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Collaborative problem solvers are made not born – here’s what you need to know
Challenges are a fact of life. Whether it’s a high-tech company figuring out how to shrink its carbon footprint, or a local community trying to identify new revenue sources, people are continually dealing with problems that require input from others. In the modern world, we face problems that are broad in scope and great in scale of impact – think of trying to understand and identify potential solutions related to climate change, cybersecurity or authoritarian leaders. But people usually aren’t born competent in collaborative problem-solving. In fact, a famous turn of phrase about teams is that a team of experts does not make an expert team.
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You Will Never Smell My World the Way I Do
The scent of lily of the valley cannot be easily bottled. For decades companies that make soap, lotions and perfumes have relied on a chemical called bourgeonal to imbue their products with the sweet smell of the little white flowers. A tiny drop can be extraordinarily intense. If you can smell it at all, that is. For a small percentage of people, it fails to register as anything. Similarly, the earthy compound 2-ethylfenchol, present in beets, is so powerful for some people that a small chunk of the root vegetable smells like a heap of dirt. For others, that same compound is as undetectable as the scent of bottled water. --- Of course, genes are not the only determinant of scent.
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Why humans may have more in common with chimps than we thought
What can humans learn about ourselves from studying chimpanzees? Primatologist Frans de Waal has spent almost three decades studying the behavior and intelligence of chimpanzees. Now, he’s focused on their emotional lives--and he’s found primates and people aren’t so different in how they react to circumstances and each other. Jeffrey Brown talks to de Waal about the implications of his findings.
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Even a little exercise can mean big improvements in your health
Everyone knows exercise is good for you. But not everyone knows just how good. When you see the health benefits of physical activity in a list, they can seem almost too good to be true. Exercising consistently can help prevent heart disease and muscle weakness; control and treat chronic conditions such as diabetes, arthritis and hypertension; increase bone and muscle strength; improve brain function and sleep; and boost mood and enhance your overall quality of life, says Dori E. Rosenberg, an associate investigator with the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute.
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A Public School Makes the Case for ‘Montessori for All’
The five miles from Interstate 95 into Latta, South Carolina, amble past fireworks shops and stretches of farmland bordered by matchstick pines and interspersed with the occasional home. Railroad tracks and a lone post office mark the center of town, home to 1,300 people and one elementary school, one middle school, and one high school that serve students in a county nearly 100 miles wide. In many ways, Latta is no different from other communities scattered throughout the rural South: Jobs are limited, businesses are local, and residents know one another.
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It’s Not Your Imagination: That Toddler is Judging You
There are few things as irresistible as the face of a toddler: the tiny nose, the ingenuous eyes, the utter scrumptiousness of the cheeks. Well, guess what. They don’t think nearly as highly of your face. Kids may not say it, but by the time they’re as young as three, they give you a good hard look the moment they meet you—and they judge a lot by what they see. It may be no surprise that young humans—like all humans—look to the face first for clues about the kindness, approachability and even competence of new people.
