It is not clear why ‘keeping quiet’ is not so easy. The smaller one is, the harder it is to stay silent and adults too have difficulty. In a conversation between two people the interval between when one stops and the other starts speaking is about one second. Longer time intervals are perceived differently depending...
Having a little chat is probably not a waste of time and might even be socially useful. It is a way to create a relationship with someone you don’t know. At this stage little does it matter what is actually said, what counts is that from that moment onwards it will be a lot less...
Some time ago a mother of a child who was down with another of his usual throat infections asked me if we could not once and for all eliminate germs from the world. Microbes are and have been the cause of many awful epidemics around the world. Smallpox, the Plague (about the year 1400, it...
A century ago half of all human deaths were due to infectious diseases. Today the proportion has come down to one quarter, mainly thanks to vaccines, antibiotics and improved living conditions. There is however a class of pathogens that has evaded human arms. These pathogens change their structure and so become insensitive both to drugs...
Children find it very easy to make new friends and with time to become part of groups. A science is developing to understand the rules that govern the way people assemble into networks and groups. It is not the people forming the group that are studied, but rather the connections between them. These connections have...
Many human activities are harmful for nature. We speak of climate change and global warming and we fear that water (for agriculture as well as drinking) might have to be rationed. Thinning of the ozone layer may lead to an increase in skin cancer cases. A reduction of biodiversity (animal and plant variety) may have...
A study has examined if in small children who do something deserving, praising the child (“What a great child you are…!”) or instead praising the action (“Great work…!”) determine different effects by the age of 5 years. Results show that kids of 7-8 years who were praised for the action were more deeply involved in...
Teachers are usually older than their students and usually they have had more time ‘to prepare’. In the first years of life parents teach their children everything: “wave good-bye”, “it’s time we leave diapers and pass to a potty”. They teach them to speak, to write and do sums. Things are now changing. Forty percent...
The term Fast Food is well known around the world and to be truly fast the chewing part must be minimal. This allows more time to be spent doing other things such as speaking. In fact, exchanging about 45 minutes chewing time (15 minutes on average for each of the three meals) into social time...
It is known that children brought up in stressful situations are at greater risk of developing learning and behavioral disorders. Researchers would like to know if all types of stress are harmful for children, or if there is such a thing as positive stress. They would also like to know if certain faculties that one...
