Noted

Even a short introduction to mindfulness techniques can have benefits. In a study by Yale associate professor Hedy Kober and colleagues at Columbia and Dartmouth, participants were briefly instructed to use mindful acceptance while being exposed to negative images and having high heat applied to their forearms. Brain scans showed significant reductions in activity associated with pain and negative emotions, compared with times when participants were asked to respond as they normally would. The participants themselves also reported less physical pain and emotional distress. “Our findings suggest that mindful acceptance is a powerful self-regulation strategy that can be learned quickly and deployed effectively,” Kober writes.
 
Warm-blooded dinosaurs? Yes, say researchers, including Yale assistant professor Pincelli Hull and Robin Dawson ’19PhD. They analyzed patterns of oxygen and carbon atoms in fossilized dinosaur-egg shells to calculate the internal body temperatures of dinosaur moms. For comparison, they examined fossilized shells of cold-blooded invertebrates, which take on the temperature of their surroundings. The tests suggested that the dinosaurs’ body temperatures were warmer than their surroundings. So, unlike reptiles, which rely on ambient warmth, dinosaurs appear to have been capable of generating heat internally. Whether dinosaurs are cold- or warm-blooded matters, Hull notes, because the answer changes how they would have interacted with the environment.

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