The Science of Smiles

What Charles Darwin has to do with babies in the womb and a surprising secret to longevity.

In March, entrepreneur and health advocate Ron Gutman gave a fascinating TED talk, synthesizing a wealth of studies about smiling. Now, TEDBooks, one of 7 innovative platforms changing the future of publishing, is releasing Smile: The Astonishing Powers of a Simple Act — a fantastic short Kindle book, in which Gutman expands on his popular talk to examine the last 200 years of science on smiling, facial mimicry and mirror neurons, the tell-tell signs of fake smiles vs. authentic smiles (something that goes back to Darwin’s photographic studies), and even how smiling affects our longevity.

Lots of smiling can actually make you healthier. Smiling can help reduce the level of stress-enhancing hormones like cortisol, adrenaline and dopamine, increase the level of mood-enhancing hormones like endorphin and reduce overall blood pressure.” ~ Ron Gutman

For a deeper exploration of the science of smiles, don’t forget Marianne LaFrance’s Lip Service: Smiles in Life, Death, Trust, Lies, Work, Memory, Sex, and Politics.

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Hands Are Amazing

From monkeys to Michelangelo, or what Margaret Mead has to do with combinatorial creativity.

Earlier this month, former Apple designer Bret Victor penned the most intelligent piece on what’s wrong with our visions for the future of interaction design, where in discussing the four basic grips, he mentions in passing a vintage book by John Napier, a physician specializing in hands. Having grown accustomed to finding my most interesting discoveries in footnotes and asides and passing mentions, I of course went ahead and pursued the book. Simply titled Hands and originally published in 1980, it’s a richly illustrated treasure trove of insight into the anatomy, function, and evolution of one of our most fundamentally human features. From handedness to fingerprints to gestures to grooming to the making and usage of tools, Napier covers a fascinating range of hand-related subjects, each explored through an absorbing blend of anecdote, entertainment, and education.

Right from the beginning, Napier blends science and storytelling with such Yoda-esque observations as:

The hand at rest is beautiful in its tranquility, but is infinitely more appealing in the flow of action.”

…and…

When the hand is at rest, the face is at rest; but a lively hand is the product of a lively mind.”

The powerful hand of David by Michelangelo expresses the position of rest.

Velasquez's court dwarf at the time of Philip IV. The facial expression is one of slyness, which leads one to the conclusion that the hands are up to something equally sly. Undoubtedly the arrogant dwarf is performing a conjuring trick.

Also included is this charming time-capsule of the era’s media reality, and a powerful reminder to appreciate just what we have at our disposal today:

The gap between scientists and nonscientists is not so wide as it used to be, largely because of the influence of radio and television and other forms of science reporting.”

Then a thoughtful meditation on curiosity and cognitive comfort zones, delivered with delightfully subtle humor:

I hope that scientists will not be offended by a not-too-technical approach. They may even find it a relief for, as Margaret Mead put it, ‘To a physicist even a botanist is a layman.’ We are all laypersons once we are outside our expertise. There may be only one language of science, but there are many dialects.”

But this excerpt from the book’s acknowledgements, a true testament to networked knowledge and combinatorial creativity, made my heart sing more than anything:

Anyone who writes a book about science or indeed about any subject that is rich in facts, figures, and ideas, is from the beginning up to his neck in debt. He must beg, borrow, and steal left, right, and center… Much of one’s information is derived from memories of conversations heard, snippets of fact retained, and bright ideas once read but the source promptly forgotten.”

Whether you’re a designer or detective, artist or anthropologist, surgeon or synchronized swimmer, Hands is the kind of book you won’t be able to put down, thanks to both the miracle of your opposable thumbs and Napier’s captivating edification.

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Bundled, Buried & Behind Closed Doors: The Physical Underbelly of the Internet

An anatomical tour of the Internet by way of 60 Hudson Street, a nondescript epicenter of global data traffic.

We keep thinking and reading about the Internet as a cultural phenomenon, but what about its palpable physicality? In 2010, it was estimated that the world produced over one thousand exobytes of new data, or one trillion gigabytes. Most of it doesn’t stay put — instead, it travels through the world’s servers, but where exactly does it go? That’s precisely what Ben Mendelsohn set out to answer in Bundled, Buried & Behind Closed Doors, a fascinating short documentary for his masters thesis at The New School. The film takes us inside 60 Hudson Street in Lower Manhattan — a deceptively nondescript building that houses one of the world’s major nodes of the Internet. The rest…well, you’ll have to see for yourself:

It’s really vital to remember that the Internet is physical. The Internet can be touched, it is material and it exists — because so much of the rhetoric surrounding current concepts of ‘cyberspace’ suggests that it’s somehow just this sort of magic, etherial realm that exists ‘out there’ almost on its own.” ~ Stephen Graham, Professor of Cities and Society, Newcastle University

Technology does not exist in a vacuum. It is shaped by the many people and institutions that extract value from it. With all this infrastructure, all this sunk capital, there is obviously much value to extract from 60 Hudson Street… A combination of historic, technological, and economic forces has embedded this concentrated piece of Internet infrastructure in the dense urban core of Lower Manhattan.”

(Bonus: At 0:20, you can see a shot of our view at Studiomates.)

via The Atlantic Video

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