking up banal things such as potatoes, apples and bananas.C...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 5, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Zoe Wood Tags: Food waste Supermarkets Waitrose Plastics Business Retail industry Environment Psychology Consumer affairs UK news Source Type: news
‘I get emotional thinking about it’: US and Canada ready for total solar eclipse
Cities expect huge crowds with millions gathering in 115-mile wide ‘path of totality’ for Monday’s exceptionally large and long eclipseShould the weather gods grant their blessing, a celestial show for the ages will darken the heavens over a large swathe of the US from Texas to Maine on Monday, giving tens of millions of people a grandstand view of a rare phenomenon being billed as “theGreat American Eclipse”.It will be another 20 years until the nexttotal solar eclipse can be viewed anywhere in the contiguous US, lending extra incentive for many who live outside the 115-mile wide “path of totality” to travel...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 5, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Richard Luscombe Tags: Solar eclipses US news Science Space Texas Maine Nasa Canada Americas Source Type: news
The Ritual Effect by Michael Norton review – standing on ceremony
From Rafael Nadal ’s ball-bouncing to families’ Christmas traditions, what purpose does ritualistic behaviour serve?The adjective “ritual”, from Latin via French, means related to religious rites. (A rite, according to the OED, is “a prescribed act or observance in a religious or other solemn ceremony”.) As soon as it appeared, however, the word “ritual” could be used in a derogatory fashion to denote things empty of authentic spiritual content. In his Ecclesiastical History (1570), for example, the martyrologist John Foxe complained about two epistles erroneously (so he argued) attributed to the third-cent...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 5, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Steven Poole Tags: Society books Health, mind and body books Psychology Culture Science Source Type: news
Prostate cancer cases worldwide likely to double by 2040, analysis finds
Largest study of its kind predicts 85% increase in deaths from the disease in same period as more men live longerThe number of men diagnosed with prostate cancer worldwide is projected to double to 2.9 million a year by 2040, with annual deaths predicted to rise by 85%, according to the largest study of its kind.Prostate cancer is already a major cause of death and disability, and themost common form of male cancer in more than 100 countries. But with populations ageing and life expectancy rising globally, a new analysis forecasts a dramatic surge in cases and deaths over the next 15 years.Continue reading... (Source: Guar...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 4, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Andrew Gregory Health editor Tags: Prostate cancer Health Cancer research Society World news Medical research Men's health Source Type: news
What the papers say is still seen by many who don ’t buy them | Brief letters
Newsstand influence | Tax relief for charitable giving | Starter for 10 | Mind-body dualism | A period of silence from MPsArchie Bland notes the declining circulation of the Sun and the Times (Winning over the Times and the Sun won ’t decide the next election – but Starmer’s Labour can’t kick the habit, 2 April). But newspaper displays in supermarkets and motorway service areas act as billboards. Thousands of non-buyers still see the screaming tabloid headlines every day. Whether they are influenced would be an interesting research topic.Martin LewisWakefield, West Yorkshire• Incentives to donate to charities alr...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 4, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Guardian Staff Tags: Newspapers The Sun The Times Charitable giving Income tax University Challenge Death and dying Consciousness Politics Biology House of Commons Media & magazines Neuroscience Oxbridge and elitism Source Type: news
New 3D cosmic map raises questions over future of universe, scientists say
Researchers say findings from map with three times more galaxies than previous efforts could challenge standard idea of dark energyThe biggest ever 3D map of the universe, featuring more than 6m galaxies, has been revealed by scientists who said it raised questions about the nature of dark energy and the future of the universe.The map is based on data collected by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (Desi) in Arizona and contains three times as many galaxies as previous efforts, with many having their distances measured for the first time.Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 4, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Nicola Davis Science correspondent Tags: Space Science Astronomy Physics UK news Source Type: news
‘Our three-year-old can’t get enough’: US families traveling to see the eclipse
Parents share their plans for watching the total solar eclipse on Monday, from a trip to a tiger sanctuary to a Vampire Weekend concert in TexasThe moon will completely block the face of the sun on Monday and, for a few minutes, people in the US, Mexico and Canada will experience a total solar eclipse.The alignment between the sun and the moon has to be precise and this gives rise to a narrow track of totality – roughly 71 miles (115km) across – from which the total eclipse can be seen.Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 4, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Tom Ambrose and Rachel Obordo Tags: Solar eclipses US news Space World news Source Type: news
Daniel Kahneman obituary
Influential psychologist who studied how people make decisions and changed the way economists thinkThe psychologist Daniel Kahneman, who has died aged 90, won the 2002 Nobel prize for economics despite describing himself as “mostly cheering … from the sidelines” of the subject. He achieved celebrity status in 2011 with the pop psychology bookThinking, Fast and Slow, at the age of 77 and after a lifetime of rigorous academic research. Such unpredictable events were typical of his long and eclectic career, while also provoking him to ask the myriad questions about human behaviour that formed the basis of his often coun...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 4, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Georgina Ferry Tags: Psychology Science Economics Nobel economics prize Source Type: news
Thousands to be offered blood tests for dementia in UK trial
More than 50 clinics will offer tests to about 5,000 people who are worried about their memory in five-year trialThousands of people across the UK who are worried about their memory will receive blood tests for dementia in two trials that doctors hope will help to revolutionise the low diagnosis rate.Teams from the University of Oxford and University College London will lead the trials to research the use of cheap and simple tests to detect proteins for people with early stages of dementia or problems with cognition, with the hope of speeding up diagnosis and reaching more people.Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 4, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Mabel Banfield-Nwachi Tags: Dementia Alzheimer's Medical research Society Science Mental health Neuroscience UK news Source Type: news
