To be, or not to be happy

That is the choice...

With research finding more and more clues about the power of our mood, and the recent development of fRMI turning our understanding of the mind on its head, I guess it should come as no surprise that the value of happiness be questioned.

I can understand why, but that does not detract from my amusement at the fact that a significant number of scientists seem to be involved in a campaign that question the value of happiness. With the discovery that happiness is a choice more often than not, that happy people are less interested in things like financial markets, news or advertisements I guess it's no surprise.

According to the article in New Scientist called Happiness ain't all it's cracked up to be:

"a wealth of data suggesting that being happy isn't all it's cracked up to be. In previous studies, Forgas has found that happy people are less able to develop a persuasive argument, more gullible and worse at remembering objects in a shop window than their unhappy fellows."

By the look of it these prophets of doom and gloom are fighting dirty as well, since the article goes on to mention that "in another study, happy non-Muslim Australians were more likely to make snap negative judgments about – and even to shoot – computer images of people in traditional Muslim dress."

Being a South African I cannot claim to have any understanding of relationships between Muslim and non-Muslim Australians, but citing happy Australians taking pot-shots at people dressed like Muslims doesn't sound like happy to me in the least.

With speculation rife about what's it all about, what is want and what is meant, what is value and what worth, I'd suggest you give the chance a choice. The worst that could happen is you're back where you are right now. Think about what you gain.

Word is out, and its happiness. Nothing more than a choice, nothing less than a life-changing event. You can try it any time you want. If you don't like it you can always change your mind. Set a reminder if you want.

From personal experience it is something I highly recommend.

Dolphins, brain size and intelligence

Dolphin cognitive abilities raise ethical questions, says Emory neuroscientist

Some dolphin brains exhibit features correlated with complex intelligence, she says, including a large expanse of neocortical volume that is more convoluted than our own, extensive insular and cingulated regions, and highly differentiated cellular regions.

"Dolphins are sophisticated, self-aware, highly intelligent beings with individual personalities, autonomy and an inner life. They are vulnerable to tremendous suffering and psychological trauma," Marino says.

Group flow experience

BPS RESEARCH DIGEST: Social flow - how doing it together beats doing it alone

Ever had that wonderful, timeless feeling that arises when you're absorbed in a challenging task, one that stretches your abilities but doesn't exceed them? Pioneering psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi called this state 'flow'. Countless studies have shown that flow is highly rewarding and usually provokes feelings of joy afterwards. Little researched until now, however, is the idea of 'social flow', which can arise when a group of people are absorbed together in a challenging task. In a new study, Charles Walker finds that social flow is associated with more joy than solitary flow - 'that doing it together is better than doing it alone'.

Resisting temptation

According to a new study by Michelle vanDellen, a psychologist at the University of Georgia, self-control contains a large social component; the ability to resist temptation is contagious. The paper consists of five clever studies, each of which demonstrates the influence of our peer group on our self-control decisions.

In one study 71 undergraduates watched a stranger exert self-control by choosing a carrot instead of a cookie, while others watched people eat the cookie instead of the carrot. That's all that happened: the volunteers had no other interaction with the eaters.

Nevertheless, the performance of the subjects was significantly altered on a subsequent test of self-control. People who watched the carrot-eaters had more discipline than those who watched the cookie-eaters.

sexuality and mental disease

France has become the first country in the world to remove gender identity disorder, also known as transsexualism, from its list of officially recognized mental illnesses. This is huge news but seems yet to have been picked up by English language news sources.

Scientific ignorance?

Poll shows most Texans are ignorant about science, originally uploaded by bobster855.

A recent poll in Texas perfectly illustrate the modern confusion about the reason and role of our existence.

The origin of religion

Religion is often suggested as a by product of mans' morality or as a tool towards power. In the article How did religion evolve?, World Science argue that religion is most likely something that developed from existing human ability.

"... past studies, the authors said, show that people of differing religion or no religion show similar moral judgments when asked to comment on unfamiliar moral dilemmas. That suggests intuitive judgments of right and wrong work independently of explicit religious commitments, the researchers argued."

This supports the theory that religion... evolved as a separate by-product of preexisting cognitive functions that evolved from non-religious functions!

New results, age old mysteries

DNA analysis has been used for many things, from identifying paternity to nailing criminals. But recent reports regarding the DNA analysis of Egyptian mummies probably take the prize for worth. In a fascinating peak-a-boo  into the genealogy of some of the more conspicuous mummies being held in Egyptian archives we are bound to a find a treasure trove of who is who, and who or what killed them for the throne...

You can read more about it in TIME.

The harmony of the universe

Artists and ar­chi­tects have have used the gold­en ra­tio for cen­turies—for ex­am­ple, rectan­gles 1.618 times high­er than they are wide—be­cause it sup­posedly pro­vides es­thet­ic­ally pleas­ing forms. The gold­en ra­tio is irra­t­ional, like pi, mean­ing its dec­i­mals go on for­ev­er.

In the “quan­tum un­cer­tain” state of mat­ter, the ra­tio “re­flects a beau­ti­ful prop­er­ty of the quan­tum sys­tem – a hid­den sym­me­try,” Col­dea said. It is “ac­tually quite a spe­cial one called E8 by math­e­mati­cians, and this is its first ob­serva­t­ion in a ma­te­ri­al.” The find­ings dra­mat­ic­ally il­lus­trate how math­e­mat­i­cal the­o­ries de­vel­oped for par­t­i­cle phys­ics may find ap­plica­t­ion in sci­ence at the nano­scale—the scale of a few at­oms—and ul­ti­mately in fu­ture tech­nol­o­gy, he added.

Read all about it in the article "Golden ratio" hints at hidden atomic symmetry

Redefining the meaning of life

Our understanding of life has changed throughout the centuries, but it started as a quality only found in the human race, and the recent discovery about the nature of biological molecules called prions, is set to change it once again. A recent article in World Science explain why.
 
"Lifeless" molecules found to evolve, adapt

The study from Scripps Re­search In­sti­tute in Ju­pi­ter, Fla. found that pri­ons can de­vel­op many muta­t­ions. Muta­t­ions that help the pri­ons to with­stand threats then tend to per­sist in a “popula­t­ion” of pri­ons, while oth­er pri­ons are de­stroyed. This even­tu­ally leads the pri­ons to de­vel­op adapta­t­ions such as drug re­sist­ance.

The pro­cess in oth­er words would seem to be analogous to the way that liv­ing things evolve, ac­cord­ing to Dar­win­ist prin­ci­ples. Vi­rus­es, too—which are of­ten con­sid­ered non-liv­ing—can evolve. But un­like pri­ons, vi­ruses have in com­mon with life forms that they con­tain DNA or closely re­lat­ed mol­e­cule, RNA.