Learning Mind: March 2012

Friday, March 30, 2012

Learning Mind: new post

5 simple ways to increase self-confidence

Posted: 29 Mar 2012 03:19 PM PDT

Self-confidence is one of the key personal qualities necessary for success. Here are 5 ways to develop self-confidence, presented in the book The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz. Use them in life, and you will certainly become successful.

1. Sit in the front rows

Usually in lectures, conferences, briefings and seminars the back rows of the classroom are filled first. People who sit in the front rows are not afraid to stand out from the crowd. Because they believe in their intellectual abilities, manners and appearance. So, to gain confidence in yourself prefer the first rows!

2. Express your opinion

There are many bright and talented people (sitting in the same conferences and workshops) who for whatever reason are afraid to express their opinions in order to avoid saying something stupid, not to seem ridiculous, etc.

Each time a person wants to say something and says nothing, he injects himself with a portion of the poison that kills confidence.

And vice versa: the more you speak, the more confident you become, so after each time you find it more and more easy to speak in public. Voicing your opinion, you take a vitamin which strengthens confidence.

Make rule to express your opinion in every public meeting you attend. Speak voluntarily, without being asked to. Do not make exceptions. Ask questions, make suggestions and comments. And do not be the last to express your thoughts, be the first.

And do not think that you will look silly. You are an intellectually developed adult and have your opinions, which have the right to be expressed.

3. Make eye contact

How to develop self-confidence? Look in the eyes of other people. The way a person looks says a lot. You instinctively begin to doubt a man who does not look in your eyes. What is he hiding? What is he afraid of? Does he want to cheat your or to hide something from you?

If a person is not looking in the eyes of his interlocutor he seems to say: “I am weaker than you. I am insignificant. I am afraid of you” or “I feel guilty. I have done or harboured in my mind something that I want to hide. If I look in your eyes, you will see right through me.”

If you look straight in the eyes of your interlocutor, you are expressing confidence and openness.

4. Walk with confidence

Psychologists say that a languid gait is associated with a negative attitude toward oneself and the world around him. But by changing your posture and gait you can turn a negative attitude into a positive one. All the actions of the body is a result of the psyche. "Chronic losers" have a shuffling, stumbling gait. Their confidence is close to zero.

“Middling people” have a “mediocre” gait. With their movements it is just like they are saying: “I have no reason to be proud of myself.”

But there is a third type of people. They seem to radiate confidence. They walk with poise, and their look is saying: “I’m going to an important place to do important things and to do them well.”

Spread the shoulders, straighten up, lift your head, speed up the step and you will feel a surge of confidence.

5. Smile broadly

Develop the habit of smiling. Whatever the circumstances are, the smile is the strongest weapon of self-confidence.

A broad smile gives a sense of confidence, overcomes fear, does away with anxiety and eliminates despondency and despair.

Smile widely and you will feel that “the good times have come”. Smile with all thirty-two teeth! Such smile is a guarantee of success.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Learning Mind: new post

There is life on other planets, say scientists

Posted: 28 Mar 2012 04:01 PM PDT

The question of existence of extraterrestrial life has intrigued millions of people for many ages. Eventually are we alone in this world or is there life on other planets? A new study comes to strengthen the second scenario. Not only there is life somewhere out there, but potentially there are tens of billions habitable planets in our galaxy!

Astronomers came to this conclusion by studying so-called red-dwarf stars, which make up 80% of stars in our galaxy. About 40% of these stars have a planet with rocky surface, not much bigger than the Earth, orbiting in the so-called habitable zone, which means that there might be liquid water. If considering that there are about 160 billion red dwarfs in our galaxy, the number of planets warm and wet enough to support living organisms is enormous. However, as stated, the fact that a planet is located in the habitable zone does not necessarily mean that it has well developed forms of life on it.

“The fact that red dwarfs are so common in the Milky Way leads to a surprising conclusion that there are tens of billions of such planets only in our galaxy,” says Xavier Bonfils from the University of Grenoble, who led the research team. The studies, conducted with the help of the telescope 3.6 meters in diameter located at the European Southern Observatory at La Sila, Chile, focused on a carefully selected sample of 102 red dwarfs. As a result, the scientists found 9 “super-Earths“, planets with a mass from one to
tenfold of the Earth's one.

Astronomers, who published their results in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, have combined these data with observations of stars that do not have planets and have calculated that the super-Earths orbiting red dwarfs and being located in the habitable zones are found at a frequency of 41%. Rarer are so-called “gas giants” like Jupiter and Saturn: such planets make up less than 12%.

Moreover, as there are many such stars close to the Sun, scientists believe that there are about 100 habitable planets at a distance less than 30 light years from us, which is not far at the astronomical scale.

5 tips on how to succeed in life

Posted: 28 Mar 2012 08:30 AM PDT

After reading this article you will change your attitude towards yourself and the world. Do away with disorganization and disorder in your life. The following tips will help disperse the fog in your head. Here is some advice on how to succeed in life.

1. Determine the goals which are most important for you

You should understand one undeniable fact that you must build your life by yourself otherwise the circumstances will make it for you. Maybe you will have to work long and hard in order to achieve your goal. Maybe you will have to sacrifice something, make an effort and invest money. But remember that everything depends on you.

Are there people around you who have already achieved the results you want? If so, use their experience as it will be useful for you. If not, do not worry about it, the point is to believe in you and be confident, challenging failures and problems. It is very important to remind yourself about the goal you want to achieve every day.

2. Constantly work on improving yourself

Every day ask yourself what to do in order to achieve better result than yesterday. Try to work more efficiently. And it doesn't concern only job but all spheres of life. Work on yourself every day. Success comes to those who are in a constant learning process.

Do not stop at the achievement of a “good enough” result. Go on, keep improving your skills. Consider each of your goals and think on what you can do to improve the means of achieving it. Success is a long thorny path full of mistakes and obstacles, but it is worth of it.

3. Each new day should be significant

Every morning dedicate a few minutes to thinking on how was your yesterday, what you want to do today, and what is important to do. How today will differ from any other ordinary boring day? Plan something and complete it, it will bring you pleasure and will make you proud of yourself.

Set a goal you need to reach during this day. Unsuccessful and unhappy people often have a feeling that their days are all alike. All people have the same hours in the day. So how will you spend your 24 hours? What will you do today to make your tomorrow better?

4. Be positive

Positive attitude is a result of a balanced life plan, supported by a daily willingness to self-improvement (see the first two tips). You are a kind and hardworking person. You are independent and reliable. Be sure that you can control your own future.

Protect yourself from those people who bring into your life only negative emotions and thoughts. You can not even imagine how much influence their words have on you at a subconscious level. Do not gossip and do not discuss other people, believe me, it will not help you become successful.

Optimism is a wonderful feeling. Optimism supports strength of will, helps overcome failures and pushes for success. Optimistic energy will attract new interesting people.

5. Hard work is the key to prosperity

A truly successful person works much and hard. Good luck come to those who are working hard and diligently. From time to time, work seems too heavy and not encouraging. You feel that what you are doing will not bring fruit and is just a waste of energy. But do not give up. Do not look for easy ways and do not fool yourself. Enjoy the sense of joy of the completed work. If you work hard, you will never be hungry or depressed. And you will get rewarded with your future achievements.

From the above recommendations on how to succeed in life you understand that you need to set a goal and work hard, achieving your goals with optimism. In the end you will be rewarded far more than you have given.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Learning Mind: new post

Marijuana’s effect on memory functions

Posted: 27 Mar 2012 05:35 PM PDT

Scientists have discovered that marijuana leads to decay of short-term memory. The drug affects user’s working memory, i.e. the ability to preserve and use information for short periods of time.

A research of two neuroscientists, Giovanni Marsicano from the University of Bordeaux in France and Xia Zhang from the University of Ottawa in Canada, showed that this consequential effect occurs due to a hitherto unknown mechanism of signalling between neurons and astrocytes, brain cells which as a result of the current research were proved to be responsible for memory functions.

After a number of experiments on mice, the researchers discovered that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive substance present in marijuana, damages relations between neurons in the hippocampus, a region of the brain vital to memory formation.

The experiments were conducted using mice with genetically modified changes in the work of receptor units causing a reaction to marijuana – the so-called CB1 receptors (cannabinoid receptor type 1). The functioning of these receptors depends on the type of cell they are located on. So, the results of the experiments, in which the mice were submitted to a number of memory tests, showed that the effect of THC on the brain is associated with CB1 receptors in astrocytes, which means that the principal ingredient of marijuana degrades memory functions.

The researchers noted that the new findings could someday lead to the development of drugs with the same therapeutic characteristics but with fewer side effects.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Learning Mind: new post

“Google Effect”: how search engines affect our memory

Posted: 25 Mar 2012 07:08 AM PDT

Every day search engines like Google give us thousands of solutions and facilitate our lives. Do they also affect our brain? It seems so, according to a new study that claims that the Internet has a direct impact on how our memory works.

The research, conducted by psychologists of Columbia and Harvard Universities, is the first of its kind to examine the effect of search engines on the human memory.

According to a co-author of the study, Betsy Sparrow, search engines change our way of memorizing and remembering things.

The results, published in the Science magazine, suggest that the way our brain “saves” various data has changed significantly because of our “confidence” to find them online.

The researchers claim that the Internet has now become a dominant form of transactive memory – recollections that are “outside” of our minds but we know where and how we can access them. Previously this role belonged to books. Today the Internet shows even more powerful presence in our lives.

The survey was based on four different experiments that examined:

• how the volunteers based on the search engines when memorizing something;
• how they remembered different information depending on whether they had access to it later;
• whether they remembered better the information itself or where it can be found on their computer.

The results, say the researchers, indicate a significant change in the way our memory operates. As shown, most participants demonstrated a tendency to forget the things they were sure to find on the Internet and to remember those they couldn’t find online.

Also it was revealed that people remembered better where they could find something on the Internet rather than the information itself.

Does it mean that we are becoming more “stupid” and “sophomoric” or that we are dealing with more “useful” knowledge? It is a matter of another, much larger debate among experts.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Learning Mind: new post

Big Bang: what did it look like?

Posted: 22 Mar 2012 05:26 PM PDT

The digital images that follow are the result of a controlled “Big Bang”, made by scientists at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.

The reason scientists went to the realization of this experiment was to determine how exactly the Universe began to operate. To achieve this, they created subatomic explosions, similar to those which had happened at the time of the Big Bang, using particles of lead.

These particles were cast at a speed equal to the speed of light, and when the accelerator collided in vacuum at a temperature 271 degrees below zero C, these unique photographs were taken.

The spokesperson of CERN, particle physicist, Christine Sutton described the process: “When two ions of lead are colliding, then basic particles, such as π-ions, release.”

Such main subatomic particles are found quite often in the Universe, which means that by being further studied they will help us better understand how exactly and by what the Universe was created.

In fact, what is depicted in the photos are the traces of particles, as far as these particles are impossible to see.

The CERN is built to be able to handle incredible powers. For example, when scientists use 9300 magnets to force two lead ions to collide with each other, the produced heat is 100,000 times higher than the Sun's one.

However, in order to make the magnets operate, the helium in superfluid form is used to maintain the temperature of the accelerator at-271 C.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Learning Mind: new post

Beauty lights up the brain

Posted: 21 Mar 2012 04:42 PM PDT

According to British scientists, each time you admire the beauty of a work of art or a musical piece a particular area in front of the brain “lights up”.

Specialists from the Wellcome Laboratory of Neurobiology of the University College London (UCL) published a report in the PLoS One magazine in which claimed that seeing or hearing something that we consider beautiful activates the same brain area.

“So the question arises of whether we have an innate abstract sense of beauty, which can cause a strong emotional excitation either the source of it is visual or auditory. It’s time to answer it”, says Professor Semir Zeki.

The study involved a total of 21 volunteers from different cultural backgrounds, who were asked to evaluate a series of paintings and music melodies as beautiful, neutral or bad.

Then the experts showed them pictures or played them music while they were subjected to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to record the activity of their brain.

They saw that the area of the middle orbitofrontal cortex, a part of the pleasure and reward center of the brain, “lights up” more strongly when the subjects were seeing or hearing something that had previously described as “beautiful.”

Previously the middle orbitofrontal cortex has already been associated with the appreciation of beauty. However, this is the first time that scientists managed to see that beautiful visual and auditory stimuli activate the same brain region, suggesting that there may exist the innate cerebral understanding of beauty.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Learning Mind: new post

Top 5 most mysterious unexplained phenomena

Posted: 20 Mar 2012 03:24 PM PDT

Often something strange happens and nobody, even science can't explain it. A number of phenomena that have to do with the human are still impossible to explain. Here are 5 top unexplained phenomena that still afflict the science.

1. Intuition

At some point we all have felt what we call intuition. Many people liken intuition with instinct, but the instinct can often be wrong, while the intuition most often comes out right. Psychologists say that the person subconsciously takes information from the world around him, with the result of sensing or knowing information, although without realizing the source of this knowledge/sense. The phenomena of intuition are extremely difficult to evidence or to study that is why the psychological science can't solve all these questions.

2. Mysterious disappearances

Unfortunately as time goes a number of mysterious disappearances increases. Some might run away, others might suffer some accident or be the victims of abduction. There are some other cases when disappearances are really mysterious. Starting from the crew of the ship Mary Celeste to Jimmy Hoffa and Natalee Holloway, some people seem to have gone from the face of Earth, leaving absolutely no trace behind them.

3. Deja vu

"Deja vu" means “already seen” and is associated with a mysterious feeling we get when it seems that we have already relived some specific events in the past. Some attribute deja vu with the supernatural experiences or spontaneous glimpses into past lives. As with intuition, the psychological research can offer more naturalistic explanations, but the cause and nature of the phenomenon still remains a mystery. Read more about deja vu here

4. Body-mind connection

Medical science has only recently begun to understand in what ways the mind affects the body. There is a phenomenon called "placebo effect" which shows how people can be healed by believing in the effectiveness of their medical treatment whatever it is. In other words, the human body has the ability of self healing. This is terribly exciting, but science still hasn't explained how it happens.

5. Ghosts

The science can't explain what exactly ghosts are and how they exist. Many researchers suppose that they are spirits of deceased relatives. There is much evidence of the existence of ghosts in the form of seeing, photographs and even conversations with them. However, the existing evidence remains undefined. Maybe someday the possibility of contacting dead people will be proven and we will finally get the answer to the eternal mystery of life after death.

Positive thinking is scientifically proven to lengthen life

Posted: 20 Mar 2012 10:57 AM PDT

If you declare that you are well, then you have a reasonable chance of being really well for a long, long time. A new study from psychologists at the Universityof Zurich shows that volunteers who reported that they are satisfied with the state of their health, have much lower risk of death than those who reported that their health is not good.

Positive thinking heals

These results seemed to be valid even when taken into account other factors that affect longevity, such as smoking, chronic diseases and high blood pressure. These new findings reinforce those of previous studies, according to which positive thinking “heals” the organism.

The study of specialists from Zurich began in the decade of 1970 and included more than 8,000 volunteers. The participants were asked to rate their own level of health and then were submitted to various medical checks.

Three decades later the testing was repeated and the researchers saw that the volunteers who had given positive responses about their health were more likely to live longer than those who had given negative answers.

The leader of the research group David Fäh from the University of Zurich noted: “Our results show that people who believe that their health is in a good state are likely to have features that help them maintain a good level of health or even improve it. These features include a positive attitude about life, an optimistic look at things and a fundamental level of satisfaction with life“.

Increased risk of death in both sexes

The study showed that men who described their health as “very bad” were 3.3 times more likely to have died over three decades compared with those who describe their health as “very good”.

In women, the probability of death was 1.9 times bigger in those who reported that they didn't feel well compared with those who reported that they felt wonderful.

This study is the first long-term research showing connection between the estimation made by the person on his health and the incurred mortality risk.

The researchers emphasize that their findings reinforce the broad definition given to the concept of health by the World Health Organization, according to which "health is not merely the absence of disease but is a combination of social, mental and physical well-being".

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Learning Mind: new post

Too much intelligence may be harmful

Posted: 19 Mar 2012 11:48 AM PDT

Perhaps excessive cleverness is not the best thing. This is claimed by scientists who speak of a ceiling on the level of intelligence of people, which acts as a “shield”.

Scientists at Warwick University in Great Britain and their colleagues from the University of Basel in Switzerland have been studying the human evolution trying to find out why the level of intelligence is at the level that we know and we are not smarter than we are.

They concluded that excessive intelligence may lead to serious malfunctions of organs as well as to psychical disorders. For this reason we have a special physical mechanism that prevents the excessive increase of intelligence. The researchers report that a very high IQ is likely to be associated with diseases of the nervous system.

Also the scientists claim that various substances such as caffeine, which used in recent years to enhance memory and intelligence, are effective but have limited action and only help those who face specific problems such as lack of concentration.

The secret to the whole story is “the exchange”, which means that the level of intelligence operates on the basis “give something – lose something.” Put simply, the researchers support the statement that if the level of memory (or intelligence in general) increases greatly, it will decline some other function, so, ultimately the person won't be charismatic but troubled.