Dec 26, 2016

Nucleus #5: Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

Revue

Nucleus Mag

December 26 · Issue #5 · View online

Science and Culture Stories Curated by Journalist Dinsa Sachan

Season’s Greetings!

I hope you’re having a fantastic December. It’s a beautiful time of year to spend time with loved ones and reflect on the year as it comes to an end. Are you thinking about 2017 yet? This end-of-the-year issue of Nucleus is inundated with great stories related to goal setting and achievement that’ll come in handy as you set goals and resolutions for the upcoming year.

SCIENCE

The key to achieving your goals is to make them specific, explains this Scientific American blog post. It’s a quick read about how to set smart resolutions. Or, are you a fan of Norman Vincent Peale? Then you should read this piece in the New York Times that looks at the perils of too much optimism. It also offers an approach to avoid them. THOUGHT-PROVOKING.

But what about breaking old habits? This NPR story sheds light on some of the brain science involved in habit formation, with Charles Duhigg, the author of The Power of Habit. FASCINATING.

How to stick to your goals? This New Yorker piece by Maria Konnikova delves into decades of research on one character trait you need to have: it’s resilience. The story is well worth your time. RESEARCH.

Grit, which is related to resilience, is also key. Angela Duckworth, the psychologist who’s made studying grit her life’s work, talks about it in her TED talk. WATCH.

CULTURE

Success sometimes has a dark side: the fall from grace. Science can’t explain it, but we can learn from case studies. Here are a few that have caught my eye as a science and culture journalist:

Jonah Lehrer: Popular science journalist who wrote a series of books on neuroscience. This NYT piece describes how he found himself in the middle of a shocking plagiarism scandal.

Fraudulent authors: Slideshow at TIME revisits some of the literary world’s hero-to-zero moments.

Marc Hauser: This was probably the biggest case of scientific fraud in psychology in recent times. Boston Globe profiles this former superstar Harvard professor.

HAVE YOU HEARD?

Have you heard of Adbusters? It is a quirky bi-monthly magazine based in Vancouver, BC, Canada. They like to launch a crusade against everything “commercial”. Useful trivia: this was the very publication that gave the Occupy Wall Street movement it’s name. This NYT piece profiles Kalle Lasn, its founder, and explore the magazine’s philosophy.

Yes! “Have You Heard?” is a new section of Nucleus mag and I’m stoked about it. I’ll share with you science and culture publications that you may not have heard of yet. I really believe that smaller, niche and/or creative publications deserve our love and attention too.

FROM MY DESK

I hadn’t had a byline appear in so long that I was beginning to feel like a non-journalist. But a long feature I wrote for Chemistry World came out this month. It’s about the artificial meat industry. If you’ve been thinking of giving up meat or want to learn about the latest scientific developments on “fake meat”, it’s something you definitely want to read.

Sharing is caring!

❤ Please share Nucleus today with one friend who loves science and culture. Spread the word with just one easy click on (1) Twitter (2) Facebook, or (3) via a quick e-mail.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Dinsa Sachan
Freelance Science and Culture Journalist
http://dinsasachan.com/more

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