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Immune Cells Are More Paranoid Than We Thought
The best immune systems thrive on a healthy dose of paranoia. The instant that defensive cells spot something unfamiliar in their midst—be it a living microbe or a harmless mote of schmutz—they will whip themselves into a frenzy, detonating microscopic bombs, sparking bouts of inflammation, even engaging in some casual cannibalism until they are certain that the threat has passed. This system is built on alarmism, but it very often pays off: Most of our encounters with pathogens end before we ever notice them. The agents of immunity are sorisk-averse that even the dreadof facing off with a pathogen can sometimes prompt them to gird their little loins.
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New Research From Clinical Psychological Science
A sample of research on empathy in caregivers, emotion regulation in depression, emotions in bipolar disorder, preventing recurrence of depression, emotion and stressful events, personality pathology, depression symptoms, memory flexibility in posttraumatic stress disorder, and motives for substance use.
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14 Microaggressions LGBTQ People Deal With All The Time
When you’re an LGBTQ person living in a heteronormative, cisnormative world, encounters of subtle discrimination, known as microaggressions, are a frustrating yet often unavoidable part of daily life. Microaggressions are the everyday “slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory or negative messages” to members of a marginalized group, according to Teachers College, Columbia University psychology professor Derald Wing Sue, who has written several books on the subject. The term microaggression was first coined in the 1970s by Chester M.
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At 100 Years Old, Edmund Gordon Thinks the Key to Schooling Starts at Home
Edmund W. Gordon has been thinking about child well-being for a long time. A respected scholar, a founding father of the Head Start preschool program and expert on educational testing, Gordon has been called the premier Black psychologist of his generation. He has published 18 books and is an emeritus professor at not one, but two Ivy League schools — Yale University and Teachers College at Columbia. Most people his age would be fully retired — or, perhaps, no longer with us. On Sunday, Gordon turns 100. This month, Teachers College celebrated his legacy with a conference that explored, in particular, the use — and misuse — of educational assessments.
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Dangling Millions of Dollars to Coax People to get Vaccinated isn’t the Worst Idea
At first, getting vaccinated against COVID-19 seemed like enough of a reward. You got the satisfaction of protecting your health and that of the people around you, plus the knowledge that soon you would be able to socialize with other vaccinated people without wearing masks. But as demand for the vaccines waned, the prizes began: Fishing licenses in Maine. Crawfish in New Orleans. Baseball tickets in New York. “A shot and a beer” in New Jersey — plus (perhaps less enticing) a chance to have dinner with the governor. Then, in Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine launched a lottery, “Vax-a-Million,” with an eye-catching $1 million prize every week.
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Navigating a Virtual World Helped Older Adults’ Memory
Scientists have long sought to prevent sharp memories from dulling with age, but the problem remains stubborn. Now research published in Scientific Reports suggests virtual reality might help older people recall facts and events based on specific details. The study involved 42 healthy older adults from the San Francisco Bay Area. Half spent a dozen hours over four weeks playing a virtual-reality game called Labyrinth; they strapped on headsets and walked in place, roaming virtual neighborhoods while completing errands. The other half, in the control group, used electronic tablets to play games that did not require navigating or recalling details.
