At NPSC we know that one of the best ways to keep your brain healthy is to learn new things. Unfortunately, with all of the information available to us, it can feel almost impossible to find the time to sift through the web to find the gems.

So, we’ve decided to do it for you! Every Friday, you can find five new articles or videos from the week that will stretch your mind, fuel your spirit, and feed your brain.

“Thai soccer coach meditated with boys to calm them in the cave. We can all learn from them.” by Kristin Clark Taylor, washingtonpost.com

“He taught them how to keep themselves calm; a minor but magnificent distinction.”

“Particle Accelerator Reveals Hidden Faces in Damaged 19th-Century Daguerreotype Portraits” by Meilan Solly, smithsonianmag.com

“Using an experimental X-ray flurescence process, researchers mapped contours of the plates and produced digital copies of images previously lost to time.”

“Everything You Hear on Film is a Lie” by Tasos Frantzolas, ted.com

“Sound design is built on deception — when you watch a movie or TV show, nearly all of the sounds you hear are fake. In this audio-rich talk, Tasos Frantzolas explores the role of sound in storytelling and demonstrates just how easily our brains are fooled by what we hear.”

“Why Walking Through a Doorway Makes You Forget” by Charles B. Brenner, Jeffrey B. Zacks, scientificamerican.com

“So there’s the thing we know best:  The common and annoying experience of arriving somewhere only to realize you’ve forgotten what you went there to do.  We all know why such forgetting happens: we didn’t pay enough attention, or too much time passed, or it just wasn’t important enough.  But a ‘completely different’ idea comes from a team of researchers at the University of Notre Dame.  The first part of their paper’s title sums it up:  ‘Walking through doorways causes forgetting.’”

“A Pittsburgh-Area Restaurant That Trades Fussy for Fun” by Michael Meyer, nytimes.com

Okay, maybe this article isn’t typical Brain Food material—but we had to highlight a New York Times story about a Pittsburgh restaurant!

At NPSC we know that one of the best ways to keep your brain healthy is to learn new things. Unfortunately, with all of the information available to us, it can feel almost impossible to find the time to sift through the web to find the gems.

So, we’ve decided to do it for you! Every Friday, you can find five new articles or videos from the week that will stretch your mind, fuel your spirit, and feed your brain.

“What Makes a Word ‘Real’?” by Anne Curzan, ted.com

“One could argue that slang words like ‘hangry,’ ‘defriend’ and ‘adorkable’ fill crucial meaning gaps in the English language, even if they don’t appear in the dictionary. After all, who actually decides which words make it into those pages? Language historian Anne Curzan gives a charming look at the humans behind dictionaries, and the choices they make.”

“When Spiders Go Airborne, It’s Electric — Literally” by Nell Greenfieldboyce, npr.org

“Many spiders fly long distances by riding “balloons” of silk, and a new study suggests that they’re propelled by more than just the wind.”

“Can Wild Animals Really ‘Sense’ Fear in Other Animals?” by Quora.com

“All too often, some interpret the phrase ‘They can sense your fear’ as something telepathic, some additional non-human sense, or something that is not understood. That, of course, is not it at all.”

“Why July 4th is the wrong date to celebrate Independence Day” by Paul Ratner, bigthink.com

“As you fire up your barbecue and get ready for the fireworks, consider this – July 4th is actually the wrong date to celebrate American Independence.”

“How Vegetarian Food Fueled the British Suffragette Movement” by Anne Ewbank, atlasobscura.com

“Some even started a cafe.”

At NPSC we know that one of the best ways to keep your brain healthy is to learn new things. Unfortunately, with all of the information available to us, it can feel almost impossible to find the time to sift through the web to find the gems.

So, we’ve decided to do it for you! Every Friday, you can find five new articles or videos from the week that will stretch your mind, fuel your spirit, and feed your brain.

“Why Do Americans Call It ‘Soccer’ Instead of ‘Football’?” by Jay Serafino, mentalfloss.com

“While more Americans than ever are embracing soccer, they can’t even get the sport’s name right, according to some purists.”

“Is Your Mind Cluttered? Here’s How To Tell And What to Do” by Jeanne Sager, prevention.com

“Stop the mental multitasking and reclaim a sense of calm.”

“The Delicate Art of Creating Emoji” by Virginia Heffernan, wired.com

“The grammar of emoji pushes us to more atomic units. So skateboard instead of skateboarder, or probing cane instead of person with cane. We can create compound emoji by gluing them together. But each one, on its own, should be atomic.”

“How Doctors Discovered PTSD” by Dillon Carroll, washingtonpost.com

“What the link between war and lasting trauma taught us”

“Bumblebees Thrive in the City but Struggle on the Farm” by JoAnna Klein, nytimes.com

“Facing two unnatural environments, these important pollinators are finding better niches to exploit in urban areas.”