The ability to anticipate future events allows us to plan and exert control over our lives, but it may also contribute to stress-related increased risk for the diseases of aging.

In a study of 50 women, about half of them caring for relatives with dementia, the psychologists found that those most threatened by the anticipation of stressful tasks had bodies that looked older at the cellular level.

Psychiatrist Elissa Epel says, "As stress researchers, we try to examine the psychological process of how people respond to a stressful event and how that impacts their neurobiology and cellular health."
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Our Milky Way galaxy is so big and so old–it contains at least 100 billion planets–so aliens should have visited us by now (Whitley Strieber thinks THEY HAVE!) This is what’s known as the Fermi Paradox.

In Discovery News, Ray Villard talks about science fiction writer Karl Schroeder, who has come upon a solution to the Paradox. He thinks that aliens have "gone green" and generate no waste products that we can detect. They therefore blend into the galaxy. Villard quotes him as saying that, in their case, "artificial and natural systems are indistinguishable." Villard theorizes that maybe only ecologically-balanced civilizations survive in the long run (that means WE won’t last long!)
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Whales have gotten even for being used as slaves in aquatic shows. Now sharks are getting even too–for having their fins cut off and used in soup. Scientists have discovered high concentrations of a neurotoxin linked to degenerative brain diseases in shark fins. These include Alzheimer’s and Lou Gehrig Disease (ALS).
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