Neuroscientist to Lecture on Experience, Aging and the Brain
[21 November 2003 - University of California Davis] On Monday, Dec. 1 and Tuesday, Dec. 2, William Greenough, a University of Illinois neuroscientist whose work has shown how learning and experience, including physical exercise, change the brain, will give two lectures on campus. On Monday, Dec. 1, Greenough will discuss 'How Experience Influences the Developing, Adult and Aging Brain,' and on Tuesday, Dec 2, 'Applied Plasticity: Roles of Plastic Brain Phenomena in Clinical Pathology.' Both public lectures will begin at 4:10 p.m. in the AGR Hall, Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center. Greenough is the Swanlund Chair and Center for Advanced Study Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry and Structural Biology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His visit to UC Davis is sponsored by the Division of Biological Sciences endowed Tracey and Ruth Storer Lectureship in the Life Sciences.

FROM THE 'SCIENCE OF WELL-BEING' CONFERENCE,
ROAYL SOCIETY, LONDON,
19-20 NOVEMBER 2003
Focus: Think happy
[23 November 2003 - Sunday Times (London)] It's no joke: even scientists at the Royal Society are now taking the search for the source of happiness very seriously. ... The decision by the Royal Society to pick �the science of wellbeing� from hundreds of applications for conferences on other topics is no laughing matter. It means that the investigation of what makes people happy is being taken very seriously indeed. ... �If someone is happy they are more popular and also healthier, they live longer and are more productive at work. So it is very much worth having,� Nick Baylis said. ...

Psychologists put their heads together to discover how we can be happy for life
[20 November 2003 - The Independent (London)] Some of the brightest researchers in psychology met in London yesterday with one thing on their minds: the pursuit of happiness. They went to the Royal Society, the independent academy dedicated to promoting excellence in science, to discuss the science of well-being and the art of thinking positively. At the centre of the two-day conference is the philosophy and practice of Martin Seligman, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and the guru of how to be happy through a positive approach to life. He turned the world of psychology and psychiatry upside down five years ago by suggesting scientists should study what was going right with people's lives rather than concentrating on what was going wrong. ...

Low self-esteem 'shrinks brain'
[23 November 2003 - The Korea Herald] People with a low sense of self worth are more likely to suffer from memory loss as they get older, say researchers in a BBC News Online report. The study, presented at a conference at the Royal Society in London, also found that the brains of these people were more likely to shrink compared with those who have a high sense of self esteem. Dr Sonia Lupien, of McGill University in Montreal surveyed 92 senior citizens over 15 years and studied their brain scans. She found that the brains of those with low self-worth were up to a fifth smaller than those who felt good about themselves. ...

Organizations: Your New Core Strategy: Employee Retention
[26 November 2003 - Harvard Management Update] The Baby Boom is de-booming and soon there will be many more jobs than people available to fill them. The message: Keep your workers happy today. ...

Biological Basis For Creativity Linked To Mental Illness
[1 October 2003 - University of Toronto in Science Daily] Psychologists from the University of Toronto and Harvard University have identified one of the biological bases of creativity. The study in the September issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology says the brains of creative people appear to be more open to incoming stimuli from the surrounding environment. Other people's brains might shut out this same information through a process called "latent inhibition" - defined as an animal's unconscious capacity to ignore stimuli that experience has shown are irrelevant to its needs. Through psychological testing, the researchers showed that creative individuals are much more likely to have low levels of latent inhibition. "This means that creative individuals remain in contact with the extra information constantly streaming in from the environment," says co-author and U of T psychology professor Jordan Peterson. "The normal person classifies an object, and then forgets about it, even though that object is much more complex and interesting than he or she thinks. The creative person, by contrast, is always open to new possibilities." ...

Who are you calling a fogy?
[5 November 2003 - Christian Science Monitor] Well, no more awkward than similar terms Americans use to describe people at the other end of the age spectrum - words such as 'the elderly,' 'senior citizens,' and 'seniors.' None sounds exactly right to describe those in their, um, mature years. For all its richness and variety, the English language still has limits when age is involved. ... What's in a name? Plenty. Designations and images matter. They carry the power to shape attitudes and expectations in every generation, for better or worse. ...

'Employers should be able to insist on retirement'
[3 November 2003 - Financial Times - UK] Employers should have the right to insist that staff retire at 65, the CBI will warn ministers today. The employers' organisation will caution that if the Department of Trade and Industry introduces age discrimination legislation that could protect employees from mandatory retirement until they reach 70 the government 'risks embittering the retirement process and could lead to a costly surge of employment tribunal cases'. ...

Purpose of life? Millions buy the book
[2 November 2003 - Star Tribune - Minneapolis, Minnesota] The numbers are eye-popping: more than 5.6 million copies of a book in the hands of readers, about 2 million believers belonging to nearly 4,500 churches in 20 nations in the midst of a 40-day journey of faith. Grandiose as those figures may sound, these people are trying to discover nothing less than the true purpose of their lives. ...