James' World 2

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U.S. Senator Hiram Rhodes Revels, the first African-American in the Congress. from Mississippi

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The human brain could be far more powerful than we ever imagined, scientists have discovered.

Researchers have identified cell messaging which have never been uncovered before, which suggests our brains are capable of more than previously realized.

It’s all to do with the outer cortical cells, with the findings suggesting that single human neurons are remarkably powerful.

The research, which was first published in Science in 2020 and undertaken by experts at Germany and Greece institutes.

Their research involved analyzing the brain’s outer cortical cells using fluorescent microscopy and they found that individual cells ‘fired’ using sodium ions (which was to be expected) as well as calcium.

During the research, scientists observed voltage passing through brain cells with a combination of positively charged ions which had never been seen before.

The research also focused on the dendrites, which are found at the end of branches in the brain and are key to neurons sending chemical messages throughout the brain.

“The dendrites are central to understanding the brain because they are at the core of what determines the computational power of single neurons,” said study co-author and Humboldt University neuroscientist Matthew Larkum.

By modeling the unique electrical qualities explored in the study, the researchers discovered that single neurons were able to solve the kinds of computational problems which were previously thought to require more complex networks in the brain.

The study went further than experts had gone before in this area, with most research previously conducted on rodents.

“There was a ‘eureka’ moment when we saw the dendritic action potentials for the first time,” Larkum said. “The experiments were very challenging, so to push the questions past just repeating what has been done in rodents already was very satisfying.”

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When I first started my dating coaching practice in 2016, it was common for clients to come to me with several active dating profiles and be utterly overwhelmed by app-based dating. Over the last few years, I’ve noticed more and more clients, particularly in their 20s, who have never had a dating profile or are not active on any dating apps they used in the past. I don’t exclusively recommend dating apps to my clients, but it has been interesting to see how something that was so common a few years ago is losing steam with certain daters, especially those who are of a younger demographic.

Gen-Z is the first generation to have internet connectivity from birth. Where other generations have a clear memory of a “before” and “after” smartphones, tech-enabled devices have been seamlessly woven into each and every aspect of Gen-Z’s lives. Given that Gen-Z currently includes 18 to 27 year olds, one would assume they would be prime candidates for the swipe-and-match of dating apps. But that’s not the case. Despite the growing trend of dating apps being where people go to find partners in the U.S., Gen-Z seems to be opting out.

According to a 2023 Statista survey, daters in the U.S. between the ages of 30 and 49, who are mostly millennial, make up 61% of dating app users, whereas Gen-Z comes in at only 26%. This may be in part due to unique challenges Gen-Z faces on the apps. In Hinge’s 2024 D.A.T.E. (Data, Advice, Trends, and Expertise) report, many Gen-Z daters cite fear of rejection and being cringe amongst their top concerns. Older generations of daters may have more experience with the discomfort of dating rejection. They may also rebound more easily after an awkward encounter, rather than internalizing it as “cringe” that can’t be overcome. Of course, most of us fear rejection, but in a tech-mediated world where ideas and people are liked, upvoted, attacked, or labeled, things can feel simultaneously impersonal and very personal. Gen-Z daters may have a harder time putting themselves in the vulnerable position online of seeking partnership only to get passed over or ghosted. This struggle to make connections using dating apps could explain why some of my Gen-Z clients are deleting their dating apps or, after hearing stories from peers about how hard dating apps are to engage with, choose not to try dating at all.

Generally speaking, dating apps are losing their appeal with daters of all ages. There’s an increasing feeling that the algorithms aren’t helping them find what they want—or that dating app companies are only there to upsell their customers by hiding helpful features and users behind paywalls. The disenchantment grows still when daters, specifically women, minorities, fat people, and people with disabilities have negative experiences like harassment on the apps. It makes sense that most apps get deleted within the first month. Having grown up seeing generations before them struggle with what was the latest and greatest technology for meeting potential partners, Gen-Z is more critical of what apps have to offer. This generation has more of a focus on self-care and authenticity in dating than previous generations, and dating apps fall short of the types of genuine, easy connections they’re trying to make.

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Real love

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When Kaia Roman’s epigenetics business failed in 2014, she spiraled into a depression.

“What would come out of my mouth first was a complaint,” Roman told NBC News. “I wasn’t being a very positive person.”

Roman, who lives in Santa Cruz, California, says she would vent to anyone who would listen — about the traffic, the weather, or anything that inconvenienced her.

A friend recommended she give up complaining for a month, advising that it would help reframe her mind.

Roman, 43, chronicled the experience in her book “The Joy Plan: How I Took 30 Days to Stop Worrying, Quit Complaining, and Find Ridiculous Happiness.”

Now a successful author and school teacher, she says forgoing gripes changed her life in “miraculous” ways.

But she says complaining does have an important purpose — it tells us that something in our lives needs to change.

“But I think we can get stuck there by focusing on what we don’t want instead of on what we do want,” she says.

Why we complain

We complain when we feel there is a significant gap between an expectation and reality, according to Dr. Guy Winch, author of the book “The Squeaky Wheel: Complaining the Right Way to Get Results, Improve Your Relationships, and Enhance Self-Esteem.”

Complaining is also a bonding mechanism, according to the New York City psychologist.

“Complaints can make us feel like we connect with someone because we have a mutual dissatisfaction about something,” he says.

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We complain when we feel there is a significant gap between an expectation and reality. Alva Skog / for NBC News

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There is an open secret in the study of child development: Most of what we think we know about how babies develop is actually based on a specific subset of kids—those born to families from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (a.k.a. WEIRD) nations. The acronym was first coined in an influential 2010 paper to describe the wildly unrepresentative populations that many psychology studies have long relied on. This is an issue in the field generally, and certainly a thorny problem in developmental psychology, which primarily studies children: According to one paper, WEIRD subjects make up 96 percent of the data used in published developmental-science studies but represent only 12 percent of the world’s population.

As a result, it’s hard to be certain whether many things we think we know about babies’ development are truly universal elements of human nature. It means that we tell an incomplete story about the process of our own becoming. Yet the problem has remained hard to fix. Even within the U.S., similar demographic biases have arisen: The families that most often participate in research studies tend to be white, affluent, and highly educated.

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Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Andrey Zhuravlev / Getty.

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This holiday season has been a doozy. Scrolling through my bills feels like trying to zip up a bursting suitcase — even when I sit on it, there’s just too much in there to squish it closed. I can’t possibly need all this stuff, I think. Why can’t I pare back, live more simply? 

I know I’m not alone. And in our defense, there’s a good reason we’ve gone a little nuts lately. This is the first time in three years that many of us will get to spend Christmas with extended family. We’re going out to parties again. After so much caution and uncertainty, isn’t it fun to live large, even be a smidge reckless?

Still, when I look at the financial fallout, numbers stacked together in a list, it feels excessive, even gluttonous. Enter the sudden appeal of “money diets,” “spending fasts,” or “financial cleanses,” all unfortunate names for the same concept of reducing your expenses for a fixed period of time (often in January, following the holiday free-for-all).

As a rule, I hate when people use dieting metaphors with money; not to mention, diets don’t work. But I must admit that my current spending habits aren’t sustainable, and the idea of making some clear, intentional changes at the beginning of next year sounds pretty good right now. I talked to some experts about how to cut back in a thoughtful way that won’t backfire. Come January 1, here’s what I’ll be doing.

Think about what you’re trying to accomplish.

The purpose of this exercise isn’t punishment. If you’re feeling ashamed or even just vaguely gross about how you’ve managed your money recently, it’s time to let yourself off the hook. Your bank account is not a scale for weighing your moral integrity, and stripping your life down to bare bones won’t make you a better person.

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Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Getty Images

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A few months ago, I was on vacation with my boyfriend when I decided it was time for me to say goodbye to my caffeine habit. I’d been relying on a cup of coffee or loose-leaf tea to get me through the workday slog, PM activities, and even yoga classes since college. I didn’t need a health app to know my reliance on caffeine was psychologically unhealthy. And working in the health writing world made me aware that it can be physically damaging, too: The Mayo Clinic lists migraine headaches, insomnia, fast heartbeat, muscle tremors, and others, as side effects of drinking more than four cups of caffeinated coffee a day (or its equivalent in soda, energy drinks, and tea). I was no “five shots of espresso a day” gal, but, I wondered: If I eliminated caffeine from my daily routine, would I lose the late-night jitters and afternoon crashes I’ve become used to? In turn, would I have more energy, be more productive, and sleep better, too?

The first work week was brutal. I thanked heavens I worked from my apartment, and this 17-minute Yoga with Adriene Energy Practice on YouTube became my best friend. But, by the following week, the afternoon wall I hit faded away (even sans Adriene) and I had a much easier time falling asleep. Fast-forward to two months later, and I’m happy to report I am still—somehow—caffeine-free. All the benefits I’d hoped for are real, and I even beat my mile time at Central Park’s reservoir. The five simple guidelines that follow are ones I’ve been living by:

1. Ease into it on vacation.

If you want to fast-track to the Land of Despair, starting your caffeine detoxification at work is an excellent idea. I found vacation an ideal time to lay off my caffeine habit. I could pop Strawberry Lemonade Nuun Electrolytes tablets to my heart’s delight. I could sleep in. And lying on the beach breezing through trashy romance novels doesn’t exactly require much concentration and energy. Once you have a week or so under your belt, post-vacation Monday still ranks pretty low, but at least you won’t have to add caffeine headache to your woes. your body also will likely find it easier to adjust to abstinence.

2. Keep a running list of all the ways giving up caffeine is improving your life.

Better sleep. More money in your pocket for artisanal seltzer. Less sugar or dairy in your diet (unless you drink your coffee black). Freedom from what is, technically, an addiction.

“Behavior change is often supported by connecting to the bigger values—the things that are important to you—that drive your life,” says Washington-based nutritionist Meghan Cichy, who specializes in the treatment of eating disorders and chronic dieting. “When our perspective is more positive and connected to our values, it can actually help us to feel less crappy about going through it.”

. Illustration By George Wylesol

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Also, called a ‘Quo Vadis’ haircut

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Such questions are still relevant today, asked by ecologists, public health officials, conservation biologists, forensic practitioners, and those studying evolution and ancient environments — and they drive shoe-leather epidemiologists and biologists to far-flung corners of the world.

The 1987 paper, Barkay and her colleagues published in the Journal of Microbiological Methods outlined a method — “Direct Environmental DNA Extraction” — that would allow researchers to take a census. It was a practical tool, albeit a rather messy one, for detecting who was out there. Barkay used it for the rest of her career.

Today, the study gets cited as an early glimpse of eDNA, or environmental DNA, a relatively inexpensive, widespread, potentially automated way to observe the diversity and distribution of life. Unlike previous techniques, which could identify DNA from, say, a single organism, the method also collects the swirling cloud of other genetic material that surrounds it. In recent years, the field has grown significantly. “It’s got its own journal,” said Eske Willerslev, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Copenhagen. “It’s got its own society, scientific society. It has become an established field.”

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Matthew B Laramie/USGS

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