REM is an active and final phase of the four-stage sleep cycle characterised by increased brain activity and autonomic nervous system functions. The brainstem and hypothalamus mostly control this stage of sleep. Many theories hypothesise that REM sleep is helpful for learning and memory formation, but the purpose and benefits of REM sleep are still unknown.

Rapid eye movement (REM sleep)

Before REM sleep, the three prior stages of sleep occur progressively slow bodily function and brain activity. These stages are known as non-REM or N1, N2, and N3. However, during REM sleep, the eyes move rapidly sideways. The heart rate, respiratory rate and blood pressure increase to their values while awake. REM sleep is the longest period of the sleep cycle, lasting 70 to 120 minutes.

REM definition

During REM sleep, brain wave activity increase, as measured on an electroencephalogram (EEG).<ul><li>N1 sleep shows slowing of the normal alpha wave pattern noted during the awake state.</li><li>N2 sleep introduces K waves - long, high voltage waves - lasting up to 1 second, and sleep spindles - periods of low voltage and high-frequency spikes.</li><li>N3 sleep is characterized by delta waves, or high voltage, slow and irregular activity. </li><li>During REM sleep, sleep patterns show low voltage and fast waves, some alpha waves, and muscle twitch spikes associated with transmitted rapid eye movement. </li></ul>

REM and your brain

The most vivid dreams occur during REM sleep. These dreams are often elaborate and emotional experiences that include sadness, anger, apprehension or fear.  A person can more readily recall a dream when they awake from REM sleep. However, the purpose of dream content is not currently understood. Sigmund Freud suggested dreams were a representation of unconscious thought. Another hypothesis proposes that dreams are a random brain activity during REM sleep and not a meaningful experience.

Dreams and REM sleep

Non-REM sleep is necessary in order to survive. Mild sleep deprivation increases the risk of chronic health conditions and severe sleep deprivation can lead to hallucinations or death. However, the benefits of REM sleep remain inconclusive. Studies show no obvious adverse effects when participants were deprived of REM sleep. <ul><li>Hypothesized benefits suggest certain negative behaviours which should be unlearned are rehearsed through dreams.</li><li>REM sleep is proposed to help transfer memories from the hippocampus to the cerebral cortex.</li></ul>

Benefits of REM sleep

REM sleep is the final stage of the sleep cycle showing increased brain activity. Vivid, elaborate, and emotional dreams occur during this stage.

health

Health

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

What Is REM Sleep? Definition and Benefits

Global warming is a gradual increase in the earth’s temperature generally due to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide, CFCs, and other pollutants. “. This phenomenon has been observed over the past one or two centuries. This change has disturbed the climatic pattern of the earth. However, the concept of global warming is quite controversial but the scientists have provided relevant data in support of the fact that the temperature of the earth is rising constantly.

Global Warmin

There are several causes of global warming, which have a negative effect on humans, plants and animals. These causes may be natural or might be the outcome of human activities. In order to curb the issues, it is very important to understand the negative impacts of global warming.

Cause Of Global Warming

<ul><li>Deforestation:Plants are the main source of oxygen. They take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen thereby maintaining environmental balance. Forests are being depleted for many domestic and commercial purposes. This has led to an environmental imbalance, thereby giving rise to global warming.</li><li>Use of Vehicles:The use of vehicles, even for a very short distance results in various gaseous emissions. Vehicles burn fossil fuels which emit a large amount of carbon dioxide and other toxins into the atmosphere resulting in a temperature increase.</li></ul>

Man-made Causes of Global Warming

<ul><li>Industrial Development:With the advent of industrialization, the temperature of the earth has been increasing rapidly. The harmful emissions from the factories add to the increasing temperature of the earth.</li><li>Overpopulation:An increase in population means more people breathing. This leads to an increase in the level of carbon dioxide, the primary gas causing global warming, in the atmosphere.</li></ul>

<ul><li>Volcanoes:Volcanoes are one of the largest natural contributors to global warming. The ash and smoke emitted during volcanic eruptions goes out into the atmosphere and affects the climate.</li></ul> <ul><li>Water VapourWater vapour is a kind of greenhouse gas. Due to the increase in the earth’s temperature, more water gets evaporated from the water bodies and stays in the atmosphere adding to global warming.</li></ul>

Natural Causes of Global Warming  

<ul><li>Melting Permafrost:Permafrost is frozen soil that has environmental gases trapped in it for several years and is present below Earth’s surface. It is present in glaciers. As the permafrost melts, it releases the gases back into the atmosphere, increasing Earth’s temperature.</li><li>Forest Blazes:Forest blazes or forest fires emit a large amount of carbon-containing smoke. These gases are released into the atmosphere and increase the earth’s temperature resulting in global warming.</li></ul>

Natural Causes of Global Warming

<ul><li>Rise in Temperature:Global warming has led to an incredible increase in earth’s temperature. Since 1880, the earth’s temperature has increased by ~1 degrees. This has resulted in an increase in the melting of glaciers, which have led to an increase in the sea level. This could have devastating effects on coastal regions.</li><li>Threats to the Ecosystem:Global warming has affected the coral reefs that can lead to the loss of plant and animal lives. Increase in global temperatures has made the fragility of coral reefs even worse.</li></ul>

Effects of Global Warming

<ul><li>Climate Change: Global warming has led to a change in climatic conditions. There are droughts at some places and floods at some. This climatic imbalance is the result of global warming.</li><li>Spread of Diseases: Global warming leads to a change in the patterns of heat and humidity. This has led to the movement of mosquitoes that carry and spread diseases.</li><li>High Mortality Rates:Due to an increase in floods, tsunamis and other natural calamities, the average death toll usually increases. Also, such events can bring about the spread of diseases that can hamper human life.</li></ul>

Describes the scientific evidence for global warming and its likely consequences, and considers the political implications and what governments, businesses, and individuals can do about the phenomenon and the issues it evokes

books

Books

Global warming and the resulting climate change is one of the most serious environmental problems facing the world community. Global Warming: the Complete Briefing is the most comprehensive guide available to the subject. A world-renowned expert, Sir John Houghton explores the scientific basis of global warming and the likely impacts of climate change on human society, before addressing the action that could be taken by governments, by industry and by individuals to mitigate the effects. The first edition received excellent reviews, and this completely updated new edition (taking account of the latest IPCC Assessments, and now including questions at the end of chapters) will prove to be the best briefing the student or interested general reader could wish for.

John T. Houghton

Sir John Theodore Houghton

Global Warming

Albert Einstein. He published the first part of his theory — special relativity — in the German physics journal Annalen der Physik in 1905 and completed his theory of general relativity only after another decade of difficult work. He presented the latter theory in a series of lectures in Berlin in late 1915 and published in the Annalen in 1916

Who came up with the theory of relativity?

The theory is based on two key concepts.<ul><li>First, the natural world allows no “privileged” frames of reference. As long as an object is moving in a straight line at a constant speed (that is, with no acceleration), the laws of physics are the same for everyone. It’s a bit like when you look out a train window and see an adjacent train appear to move — but is it moving, or are you? It can be hard to tell. Einstein recognized that if the motion is perfectly uniform, it's literally impossible to tell — and identified this as a central principle of physics.</li></ul>

What is special relativity?

<ul><li>Second, light travels at an unvarying speed of 186,000 miles a second. No matter how fast an observer is moving or how fast a light-emitting object is moving, a measurement of the speed of light always yields the same result.</li></ul>Starting from these two postulates, Einstein showed that space and time are intertwined in ways that scientists had never previously realized. Through a series of thought experiments, Einstein demonstrated that the consequences of special relativity are often counterintuitive — even startling.

The theory is based on two key concepts.

Essentially, it’s a theory of gravity. The basic idea is that instead of being an invisible force that attracts objects to one another, gravity is a curving or warping of space. The more massive an object, the more it warps the space around it.For example, the sun is massive enough to warp space across our solar system — a bit like the way a heavy ball resting on a rubber sheet warps the sheet. As a result, Earth and the other planets move in curved paths (orbits) around it.

What is general relativity?

Over the last century, many experiments have confirmed the validity of both special and general relativity. In the first major test of general relativity, astronomers in 1919 measured the deflection of light from distant stars as the starlight passed by our sun, proving that gravity does, in fact, distort or curve space.

Tests of special and general relativity

In 1971, scientists tested both parts of Einstein’s theory by placing precisely synchronized atomic clocks in airliners and flying them around the world. A check of the timepieces after the planes landed showed that the clocks aboard the airliners were running a tiny bit slower than (less than one millionth of a second) than the clocks on the ground.The disparity resulted from the speed of the planes (a special relativity effect) and their greater distance from the center of Earth’s gravitational field (a general relativity effect).

Albert Einstein, a Nobel laureate, has changed the world with his research and theories. He is regarded as the founder of modern physics. Besides ‘Relativity’, he worked on Photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, Special relativity, and Mass-Energy equivalence (E=mc2). They reformed the views on time, space and matter. Allert Einstein developed the general theory of ‘Relativity’. He published ‘Relativity: The Special and the General Theory’ in German. Its first English translation was published in 1920. The book deals with the special theory of relativity, the general theory of relativity, and the considerations on the universe as a whole The book gives an exact insight into the theory of Relativity. It covers, the system of Co-ordinates; The Lorentz Transformation; The experiment of Fizeau; Minkowski’s four dimensional space; The Gravitational Field; Gaussian Co-ordinates; The structure of space, and lot many other scientific concepts thus will be highly beneficial to the Readers. A must have book for everyone related to modern physics.

Albert Einstein, a Nobel laureate, has changed the world with his research and theories. He is regarded as the founder of modern physics. Besides ‘Relativity’, he worked on Photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, Special relativity, and Mass-Energy equivalence (E=mc2). They reformed the views on time, space and matter.Allert Einstein developed the general theory of ‘Relativity’. He published ‘Relativity: The Special and the General Theory’ in German. Its first English translation was published in 1920. The book deals with the special theory of relativity, the general theory of relativity, and the considerations on the universe as a whole The book gives an exact insight into the theory of Relativity. It covers, the system of Co-ordinates; The Lorentz Transformation; The experiment of Fizeau; Minkowski’s four dimensional space; The Gravitational Field; Gaussian Co-ordinates; The structure of space, and lot many other scientific concepts thus will be highly beneficial to the Readers.A must have book for everyone related to modern physics.

Albert Einstein

Relativity: The Special and General Theory

Australia is home to a wide variety of animals and diverse habitats some beautiful, some cuddly, and some super-deadly. In terms of a formidable reputation, plants are no exception. Wildly thriving in Queensland, Australia is a humble-looking tree the Gympie-Gympie (Dendrocnide macrolides). Don’t let its humorous name, frizzy-leafed and innocuous appearance fool you; this stinging tree can leave you in agonizing pain for months, if not for years.

The Suicide Plant

Being burned by hot scorching acid and a sensation of electric shocks trickling down your spine that’s what it can feel like when you experience this stinger, and surprisingly, you don’t even need to touch it. An extremely fine corsage of poisonous silica needles filled with potent neurotoxin coats the entire plant. And if this plant couldn’t get any more intense, the things shed like a feline in the summertime, so it’s dangerously easy to get stung by a thousand of these stingers without ever touching them.

Conti

If you’re stung by the Gimpy, you can’t just conveniently pluck the needles out, as you’d do with your hair using tweezers. Its “silica mane” is too fine and dense to be seen by the naked eye, so good luck finding and plucking them off. The only possible solution left is to rip them all out using hot wax and pray that not even a single stinger breaks off and becomes embedded in your skin. Even then, neither treatment is near perfect, and at best, it simply dilutes the pain, enough for it to not make you want to bite your arm off.

Continue 

A dried-out, centuries-old Gimpy is equally harmful, as silica doesn’t wither off with the rest of the plant’s bio-molecules. The actual chemicals contained in its venom are not yet entirely understood by botanists, although the presence of a peptide, Moroidin (C47H66N14O10) may be involved.

It is important to know that even a plant can make people commit suicides!

Just being around the Gympie tree is hurtful enough. The pain invoked by being in the ambience of this plant feels like fire, and it lasts as long as the hairs are embedded in the skin.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

Gimpy Gimpy Suicide Plant Mystery: Can A Plant Really Make People Commit Suicides?

In 2009 the British physicist Stephen Hawking held a party for time travellers – the twist was he sent out the invites a year later (No guests showed up). Time travel is probably impossible. Even if it were possible, Hawking and others have argued that you could never travel back before the moment your time machine was built.But travel to the future? That’s a different story.Of course, we are all time travellers as we are swept along in the current of time, from past to future, at a rate of one hour per hour.But, as with a river, the current flows at different speeds in different places.

Time travel: five ways that we could do it  

This is the easiest and most practical way to time travel into the far future – go really fast.According to Einstein’s theory of special relativity, when you travel at speeds approaching the speed of light, time slows down for you relative to the outside world.This is not a just a conjecture or thought experiment – it’s been measured. Using twin atomic clocks (one flown in a jet aircraft, the other stationary on Earth) physicists have shown that a flying clock ticks slower, because of its speed.

1. Time travel via speed

The next method of time travel is also inspired by Einstein. According to his theory of general relativity, the stronger the gravity you feel, the slower time moves.As you get closer to the centre of the Earth, for example, the strength of gravity increases. Time runs slower for your feet than your head. In 2010, physicists at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) placed two atomic clocks on shelves, one 33 centimetres above the other, and measured the difference in their rate of ticking. The lower one ticked slower because it feels a slightly stronger gravity.

2. Time travel via gravity

Another way to time travel to the future may be to slow your perception of time by slowing down, or stopping, your bodily processes and then restarting them later.Bacterial spores can live for millions of years in a state of suspended animation, until the right conditions of temperature, moisture, food kick start their metabolisms again. Some mammals, such as bears and squirrels, can slow down their metabolism during hibernation, dramatically reducing their cells’ requirement for food and oxygen.

3. Time travel via suspended animation

General relativity also allows for the possibility for shortcuts through spacetime, known as wormholes, which might be able to bridge distances of a billion light years or more, or different points in time. Many physicists, including Stephen Hawking, believe wormholes are constantly popping in and out of existence at the quantum scale, far smaller than atoms. The trick would be to capture one, and inflate it to human scales – a feat that would require a huge amount of energy, but which might just be possible, in theory.

4. Time travel via wormholes

Another time travel idea, put forward by the American physicist Ron Mallet, is to use a rotating cylinder of light to twist spacetime. Anything dropped inside the swirling cylinder could theoretically be dragged around in space and in time, in a similar way to how a bubble runs around on top your coffee after you swirl it with a spoon. According to Mallet, the right geometry could lead to time travel into either the past and the future.

5. Time travel using light  

In 2009 the British physicist Stephen Hawking held a party for time travellers – the twist was he sent out the invites a year later (No guests showed up).

technologyandthefuture

Technology & The Future

timemanagement

Time Management

From the vault: Time travel: five ways that we could do it

“Neuroleadership is a science-based discipline that focuses not only on the mental processes of the individual but also on how they influence and are influenced by the environment. It references the leadership and team management part from a neuroscientific perspective.”

<ul><li>Every brain is unique. </li><li>Reward systems are key. Positive reinforcement techniques are much more effective than sanctions or punishment.</li><li>There are no acts without emotions. The greatest motivation for action is emotion. </li><li>Information influences expectations and behavior. The lack or excess of information, are aspects that significantly modify people’s expectations and behavior.</li><li>The mind is programmed to cooperate. The willingness to interact with others in search of consensual solutions to complex problems is innate.</li><li>Experience  determines behavior. Past events continue to mark the way of acting. </li></ul>

The principles of neuroleadership

The first to benefit from neuroleadership are leaders themselves. That’s because they’re able to adapt their management styles to more effective parameters. This perspective broadens their own views and allows them to better understand the difficulties and potentials of the people they guide.In addition, neuroleadership facilitates the processes of change and learning. It reduces the uncertainty and stress that are often present when someone is faced with a new situation. With this tool, a more comprehensive adaptation is achieved.

The advantages of neuroleadership

Delivery dates. When these are pressing, the brain reacts with stress and becomes less efficient. The ideal is to make this aspect more flexible. Positive leadership. Great importance is given to the leader’s own and others’ emotions. Qualitative evaluations. Workers feel far more motivated when they’re evaluated in a more comprehensive way, than by being seen as merely having met their expectations.Global motivation. A cooperative and inclusive environment can often be even more motivating than money. Exclusion and rejection can cause the same effects as physical pain.

Its applications

Neuroleadership is an approach that combines the knowledge provided by neuroscience with organizational principles. Find out more here.

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

problemsolving

Problem Solving

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

Neuroleadership: Combining Neuroscience and Organizational Skills

Parallax is the observed displacement of an object caused by the change of the observer's point of view. In astronomy, it is an irreplaceable tool for calculating distances of far away stars.The night sky appears two-dimensional. However, it took astronomers thousands of years to figure out how to measure distances of stars from our planet and create actual three-dimensional maps reflecting the distribution of stars and galaxies in the universe.One of the key methods they use is the so-called parallax, which relies on the same effect as stereoscopic vision.

The Night Sky Isn't Two Dimensional

When it comes to measuring distances to other <a href="https://www.space.com/57-stars-formation-classification-and-constellations.html">stars</a>, the orbit of <a href="https://www.space.com/54-earth-history-composition-and-atmosphere.html">Earth</a> around the <a href="https://www.space.com/58-the-sun-formation-facts-and-characteristics.html">sun</a> provides the baseline for these calculations. Every six months, the planet changes its position with respect to the surrounding <a href="https://www.space.com/52-the-expanding-universe-from-the-big-bang-to-today.html">universe</a> by 186 million miles (300 million kilometers). Since we are making this motion together with Earth, we can (theoretically) observe its effect as tiny circles that stars perform in the sky every year. Due to the vast distances to even the nearest stars, these circles are barely noticeable so detecting and measuring them is extremely difficult.

Measuring Large Distances

The first known astronomical measurement using parallax didn't involve a star but the moon. The ancient Greek astronomer Hipparchus reportedly used observations of a solar eclipse from two different locations to calculate the distance of Earth's celestial companion.In 1672, Italian astronomer Giovanni Cassini and his colleague Jean Richer made simultaneous observations of Mars, with Cassini in Paris and Richer in French Guiana. Cassini subsequently used those measurements to compute the parallax determining Mars' distance from Earth.

The History of Parallax Measurements in Astronomy

A real breakthrough in parallax measurement and therefore in determining distances of stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, came with a mission called Hipparchos, after the ancient Greek astronomer that first used the method to estimate the distance of the moon. This mission, launched by ESA in 1989, measured the positions and parallaxes as well as proper motions  for nearly 120,000 stars. The spacecraft orbited Earth for about four years, allowing astronomers to probe the neighbourhood of the sun up to the distance of 300 light-years with the accuracy of 0.001 arcseconds.

Breakthrough in Parallax Measurements and Galaxy Mapping

In 2013, ESA launched a telescope called Gaia that charts the positions, parallaxes, and proper motions of more than one billion stars. That number represents only about 1% of the actual number of stars in the galaxy, but that's enough for astronomers to extrapolate the observations to understand how the Milky Way behaves as a whole. Using Gaia data, they could, for the first time, create a dynamic movie of the galaxy's life over billions of years, uncovering past events but also projecting what will happen in the future.

2013: GAIA Telescope

The light is spread over an area four times larger, and it will be only one-fourth as bright as when the projector was half as far away. If you move the projector three times farther away, the light will cover 9 square feet and appear only one-ninth as bright. If a star measured in this manner happens to be part of a distant cluster, we can assume that all of those stars are the same distance, and we can add them to the library of standard candles.

Learning From The Parallax Effect

Another application of parallax is the reproduction and display of 3D images. The key is to capture 2D images of the subject from two slightly different angles, <a href="https://www.livescience.com/32580-why-do-we-see-in-3-d.html">similar to the way human eyes do</a>, and present them in such a way that each eye sees only one of the two images. Virtual reality gaming headsets, such as the <a href="https://www.livescience.com/44384-oculus-rift-virtual-reality-uses-beyond-gaming.html">Oculus Rift</a> and the <a href="http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/htc-vive-virtualy-reality-hands-on,4102.html">HTC Vive</a>, produce 3D virtual environments by projecting an image from a different viewing angle to each eye to simulate a parallax effect.

Using Parallax for 3D Imaging

Parallax is the observed displacement of an object caused by the change of the observer's point of view. In astronomy, it is an irreplaceable tool for calculating distances of far away stars.

space

Space

What Is Parallax?

About 75 percent of households in the United States have air conditioners, which use approximately six percent of all the electricity produced nationwide. As the planet gets hotter due to global warming, air conditioner sales are expected to increase significantly. However, a future that relies on air conditioning is unsustainable.

Global Warming: It's Getting Hot

Air conditioners consume large amounts of electricity, which primarily relies on fossil fuels to generate power. Moreover, the units themselves contain greenhouse gasses (GHG) known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) that deplete the ozone layer. The warmer it gets, the more people use air conditioning, which increases GHG emissions that further add to the warming of the planet.

Air Conditioners: A Double Blow To Earth

The primary driver of air conditioning use is thermal discomfort. When ambient temperatures—the air that you’re occupying—exceed your threshold, you’ll feel uncomfortably warm. That causes people to turn on the air conditioning unit and keep it on until the temperature drops below that threshold.Moving indoor air with electric fans increases the temperature threshold at which people feel uncomfortably hot by about three to four degrees Celsius.

Electric Fans Increase the Body’s Threshold for Thermal Discomfort

You can cool a room without air conditioning by using window coverings to <a href="https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/energy-efficient-window-coverings">reduce</a> heat gain, painting the walls a lighter colour to <a href="https://www.nrel.gov/docs/legosti/old/15771.pdf">reflect</a> heat away, or placing vegetation around the home to <a href="https://www.epa.gov/heatislands/using-trees-and-vegetation-reduce-heat-islands">cool</a> the environment through evapotranspiration.Other ways include drinking cold water, applying ice towels, or donning wet clothing. Immersing the feet in cold water and self-dowsing with a spray bottle or sponge can also improve thermal comfort.

Explore other sustainable cooling solutions

Thanks to our body's ability to regulate temperature, feeling cool might not require a giant drop in actual air temperature.

Feeling hot? Try these eco-friendly tips for cooling down.

Lifestyle steps may reduce brain disease risks and help to keep your brain and memories sharp. A major 2020 report suggests 12 factors within our control are responsible for up to 40 percent of dementia cases, such as smoking, poor fitness and obesity. Another study found it's never too late to make key lifestyle changes to see brain benefits.

Increasing your brain power 

Keeping an eye on your overall health is key for brain health.<ul><li>Watch these health numbers. Monitor and manage your blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels. Diseases like hypertension and type 2 diabetes damage small blood vessels in the brain and affect thinking and memory.</li><li>If you often have difficulty following a group conversation, go for a hearing exam. </li><li>Get good sleep. When you're asleep, your brain goes into housekeeping mode and cleans out toxins.</li><li>Have your meds reviewed at least once a year. </li><li>Depression and chronic anxiety may make people more vulnerable to dementia as they age.</li></ul>

5 Brain health tactics

<ol><li>Smoking: Current smokers are 34 percent more likely to develop dementia in later life.</li><li>Junk food. Highly processed foods and those high in saturated fat, like red meat and full-fat dairy increase inflammation in the body, including your brain.</li><li>Too much alcohol. Research shows that heavy drinking can kill brain neurons and accelerate memory loss.</li><li>Air pollution may be toxic to nerve cells. Consider restricting outdoor activites in low quality air, avoid high-taffic areas while exercising and keep rooms wellventilated at home.</li></ol>

4 Things that are hard on your brain

Consume a mix of nutrient-packed foods, not one superfood.<ul><li>Choose flavonoids. A half-serving of apples, berries and pears may curb inflammation and cell damage.</li><li>Be careful with supplements as they may contain unapproved drugs.</li><li>Dark leafy greens may delay age-related cognitive decline.</li><li>Consider the Big 3. Meals that are 1/2 produce, 1/4 lean protein, and 1/4 whole grain with some fat.</li><li>Drinking 2 to 3 cups of coffee plus the same amount of tea daily can reduce dementia and stroke by 30 percent.</li><li>2 -3 weekly servings of fatty fish like salmon, tuna, and sardines may lower the chance of dementia.</li></ul>

Eat for brain strength

Fuzzy thinking and poor focus can be caused by anything from a sluggish thyroid to a vitamin 12 deficiency, or after recovery from COVID-19. If you suspect your cognitive fogginess is related to coronavirus, consider a neuropsychological evaluation at a post-COVID-19 recovery clinic. You may be a candidate for cognitive rehabilitation therapy to improve your memory.

Beating brain fog

Regular aerobic exercise boosts blood flow to your brain.<ul><li>Adults should get 150 weekly minutes of moderately intense exercise, such as 30 minutes of brisk walking five times a week.</li><li>Consider Yoga or Tai Chi. The unfamiliar moves can help your brain create new neural pathways.</li><li>Take a dance lesson. A study showed that older adults who danced several times a week showed less loss of the brain's white matter.</li><li>Lift some weights twice weekly for 30 to 45 minutes to help the brain's hippocampus from shrinking with age.</li></ul>

Exercise

<ul><li>Make Learning a Lifelong Pursuit. Trying new activities and building new skills throughout life may also help to reduce the risk of cognitive decline.</li><li>Retire a little later. A study suggested that working until age 67 or later may offer a buffer against age-related cognitive problems.</li><li>Focus on simple acts. Everyday activities like letter writing, reading, playing board games, mowing the lawn or doing laundry may be good for the brain, a 2021 study shows.</li><li>Hang out with friends.</li><li>Practising relaxation like meditation may help curb brain problems.</li></ul>

Keep your brain engaged

It's normal to occasionally misplace something. However, see a doctor if you notice that you have a regular pattern of one or more of the following: <ul><li>Asking the same question repeatedly, especially with behaviour changes.</li><li>Mixing up words, such as saying “radio” instead of “TV.”</li><li>Placing items in inappropriate places, like car keys in the fridge. </li><li>Getting lost while driving to places you know well.</li><li>Experiencing mood changes for no apparent reason.</li></ul>

More than forgetfulness

It's Not Too Late. You Can Boost Your Brainpower at Any Age.

We can all agree that, on balance, and taking everything into account, love is a wonderful thing. For many, it is the point of life. It infiltrates every fibre of our being and every aspect of our daily lives. It is the most important factor in our mental and physical health, our longevity and our life satisfaction. And regardless of who the object of our love is – lover or friend, dog or god – these effects are largely underpinned, in the first instance, by the set of addictive neurochemicals supporting the bonds we create: oxytocin, dopamine, beta-endorphin and serotonin.

Love Is The Drug

This suite of chemicals makes us feel euphoric and calm, they draw us towards those we love, and reward us for investing in our relationships, even when the going gets tough. Love feels wonderful but ultimately it is a form of biological bribery, a cunning evolutionary trick to make sure we cooperate and those all-important genes continue down the generations. The joy it brings is wonderful but is merely a side-effect. Its goal is to ensure our survival, and for this reason happiness is not always its end point. Alongside its joys, there exists a dark side.

And The Happiness Of It Is A Side-effect

It’s about using chemical bribery to make sure we stick around, cooperate and invest in each other, and particularly in the survival-critical relationships we have with our lovers, children and close friends. This is an evolutionary control of which we are hardly aware, and it brings many positive benefits.

Love Is Ultimately About Control

The addictive nature of these chemicals, and our visceral need for them, means that love also has a dark side. It can be used as a tool of exploitation, manipulation and abuse. Indeed, in part what may separate human love from the love experienced by other animals is that we can use love to manipulate and control others. Arguably our greatest and most intense life experience can be used against us, sometimes leading us to continue relationships with negative consequences in direct opposition to our survival.

We Love To Survive, But We Don’t Always Survive The Love

Anna Machin, evolutionary anthropologist, and author of Why We Love: The New Science Behind our Closest Relationships asks her subjects to consider whether love can ever be negative. The vast majority say no for, if love has a darker side, it is not love, and this is an interesting point to contemplate. But if they do acknowledge the possibility of love having a less sunny side, their go-to example is jealousy.

We Love Love Too Much To Bad-mouth It

Jealousy is an emotion and, as with all emotions, it evolved to protect us, to alert us to a potential benefit or threat. It works its magic at three levels: the emotional, the cognitive and the behavioural. Physiology also throws its hat into the ring making you feel nauseous, faint or flushed.

The Multilevel Magic Of Jealousy

When we feel jealousy, it is generally urging us to do one of three things: to cut off the rival, to prevent our partner’s defection by redoubling our efforts, or to cut our losses and leave the relationship. All have evolved to make sure we balance the costs and benefits of the relationship. Investing time, energy and reproductive effort in the wrong partner is seriously damaging to your reproductive legacy and chances of survival.

Why Do We Feel Jealousy

The answer very much depends on our gender.Men and women experience jealousy with the same intensity. However, there is a stark difference when it comes to what causes each to be jealous. One of the pioneers of human mating research is the American evolutionary psychologist David Buss and, in his book The Evolution of Desire (1994), he details numerous experiments that have highlighted this gender difference.

What Do We Perceive To Be A Jealousy-inducing Threat?

In one study, in which subjects were asked to read different scenarios detailing incidences of sexual and emotional infidelity, 83% of women found the emotional scenario the most jealousy-inducing, whereas only 40% of men found this to be of concern. In contrast, 60% of men found sexual infidelity difficult to deal with, compared with a significantly smaller percentage of women: 17%.

Sexual Involvement Vs Emotional Involvement

The reason for this difference sits with the different resources that men and women bring to the mating game. Broadly, men bring their resources and protection; women bring their womb. If a woman is sexually unfaithful and becomes pregnant with another man’s child, she has withdrawn the opportunity from her partner to father a child with her for at least nine months. Hence, he is the most concerned about sexual infidelity.

Resources And Risks

In contrast, women are more concerned about emotional infidelity because this suggests that, if their partner does make a rival pregnant and becomes emotionally involved with her, his partner risks having to share his protection and resources with another, meaning that her children receive less of the pie.

Emotional intelligence sits at the core of healthy relationships. To truly deliver the benefits of the relationship to our partner, we must understand and meet their emotional needs as they must understand and meet ours. But, as with love, this skill has a darker side because to understand someone’s emotional needs presents the possibility that you can use that intelligence to control them. While we may all admit to using this skill for the wrong reasons every now and again – perhaps to get that holiday destination we prefer – for some, it is their go-to mechanism in their relationships.

Tricks And Trumps

The most adept proponents of this skill are those who possess the Dark Triad of personality traits: Machiavellianism, psychopathy and narcissism. The first relies on using emotional intelligence to manipulate others, the second to toy with other’s feelings, and the third to denigrate others with the aim of glorifying oneself.

When Intelligence (Perception) Becomes Intelligence (Information

For these people, characterised by exploitative, manipulative and callous personalities, emotional intelligence is the route to a set of mate-retention behaviours that certainly meet their goals but are less than beneficial to those whom they profess to love. Indeed, research has shown that a relationship with such a person leaves you open to a significantly greater risk that your love will be returned with abuse.

The Enemy Within And The Enemy Without

Research has shown that having a Dark Triad personality, whether you were a man or a woman, significantly increased the likelihood that ‘“cost-inflicting mate-retention behaviours” were your go-to mechanism when trying to retain your partner. These are behaviours that level an emotional, physical, practical and/or psychological cost on the partner such as physical or emotional abuse, coercive control or controlling access to food or money.

Love Or Cost-Inflicting Mate-Retention Behaviour?

Interestingly, however, these individuals did not employ this tactic all the time. There was nuance in their behaviour. Costly behaviours were peppered with rare incidences of gift giving or caretaking, so-called beneficial mate-retention behaviours. Why? Because the unpredictability of their behaviour caused psychological destabilisation in their partner and enabled them to assert further control through a practice we now identify as gaslighting.

Control On Control

It is hard to imagine that, having experienced such a litany of abuse, anyone could believe that love remained within their relationship. But here the power of the lived experience, of allowing everyone to have their ideas about love becomes clearer. Because, while we have many scientific tools to explore love objectively, at the end of the day, there is always an element of our experience of love that is subjective, that another cannot touch. This is no more powerfully evidenced than by the testimony of those who have experienced intimate partner violence.

As Many Loves As People On This Earth

Love is the focus of so much science, philosophy and literary rumination because we struggle to define it, to predict its next move. Thanks to our biology and the reproductive mandate of evolution, love has long controlled us. But what if we could control love? What if a magic potion existed that could induce us, or another, to fall in love or even wipe away the memories of a failed relationship?

What If We Could Conjure Up Love?

Today we know enough about the chemistry of love for the elixir to be within our grasp. And we don’t have to look very far for our first candidate: synthetic oxytocin, used right now as an induction drug in labour. We know from extensive research in social neuroscience that artificial oxytocin also increases prosociality, trust and cooperation. Oxytocin, as released by the brain when we are attracted to someone, is vital for the first stages of love because it quiets the fear centre of your brain and lowers your inhibitions to forming new relationships.

Love Elixir 1: Oxytocin

The other possibility is MDMA or ecstasy, which mimics the neurochemical of long-term love, beta-endorphin. Recreational users of ecstasy report that it makes them feel boundless love for their fellow clubbers and increases their empathy. Researchers in the US have reported encouraging results when MDMA was used in marriage therapy to increase empathy, allowing participants to gain further insight into each other’s needs and find common ground.

Love Elixir 2: MDMA

Both of these sound like promising candidates but there are still issues to iron out and ethical discussions to have. How effective they are is highly context dependent. Based on their genetics, some people do exactly what is predicted of them. Boundaries are lowered and love sensations abound. But for a significant minority, particularly when it comes to oxytocin, people do exactly the opposite of what we would expect. For some, a dose of oxytocin, while increasing bonds with those they perceive to be in their in-group, increases feelings of ethnocentrism – racism – toward the out-group.

Love Drugs And Side-Effects

MDMA has other issues. For some people, it simply does not work. But the bigger problem is that the effects endure only while usage continues; anecdotal evidence suggests that, if you stop, the feelings of love and empathy disappear. This raises questions of practicality and ethical issues surrounding power imbalance. If you commenced a relationship while taking MDMA, would you have to continue? What if you were in a relationship with someone who had taken MDMA and you didn’t know? What would happen if they stopped? And could someone be induced to take MDMA against their will?

The ethical conversation around love drugs is complex. On one side are those who argue that taking a love drug is no more controversial than an antidepressant. Both alter your brain chemistry and, given the strong relationship between love and good mental and physical health, surely it is important that we use all the tools at our disposal to help people succeed? But maybe an anecdote from the <a href="https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526145413/">book </a>Love Is the Drug (2020) by Brian Earp and Julian Savulescu will give you pause. They describe SSRI prescriptions used to suppress the sexual urges of young male yeshiva students, to ensure that they comply with Jewish orthodox religious law – no sex before marriage, and definitely no homosexuality.

Evolution saw fit to give us love to ensure we would continue to form and maintain the cooperative relationships that are our route to personal and, most crucially, genetic survival. It can be the source of euphoric happiness, calm contentment and much-needed security, but this is not its point. Love is merely the sweet treat handed to you by your babysitter to make sure the goal is achieved. Combine the ultimate evolutionary aim of love with our visceral need for it and the quick intelligence of our brains, and you have the recipe for a darker side to emerge. Some of this darker side is adaptive but, for those who experience it, it rarely ends well. At the very least there is pain – physical, psychological, financial – and, at the most, there is death, and the grief of those we leave behind.

Maybe it is time to rewrite the stories we tell ourselves about love because the danger on the horizon is not the dragon that needs to be slain by the knight to save the beautiful princess but the presence of some who mean to use its powers for their gain and our considerable loss. Like all of us, love is a complex beast: only by embracing it in its entirety do we truly understand it, and ourselves. And this means understanding its evolutionary story, the good and the bad.

Love Is A Complex Beast

Love is both a wonderful thing and a cunning evolutionary trick to control us. A dangerous cocktail in the wrong hands. 

Love is both a wonderful thing and a cunning evolutionary trick to control us. A dangerous cocktail in the wrong hands

loveandrelationships

Love & Relationships

Tainted Love: Why Love Is Trick *And* Treat

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