Why Quitting Cigarettes is Easier for Some People

New research from scientific journal Neuropyschopharmacology shows that people who are able to quit smoking will probably have an easier time accomplishing any other task they put their minds to. After studying 85 smokers over a course of four months, researchers concluded that those who successfully quit displayed a better connectivity between the brain’s insula and the and the sensorimotor cortex. With a stronger connection, …

Link About It: This Week’s Picks

Self-driving cars, Cuba's lung cancer vaccine, Einstein's handwriting as a font and more in our weekly look around the web

1. Cornell Renames Institute After Carl Sagan Cornell University’s Institute for Pale Blue Dots is being renamed the Carl Sagan Institute: The Pale Blue Dot and Beyond in honor of the late astrophysicist and former Cornell faculty member. After Sagan’s wife and collaborator Ann Druyan visited the science center to give a speech, she was inspired by the innovative work being done and proposed the …

How Nomophobic Are You?

Nomophobia—it’s a new term derived from “no mobile phone phobia” that describes the anxiety people experience when they’ve been separated from their cells. You can now measure your own levels of nomophobia through a 20-question survey from two Iowa State University social psychologists who are hoping to use the answers to inform nomophobia research. While the questionnaire is currently available on New York Magazine, you’ll …