It's not often that a researcher can stand up in front of an audience at a Harvard Medical School conference packed with psychologists and physicians and ask, “Didn’t anyone tell you there’ll be a movie where Jennifer Aniston will be playing me?”  That researcher is 69 year old Ellen Langer and her work on mindset and aging has captured the imagination of Hollywood with DreamWorks Studios reportedly commissioning the script for the movie in which Aniston will star.   In 1981, Langer became the first woman ever to be tenured in psychology at Harvard, but it is her famous Counter Clockwise... Read full article »

It’s three o’clock in the afternoon as I write this sentence. I’m feeling a little weary after spending my day delving into scientific papers. As I contemplate taking a short break away from my desk, I immediately feel an inner momentum pulling me towards the kitchen. I’m sure if a scientist had electrodes on my head right now they would see that the anticipation and reward centres of my brain light up like a Christmas tree because right now I’m thinking about chocolate.   The thing about being a journalist who writes about the latest science exploring how our mind... Read full article »

On January 27, 1880, Thomas Edison was granted U.S patent 223,898 for “An electric lamp for giving light by incandescence⁠.” He had invented the world’s first commercially viable light bulb and within a couple of decades every home and business throughout America and Europe was illuminated with artificial light.   As the founder of General Electric he had a vested interest in rebranding the night as the beginning rather than the end of the day used his celebrity status to boast that he needed only four or five hours of sleep each night.  As Alan Derickson writes in his book... Read full article »

At a barbeque to celebrate Australia Day this week I was struck by how many of my friends seemed totally exhausted. Whether it was because they are the parents of young kids, had been partying over the holiday season, or are hard at work climbing the corporate ladder, there was a common bond of fatigue uniting us all. For some of my friends, a minimum 50-hour workweek is not only the norm; it’s the expectation if they want to be successful. Other friends sit in traffic for at least three hours a day during their daily commute. This lifestyle isn’t... Read full article »

I will never forget the look on my two-year-old son Theodore’s face when he learned to swim during our family holiday last week. We had been swimming with him every morning and every afternoon, watching him gain the confidence to let go, trust that he could float and then finally work up the courage to start moving his arms and legs to move independently in the water. His face expression said it all – triumph, exhilaration, and the joy of being free.   The moment was magic and I wanted it to last forever. But pretty soon I felt my... Read full article »

I needed to pop to my local shopping mall yesterday to pick up a couple of final holiday gifts and found myself stuck in a traffic queue as I joined thousands of others intending to do the same. As we all converged on the shopping centre car park simultaneously, traffic came to a standstill. There was no escape. Given that I’m on a tight writing deadline for my book, time is not something I have to spare at the moment and as I inched my car forward I felt my blood start to boil. My stress response was kicking in.... Read full article »