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Back in 2015, the world’s governments met in Paris and agreed to keep global warming below 2°C, to avoid the worst risks of a hotter planet. See here for background on why, but that’s the goal. For context, the planet’s warmed ~1°C since the 19th century.
One problem with framing the goal this way, though, is that it’s maddeningly abstract. What does staying below 2°C entail? Papers on this topic usually drone on about a “carbon budget” — the total amount of CO2 humans can emit this century before we likely bust past 2°C — and then debate how to divvy up that budget among nations. There’s math involved. It’s eye-glazing, and hard to translate into actual policy. It’s also a long-term goal, easy for policymakers to shrug off.
So, not surprisingly, countries have thus far responded by putting forward a welter of vague pledges on curbing emissions that are hard to compare and definitely don’t add up to staying below 2°C. Everyone […]
Let it all out: Casey Affleck with Lucas Hedges in Manchester by the Sea.
Credit: Claire Folger
The time-honoured story of emotion goes something like this: we all have emotions built in from birth. They are distinct, recognisable phenomena inside us. When something happens in the world, whether it’s a gunshot or a flirtatious glance, our emotions come on quickly and automatically, as if someone has flipped a switch.
Modern science has an account that fits this story, which I call the classical view of emotion. According to this view, we have many emotional circuits in our brains, and each is said to cause a distinct set of changes – that is, a fingerprint. Perhaps an annoying co-worker triggers your “anger neurons”, so your blood pressure rises – you scowl, yell and feel the heat of fury. Or an alarming news story triggers your “fear neurons”, so your heart races – you freeze and feel a flash of dread.
Emotions are thought to be a kind of brute reflex, very often at odds with our […]
Dutch children at play.
Credit: 123RF.com
An adapted excerpt from “The Happiest Kids in the World” by Rina Mae Acosta & Michele Hutchison. Reprinted with permission of The Experiment.
Two toddlers have just chased each other to the top of a jungle gym while their mothers are lost in conversation on a nearby park bench. A gang of older children in tracksuits comes racing along the bike path, laughing. They overtake a young mom, who is cycling slowly, balancing a baby in a seat on the front of her bike and a toddler on the back. A group of girls is playing monkey-in-the-middle on the grass. Not far away, some boys are perfecting their skateboarding moves. None of the school-age children are accompanied by adults. This is no movie, just a happy scene on a regular Wednesday afternoon in Amsterdam’s Vondelpark.
In 2013, UNICEF rated Dutch children the happiest in the world. According to researchers, Dutch kids are ahead of their peers in well-being when compared with twenty-nine of the world’s richest […]
Sepsis
It’s hard not to get excited about news of a potentially effective treatment for sepsis, a condition that leads to multiple organ failure and kills more people in the hospital than any other disease.
But there have been so many false promises about this condition over the years, it’s also wise to treat announcements — like one published online by the journal, Chest — with caution.
The study, from Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Va., reported some remarkable success in treating patients who were at high risk of sudden death.
The story began in January, 2016, when Dr. Paul Marik was running the intensive care unit at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. A 48-year-old woman came in with a severe case of sepsis — inflammation frequently triggered by an overwhelming infection.
“Her kidneys weren’t working. Her lungs weren’t working. She was going to die,” Marik said. “In a situation like this, you start thinking out of the box.”
Marik had recently read a study by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Dr. Berry […]
