Let It Go

Rumination, in which one’s thoughts are stuck in a loop on one subject, can at times be useful in helping us concentrate and solve problems. But living too much in one’s mind is by no means healthy. Scientists have known for decades that ‘inward-focussed’ rumination...

Pros and Cons of Work Stress

If you think anxiety is a bad thing, consider deadlines. They often induce anxiety yet they also motivate people to complete tasks. To Dr Bonnie Hayden Cheng of the Faculty of Business and Economics, they are an example of the positive potential of anxiety.Dr Cheng...

Art for Our Sake

In 2012, American artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg unveiled a new project, Stranger Visions, consisting of portraits derived from people’s DNA that she had extracted from detritus collected from the street – cigarette butts, lollipop sticks, strands of hair and the like....

Reading Our Bodies

Wearable devices like the Apple Watch can track your blood rate and blood oxygen levels and detect whether you fall. But to researchers of wearable devices, this is old hat. “Those kinds of devices were developed more than 10 years ago. Some researchers are still...

Press for Success

Many of us have good intentions when it comes to staying healthy, but often we get sidetracked by the easy way out – for instance, ordering French fries rather than salad at a restaurant or online, or spending most of our time at the gym scrolling through our phones...