1. A Scientific Observation of Love and Loss on the Cellular Level
Dopamine—the same chemical signal that drives us to seek out everything from water to intimacy to cocaine, leaves a lasting imprint on the brains of monogamous animals, a new study reveals.
While the role of oxytocin, also known as the ‘love hormone’ has been well studied in the context of human and animal pair bonding, it’s the reward hormone, or dopamine, that’s responsible for why we desire to be with some people more than others.
Hormones are endogenous chemical signals that drive behavior and organ function, and dopamine is sent into the brain’s nucleus accumbens region as both the metaphorical carrot on a stick and pat on the back for accomplishing a task, whether that’s climbing Mount Everest, or going into the kitchen to get a snack.
2. Ghanaian Woman Entrepreneur is Revolutionizing Transportation–Building Electric Bikes to Improve Air Quality
A Ghanaian-English entrepreneur has designed an electric bike from the ground up that’s transforming short-range transportation in her home country, proving that problem-solving in Africa can be done in Africa, by Africans.
Her company, Wahu!, assembles each bike by hand, and they can travel up to 80 miles on a single charge. This means that a delivery rider for Glovo or Bolt can comfortably cover a whole day’s work without refueling.
Anyone who’s visited Accra, Ghana, in the dry season will remember the incredibly poor air quality. Poor roads mean that cars are stuck in second and third gears, and old cars traveling in second and third gears mean plenty of extra car exhaust.
Poor roads also mean exposed dirt, and exposed dirt means fine-grained dust. Combined with a lack of rain, the smog, dust, and car exhaust make the air in parts of the capital unfit for human health.
Wahu! bikes help alleviate all three of these problems, and despite her English nativity and education, the bikes were designed and manufactured in Spintex, Accra.
3. Getting On the Dance Floor Will Shred Pounds in Overweight People, Improve Blood Pressure and Mental Health
Boogying the night away produces meaningful improvements in one’s body mass and waist circumference in people who are overweight or obese, a new study found.
Dancing was also seen to improve blood pressure, insulin sensitivity, physical fitness, cognitive disorders, hypertension, cardiovascular ailments, diabetes, and mental health—in other words, all the root causes of the non-communicable diseases that kill most people in the West.
The researchers believed that dance would be a more ideal form of exercise because it is sustainable—it’s a sociable, entertaining way of exercising that participants will enjoy, rather than a drudgery they have to push themselves through.
