Twenty years ago, California voters overwhelmingly passed the “three strikes” law that has come to symbolize America’s deeply irrational and misguided obsession with harsh and inflexible sentencing. It set a life sentence for anyone...
New research from Karolinska Institutet and Umeå University demonstrates for the first time that there is a close relationship between body perception and the ability to remember. For us to be able to store new memories from our lives, we need...
Post-traumatic stress disorder is well-documented among veterans of war, but a growing body of research finds many American civilians are suffering from similar kinds of psychological trauma in their own neighborhoods. Researchers find trauma can...
It’s one of the most shameful numbers in American law enforcement: According to the Department of Justice, some 400,000 “rape kits” are languishing in evidence lockers across the country because local authorities can’t...
This Innovation in Action interview is one in an ongoing series of portraits planned by the Center that will highlight the innovative, collaborative work of the members of Frontiers of Innovation . In this interview, FOI member Jessica Sager, the...
"Kids are almost all in some kind of day care, all of whom are working in the same curriculum that's aligned with what they're going to learn in school," she says [Amanda Ripley, author of The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way] . "That's a level of coherence that most U.S. kids will never experience because we don't have a coherent system with highly trained people in almost every classroom." It's a level of coherence that President Obama has repeatedly called for. Until...
People with type 2 diabetes have epigenetic changes on their DNA that healthy individuals do not have. This has been shown in a major study by researchers at Lund University [Sweden]. The researchers also found epigenetic changes in a large number of genes that contribute to reduced insulin production. "This shows that the risk of developing type 2 diabetes is not only genetic, but also epigenetic", said Charlotte Ling, who led the study. Epigenetic changes occur as a result of factors...
...But scientists hadn’t understood how excess weight affects the brain. Fat cells, they knew, manufacture and release substances into the bloodstream that flow to other parts of the body, including the heart and muscles. There, these substances...
A few thousand protesters took to the streets of Beirut on Saturday to demand that politicians approve Lebanon's first law against domestic violence in a non-partisan display rarely seen in Lebanon's highly politicized climate. Organizers harnessed...
Sari Horwitz wrote this must-read article for the Washington Post. ….But the silence that has shrouded suicide in Indian country is being pierced by growing alarm at the sheer number of young Native Americans taking their own lives...
The State of Maryland is considering a law that would increase penalties for violent crimes committed in front of children, recognizing the child's trauma. From The Washington Post 3-10-14: Maryland considers making violent offenders do more time if...
Taking part in family activities on a regular basis benefits the social and emotional health of young children, a new study finds. And the more of these shared family routines, the better. "Social-emotional health" is defined as being able to...
Head Start, the U.S. government-funded preschool program, provides the greatest benefits to children whose parents give them little help with learning early in life, new research shows. The study, published March 6 in the journal Child Development ,...
This episode of NPR's StoryCorps is guaranteed to bring tears to your eyes. The beginning of it is excerpted here, but it's well worth a listen to ground you on your Monday morning. Aaron didn't intend to tell his classmates that he was homeless. But...
The findings of the survey, which was led by Orygen Youth Health Research Centre, in collaboration with the University of Melbourne, also indicated improved knowledge and beliefs about mental health problems within the community due, in part, to...