Are YOU Misunderstanding “Mindfulness”?
Razi Berry Mindful awareness is about both accepting and engaging with life’s challenges, and that’s what popularized concepts of mindfulness tend to miss, new research has found. Studying popular concepts of mindfulness, the researchers found most laypeople are confusing the practice with passive acceptance of problem — a misconception scientists say ignores the important work […]
Is Technology Making Workplaces “Better?”
Razi Berry In the traditional narrative of the evolving 21st century workplace, technological substitution of human employees is treated as a serious concern. But technological complementarity — the use of automation and artificial intelligence to complement workers, rather than replace them — is viewed optimistically as a good thing, improving productivity and wages for those […]
An Interesting Study on ‘Deepfakes’ and Our Likelihood to Circulate Them
Razi Berry A Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) study has found that some Singaporeans have reported that, despite being aware of the existence of ‘deepfakes’ in general, they believe they have circulated deepfake content on social media which they later found out was a hoax. Deepfakes, a portmanteau of ‘deep learning’ and ‘fake’, are […]
Unisex Non-Hormonal Birth Control Pill on the Horizon
Razi Berry Birth control options aren’t great. For women, most options require using hormones that cause common side effects such as weight gain, metabolic disturbances, nausea, and headaches. For men, the options are fairly dismal, condoms. With condoms having a failure rate high enough to warrant the constant recommendation of an added birth control method, […]
Expectations of Checking Emails While at Home Affects Health of Family and Employees
Razi Berry Technology has created an increasing precedent in many organizations that employees be available to respond to emails, and other communications, even when not actually at work. A recent study has highlighted that this expectation, regardless of any actual work being done, is detrimental to employees and their families.1 Dynamic communication systems may be a […]
Dementia Patients Can Live Independently Longer in Hi-Tech Homes
Razi Berry Dementia home created to showcase how people with the condition can live independently for longer A show home designed around concepts and technologies which will allow people with dementia to live independently for longer has been officially opened. The house, at the BRE Innovation Park, in Watford, features a vast collection of intuitive […]
Are High-Tech Baby Toys Decreasing Language Development?
Node Smith, ND A very interesting article from JAMA Pediatrics, recently suggested that infant toys that produce words, songs and lights may be causing a decrease in the quantity and quality of language development.1 The study found an association between these “whiz-bang” games and toys and a decrease in language quality/quantity compared to more traditional […]
Night Owls Have Wider Social Network
Node Smith, ND Ability to Connect Temporality to Various Phenomenon is Becoming Easier These Days More and more research data is being collected by mobile phones and the ability to connect temporality to various phenomenon is thereby becoming easier. For instance, Talayeh Aledavood has used anonymous cell phone data to correlate different “chronotypes,” – sleeping […]